Hello, I'm Bruno Correia. Wellcome to Historia Digital.
Today a new series is started. It will tell the beginning of the May Revolution.
The origin of this revolution wasn't in Buenos Aires, it was the consecuence
of a series of events that started with the French Revolution and ended with the occupation
of Spain by Napoleon Bonaparte's troops.
This episode doesn't try to be a
deep study of Spanish' history. The Peninsular War was
a long and complex process that had plenty maneuvers. If I wanted to tell
it the in a deep way, it would take me from 30 to 40 episodes.
That's way this episode will only be a reference for the next series that will
focus on the May Revolution and the Independence War of the River Plate.
The United States Independence in 1776
and the French Revolution of 1789 marked the beginning of a new era for the world
the beginning of the end of the absolute monarchies.
After the death of Louis XVI, in 1793, Spain
declared war on France. But the conflict was short lived, after two years the peace was signed
with the Treaty of Basel.
After signing the San Idelfonso Treaty
a year later, Spain officially became a French allied, abandoning
its former allies.
Great Britain didn't lose time and launched
a blockade on Spain that made very difficult to maintain its communications with her colonies.
The Amiens Peace of 1802 stopped the hostilities and gave Spain a break, but the war returned
in 1804. The defeat at Trafalgar, in 1805, made the Spaniards to rethink the convenience
to keep their alliance with the French.
To make matters worse, there was a rupture gestating
into the Spanish royal family.
On one side were Carlos IV and his favorite, Manuel
Godoy. On the other, Fernando VII, Prince of Asturias and heir to the throne.
Both wanted Napoleon's support: one wanted to assure his throne and the other wanted to take it.
But the Emperor of France didn't trust any of them.
Napoleon found the perfect excuse to intervene into Spain when Portugal
chose not to join the Continental System against Great Britain, its allied.
The French marched their armies trough Spanish territory to invade Portugal
leaving a big amount of troops on its way.
Even when Portugal was occupied in a short amount of time
the French kept sending more troops to Spain. Godoy suspected that the Royal Family
could be in danger and tried to take them out of the country to take them to America, just
like the Portuguese had done.
On their way the convoy stopped
at the city of Aranjuez, where a riot started on March 17, much likely
instigated by the French and Fernando VII.
The riot ended when Godoy was arrested.
Carlos IV had no other choice than to resign his throne to his son to save
Godoy's life.
But Napoleon wasn't pleased by the idea
of having on the Spanish throne a member of the Bourbon dynasty, to which the executed Louis
XVI had belonged.
The Emperor marched to Bayonne, where he attracted
Carlos IV and Fernando VII.
He promised to support Carlos' protest
against his forced abdication and to Fernando he assured he would receive
his blessing on his claim to the throne.
On April 10 Fernando leaved Madrid
where he established the "Junta Suprema de Gobierno", that would govern during his absence.
On the 22 Carlos IV and his wife leaved for Bayonne.
But Napoleon didn't think to help any of the two monarchs. From the beginning
his intention was to rise to power a member of the Bonaparte dynasty. On May he forced
the Royal Family to quit to the throne and sent them to France.
The French occupation of the territory and then of the throne wasn't hailed
by the people, which started rioting in different parts of the country.
In a short time
Juntas started to be formed in the main Spanish cities.
On June 6 (1808) the Emperor sign a decree proclaiming his brother, Joseph Bonaparte
as the new King of Spain.
But the Juntas lacked coordination.
All of them affirmed to govern under the name of Fernando VII, but he had only authorized
the Junta of Madrid, which was presided by the General Joaquin Murat
a French Field Marshall.
Eventually the Junta of Seville started to subordinate
the other Juntas under his power and created the Junta Suprema Central in September 1808.
This Junta allied itself with Great Britain and supported the rise of the Portuguese against France.
The Junta also was successful in communicating their version of the events to their American
colonies before the French could. This gave them the economic support from
those colonies. The alliance with the British assured them the continuity of the commerce.
The Spaniards had some military success at the beginning. But when
Napoleon intervened directly into the war, at the end of 1808
with his veteran troops, he crushed the resistance.
The Junta Suprema had no other choice
than to retreat to Cadiz and resist a brutal siege.
The British, that had invaded Portugal
had to retreat on January 1809.
But the French victory wasn't enough and the guerrillas, armed by the British,
kept harassing the French and didn't allow the total pacification of the occupied territories.
At the end of 1809 the Junta Central decided to call the Cortes to start the process
to enact a Constitution.
In 1810 the Consejo de Regencia was created. As a governing body
it was attributed the same power as Fernando VII.
Only on 1812, after the Battle of Salamanca, the French were defeated
by a combined army of British, Spaniard and Portuguese troops.
This defeat seriously damaged
Joseph Bonaparte's government and marked the beginning of the end of the French occupation.
The war kept on going during 1813 with a slow French retreat
that ended on June 21 with the Battle of Vitoria.
By October the allied had crossed the Pyrenees and started
to penetrate French territories.
Napoleon had no other choice than to release Fernando VII
return him all the lost territories and to recognize him as king.
Without losing any time he returned to Spain and refuses to subordinate his power to the Cortes
or to accept the liberal constitution enacted on 1812.
General Francisco Javier de Elío, who had recently returned from Montevideo, put his troops
under king's orders.
On May 13, after defeating his opposition,
Fernando VII entered victorious to Madrid as Spain's new supreme monarch.
Absolute monarchy was restored.
At the American colonies they clearly saw that with Fernando's return
there was no chance to keep the charade that they were
governing the territories under the king's name.
This only accelerated the independence
processes and by the end of 1820 decade
almost all the old Spanish's colonies in America
had already declared their freedom.
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