Napoleon and the Birth of Modern Spain, Volume 1 PDF
Preview Napoleon and the Birth of Modern Spain, Volume 1
NAPOLEON AND THE BIRTH OF MODERN SPAIN Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation https://archive.org/details/napoleonbirthof01love NAPOLEON AND THE BIRTH OF MODERN SPAIN I THE CHALLENGE TO THE OLD ORDER BY GABRIEL H. LOVETT NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS 1965 :dP^ot ■ US | \Jot © 1965 BY NEW YORK UNIVERSITY LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER: 65-II764 MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FOREWORD Napoleon and his short-lived empire have been the object of ex¬ traordinary interest in Europe as well as in the Americas. United States scholars have contributed an impressive list of books and articles to the study of this crucial period in the history of modern Europe. Spain, too, has absorbed the attention of a number of Ameri¬ can writers who have dwelt on the general historical development of the Spanish nation as well as on various moments of its existence. Yet in our country a vitally important episode of the Napoleonic epic, which played a key role both in the evolution of the empire toward its ultimate collapse and in the forging of modern Spain, has not received the attention it most certainly deserves. The French Emperor’s Spanish adventure and its momentous consequences for the historical development of the two neighboring Latin nations have so far remained in relative obscurity. The object of this book is to fill what we consider a great need, to become more thoroughly acquainted with a conflict which con¬ stituted an inspiring example for other European nations unwillingly incorporated into the Napoleonic system; which decisively under¬ mined the Napoleonic structure; and out of which arose a new Spain, beset with baffling problems that have continued to plague her down to our very day. We have not attempted to present to the reader all the involved military operations in the Iberian Peninsula, since this aspect has been thoroughly covered by such eminent historians as Gomez de vi] FOREWORD Arteche in Spain and Sir Charles Oman in England. We have analyzed only those military developments which were either cru¬ cial in determining the march of events or throw a revealing light on the nature of the Spanish people’s struggle for independence. At the same time, rather than following a purely chronological order, thus reducing the account of this momentous conflict to a mere chronicle, we have divided this study into what we consider its most significant aspects. Some of these have been analyzed in detail because they determined the outcome of the war and because they illuminate the nature of the relentless struggle in the Peninsula; others because they illustrate the mood of fighting Spain; and others still because they enable us to see clearly how the Spain of the Ancien Regime died and how a new nation arose out of its ashes. We have endeavored to strike a balance between the purelv scholarly presentation, which often results in excessive dryness, and an approach that attempts to recreate the events of Napoleon’s fate¬ ful Spanish enterprise. If we have not failed in this respect, we hope that both the general reader and the specialist, whether his¬ torian or Hispanicist, will take an interest in this account of a period in history which resulted in such decisive changes both north and south of the Pyrenees. Time and space have prevented us from supplementing our general bibliography with a critical bibliography. However, we would like to mention a few recent works to which we feel greatlv indebted: Dr. Izquierdo Hernandez’ Antecedentes y comienzos del reinado de Fernando VII; Professor Richard Herr’s The Eighteenth- Century Revolution in Spain, indispensable for a clear understanding of the Spanish political upheaval of 1808-1814; Dominguez Ortiz’ La sociedad espanola en el siglo XVIII, a most thorough study of the Spanish social labyrinth of the Ancien Regime; Miguel Artola’s Los origenes de la Espana contemporanea, an exhaustive work dealing with the political, economic and social changes effected bv the Spanish War of Independence and the simultaneous political revolution which occurred during the conflict; the same author’s Los afrancesados as well as his editions of memoirs of contempo-
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