The Spanish Gambit

Napoleon's intervention in Spain began not as conquest but as an attempt to enforce the Continental System. Portugal's refusal to close its ports to British trade provided the pretext for French troops to cross Spain in 1807, ostensibly to occupy Lisbon. Yet this limited objective quickly expanded into a full-scale takeover of the Spanish monarchy, revealing Napoleon's fatal tendency to transform tactical moves into strategic disasters.

The Spanish Bourbons, weakened by internal divisions and discredited by alliance with revolutionary France, seemed easy targets for Napoleonic manipulation. King Charles IV and his son Ferdinand VII were lured to Bayonne in May 1808, where Napoleon forced both to abdicate in favor of his brother Joseph. This dynastic coup, successful in previous campaigns, fatally misread Spanish society and culture.

The Spanish uprising of May 2, 1808, caught French forces unprepared for the ferocity of popular resistance. The revolt in Madrid, brutally suppressed by Murat's troops, became a symbol of Spanish defiance immortalized in Goya's paintings. Yet the real significance lay not in Madrid's streets but in the countryside, where entire regions rose against French occupation with a determination that would strain imperial resources for six years.

Unlike previous European wars fought between professional armies, the Spanish conflict engaged entire populations in guerrilla warfare that neutralized French tactical advantages. Spanish irregular forces, or guerrillas, avoided pitched battles while harassing French communications, supply lines, and isolated garrisons. This "people's war" introduced a new dimension to European conflict that French military doctrine had not anticipated.