Peninsular War
| The Peninsular War | |||
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| Part of Napoleonic Wars | |||
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The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was a war between the First French Empire under Napoleon and the Spanish Empire for the control of Spain and Portugal.
France and Spain started as allies. The war began when French and Spanish armies together invaded and occupied Portugal in 1807.
In 1808, France invaded Spain. Napoleon forced the Spanish kings to give up power and made gave brother Joseph Bonaparte the throne instead. The Spanish government accepted this, but the Spanish people did not, so they rebelled against the French.
The word guerilla, which means "little war" in Spanish, was first used in 1808 when the Spanish used guerrilla warfare against the larger and better-armed regular French Army.
The British army joined the war in defense of the Spanish. The Spanish temporarily drove out the French army, but the French came back and the Spanish surrendered at the end of 1808.
General Sir Arthur Wellesley, later Duke of Wellington, became famous in the war. The war lasted until certain European states joined together in the War of the Sixth Coalition and defeated Napoleon in 1814, invading Southern France as far north as Toulouse.
