Province of Cádiz
Cádiz is a province of southern Spain, in the southwestern part of the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is the southernmost part of mainland Spain, as well as the southernmost part of continental Europe, it is bordered by the Spanish provinces of Huelva, Málaga, as well as the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, the Strait of Gibraltar and the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. Its area is 7,385 square kilometers, its capital is the city of Cádiz, which has a population of more than 128,000. The largest city is Jerez de la Frontera with 208,896 inhabitants, another important city is Algeciras with just over 114,000 inhabitants; the entire province had a population of 1,240,175, of whom about 600,000 live in the Bay of Cádiz area. Its population density is 167.93 per square kilometer. The province encompasses 44 municipalities. According to a roster developed by the Council of Tourism and Sport of Andalusia on 27 March 2003, there are six traditional or touristic comarcas in the Province of Cádiz: Bahía de Cádiz Campiña de Jerez Campo de Gibraltar Bajo Guadalquivir La Janda Sierra de Cádiz This area comprises towns and cities on the shores of the Bay of Cádiz on the west-central coast of the province: Cádiz Chiclana El Puerto de Santa María Puerto Real San Fernando This fertile area only includes two municipalities, both large in area: Jerez de la Frontera San José del Valle The towns that extend into the rural hinterlands north of Gibraltar are: Algeciras Jimena de la Frontera Castellar de la Frontera San Roque La Línea de la Concepción Los Barrios Tarifa The towns of this area called the "Bajo Guadalquivir", are: Chipiona Rota Sanlúcar de Barrameda Trebujena Towns included in La Janda, an area in the southwestern part of the province, are: Alcalá de los Gazules Barbate Benalup-Casas Viejas Conil de la Frontera Medina Sidonia Paterna de Rivera Vejer de la Frontera Towns included in the Cádiz Mountains area, in the northeastern part of the province, include: Alcalá del Valle Algar Algodonales Arcos de la Frontera Benaocaz Bornos El Bosque El Gastor Espera Grazalema Olvera Prado del Rey Puerto Serrano Setenil de las Bodegas Torre Alháquime Ubrique Villaluenga del Rosario Villamartín Zahara de la Sierra The entire province of Cádiz has a Mediterranean climate, but with large differences in summer temperatures between the three official stations in Cádiz and Tarifa depending on position relative to the coastline.
Tarifa is exceptionally cool for such a southerly parallel in Europe, but winter temperatures are mild throughout the province with less difference between localities than in summer. Average yearly rainfall is 521 mm in Cádiz, 573 mm in Jerez, 603 mm in Tarifa; this is comparable to much cloudier climates further north in Europe, in spite of the high number of sunshine hours in the province. The Cádiz region is much wetter than the arid Almería province further east in Andalusia. In 2014 the unemployment rate was the highest in the country; the main industry is tourism from non-coastal Spanish cities and the UK. Its once-important shipbuilding industry is now in crisis due to competition from South Korea and China. There are factories of Delphi, it exports sherry as well as alimentary products. Sherry production John Harvey & Sons in Jerez de la Frontera Gonzalez Byass Olive groves Fishing Ports, as in Cádiz and Algeciras. Cork products from the Alcornocales cork-oak forests Navantia Airbus CASA Delphi Ford Cepsa Lufthansa CityLine Endesa Acerinox The province of Cádiz has many kilometers of beaches and the highest number of Blue Flags of all coastal provinces in Europe.
Some of these beaches are wild and far from big urban areas. One of the attractions of the area is its contrast to the mass tourism on the Mediterranean coast. There are extensive nature reserves in the region and the unspoilt feel of the area is heightened by the presence of wild animals including cows and horses on many stretches of beach; the Costa de la Luz has traditionally been a popular destination for Spaniards wanting to enjoy the beach while avoiding the stifling heat of the Mediterranean Coast, although until this unspoilt Atlantic coastline was little known to foreign visitors. One of the factors that brought the region to the attention of foreign holidaymakers was the growing realisation that its Southern reaches are one of the world's best locations for wind sports. Tarifa, located on the Strait of Gibraltar at the southernmost point of mainland Europe, has become Europe's foremost kitesurfing destination due to the area's unique wind phenomena, reliably sunny summer weather and the variety of beaches at locations such as Los Canos de Meca, Punta Paloma and, most famously, Playa de Los Lances where in the summer months you will see over 1,000 kites in the air.
The local economy has benefited from the wind sport explosion: there are more than 50 kite schools in Tarifa and hundreds of shops and hotels serving the many thousands of kitesurfers who visit every year. Notable beaches: Playa La Barrosa in Chiclana de la Frontera Playa La Victoria in Cádiz Playa de Levante in El Puerto de Santa María Playa de Bolonia in Tarifa Playa de Camposoto in San Fernando Los Canos de Meca Playa de Los Lances in Tarifa Carnival of Cádiz Feria de Jerez Semana Santa in all municipalities of the Province Horse racing in Sanlúcar de Barrameda Circuito Permanente de Jerez White T
José Enrique Varela
José Enrique Varela Iglesias, 1st Marquis of San Fernando de Varela was a Spanish military officer noted for his role as a Nationalist commander in the Spanish Civil War. Varela started his military career as an enlisted man and fought in the colonial wars in the Rif for three years starting in 1909. Varela enlisted as a recruit in the same regiment his father served as sergeant, he rose to the rank of sergeant and enrolled at infantry school in Spain and graduated as a lieutenant. Returning to Morocco, he distinguished himself in action and King Alfonso XIII awarded him the Laureate Cross of Saint Ferdinand, Spain's highest military award, on two separate occasions, an unmatched honor for bravery in battle, he commanded native Moroccan troops of Regulares and rose to the rank of captain by merit and participated in several campaigns in the Morocco war, the principal one being the joint Franco-Spanish amphibious landing at Alhucemas in 1925. This landing hastened its end. Shortly thereafter he was promoted to colonel at the end of the war.
During the early 1930s, he was assigned as a member of a military mission that spent time in Germany, Switzerland and France to broaden their military knowledge. With the coming of the Republic, he participated in the abortive José Sanjurjo uprising in 1932 for which he was imprisoned, he was released and joined the Carlists and organized the militia or the paramilitary units of the Carlists, the Requetés, into the formidable military organization that it became in the Spanish Civil War. Disguised as a priest, Uncle Pepe, he traveled along the Pyrenean villages organizing the people and readying them for war, he participated in the planning for the rising that started the Spanish Civil War. In April, 1936, the government imprisoned him. In jail in Cadiz when the rising started, he was released on July 18, helped secure Cadiz for the insurrection, he participated in many of the campaigns of the War including, Seville, Córdoba, Extremadura, Tagus Valley, Alcázar, Jarama, Brunete and the Ebro. Ending the war with the rank of major general, he was appointed minister of war in Franco's August 1939 government and was considered a representative of the Carlist faction there.
During his ministry the Spanish army was purged of a small number of officers and NCOs who were considered politically unreliable. Following the fall of France in 1940 and Hitler's subsequent overtures to Franco, Varela was anti-national socialist and a leading opponent of Spanish entry into the war on the Axis side, although he did endorse the Blue Division's participation on the Eastern Front fighting the Soviet Union; as tensions between Carlists and Falangists within the government rose during 1942, Varela suggested to Franco that Carlists were underrepresented and proposed several schemes for a reorganization of the cabinet. Violence between the factions broke out at the Basilica of Begoña on August 16, 1942, when Falangists attacked a Carlist crowd with grenades, causing many injuries and several deaths. Varela, inside the church at the time, took the initiative against the Falangists and portrayed the incident as an attack on the army and a possible assassination attempt in telegrams to officials throughout the country, displeasing Franco.
In the following cabinet reshuffle in September, Varela was replaced as army minister by General Carlos Asensio Cabanillas. In 1945 Franco appointed Varela as high commissioner of Spanish Morocco, he was made captain-general of Madrid. He died of leukemia in 1951. Franco subsequently granted Varela a posthumous marquisate title as Marquis of San Fernando de Varela. After his death he was granted the title of Captain General of the Army, passed from the deceased former dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera in 1951, he is the only Spanish soldier to have risen from the rank of private to Captain General, the highest rank in the Army. Guaita Martorell, Aurelio. "Capitanes y capitanías generales". Revista de Administración Pública. Madrid: Centro de Estudios Políticos y Constitucionales: 7–50. ISSN 0034-7639
Autonomous communities of Spain
In Spain, an autonomous community is a first-level political and administrative division, created in accordance with the Spanish constitution of 1978, with the aim of guaranteeing limited autonomy of the nationalities and regions that make up Spain. Spain is not a federation, but a decentralized unitary state. While sovereignty is vested in the nation as a whole, represented in the central institutions of government, the nation has, in variable degrees, devolved power to the communities, which, in turn, exercise their right to self-government within the limits set forth in the constitution and their autonomous statutes; each community has its own set of devolved powers. Some scholars have referred to the resulting system as a federal system in all but name, or a "federation without federalism". There are 17 autonomous communities and two autonomous cities that are collectively known as "autonomies"; the two autonomous cities have the right to become autonomous communities, but neither has yet exercised it.
This unique framework of territorial administration is known as the "State of Autonomies". The autonomous communities are governed according to the constitution and their own organic laws known as Statutes of Autonomy, which contain all the competences that they assume. Since devolution was intended to be asymmetrical in nature, the scope of competences vary for each community, but all have the same parliamentary structure. Spain is a diverse country made up of several different regions with varying economic and social structures, as well as different languages and historical and cultural traditions. While the entire Spanish territory was united under one crown in 1479 this was not a process of national homogenization or amalgamation; the constituent territories—be it crowns, principalities or dominions—retained much of their former institutional existence, including limited legislative, judicial or fiscal autonomy. These territories exhibited a variety of local customs, laws and currencies until the mid nineteenth century.
From the 18th century onwards, the Bourbon kings and the government tried to establish a more centralized regime. Leading figures of the Spanish Enlightenment advocated for the building of a Spanish nation beyond the internal territorial boundaries; this culminated in 1833, when Spain was divided into 49 provinces, which served as transmission belts for policies developed in Madrid. However, unlike in other European countries such as France, where regional languages were spoken in rural areas or less developed regions, two important regional languages of Spain were spoken in some of the most industrialized areas, moreover, enjoyed higher levels of prosperity, in addition to having their own cultures and historical consciousness; these were Catalonia. This gave rise to peripheral nationalisms along with Spanish nationalism; therefore and social changes that had produced a national cultural unification in France had the opposite effect in Spain. As such, Spanish history since the late 19th century has been shaped by a dialectical struggle between Spanish nationalism and peripheral nationalisms in Catalonia and the Basque Country, to a lesser degree in Galicia.
In a response to Catalan demands, limited autonomy was granted to Catalonia in 1914, only to be abolished in 1923. It was granted again in 1932 during the Second Spanish Republic, when the Generalitat, Catalonia's mediaeval institution of government, was restored; the constitution of 1931 envisaged a territorial division for all Spain in "autonomous regions", never attained—only Catalonia, the Basque Country and Galicia had approved "Statutes of Autonomy"—the process being thwarted by the Spanish Civil War that broke out in 1936, the victory of the rebel Nationalist forces under Francisco Franco. During General Franco's dictatorial regime, centralism was most forcefully enforced as a way of preserving the "unity of the Spanish nation". Peripheral nationalism, along with communism and atheism were regarded by his regime as the main threats, his attempts to fight separatism with heavy-handed but sporadic repression, his severe suppression of language and regional identities backfired: the demands for democracy became intertwined with demands for the recognition of a pluralistic vision of the Spanish nationhood.
When Franco died in 1975, Spain entered into a phase of transition towards democracy. The most difficult task of the newly democratically elected Cortes Generales in 1977 acting as a Constituent Assembly was to transition from a unitary centralized state into a decentralized state in a way that would satisfy the demands of the peripheral nationalists; the Prime Minister of Spain, Adolfo Suárez, met with Josep Tarradellas, president of the Generalitat of Catalonia in exile. An agreement was made so that the Generalitat would be restored and limited competencies would be transferred while the constitution was still being written. Shortly after, the government allowed the creation of "assemblies of members of parliament" integrated by deputies and senators of the different territories of Spain, so that they could constitute "pre-autonomic regimes" for their regions as well; the Fathers of the Constitution had to strike a balance between the opposing views of Spain—on the one hand, the centralist view inherited from Franco's regime, on the other hand federalism and a pluralistic view of Spain as a "nation of nations".
Peripheral nationalist
Panteón de Marinos Ilustres
The Pantheon of Illustrious Sailors is a mausoleum and memorial to prominent Spanish sailors, located in San Fernando in the Province of Cádiz, Spain. It is a neoclassical building dating from the 18th century, located in the San Carlos barracks in San Fernando, it was erected under the orders of Charles III of Spain. Numerous distinguished Spanish sailors have monuments honouring them; these include: Cecilio Pujazón y García Ignacio Maria de Álava y Sáenz de Navarrete José Fernández Acevedo Dionisio Alcalá Galiano Francisco Alcedo y Bustamante José Alvariño Gaberias Conde de Amblimont Juan Bautista Antequera y Bobadilla Francisco Armero Peñaranda Antonio Barceló y Pont de la Terra Álvaro de Bazán Guzmán Joaquín Bustamante y Quevedo José María Bustillo y Barreda Diego Butrón Cortés Pedro Cardona Prieto Juan José Carranza Vivero José Casado Ferreiro Pascual Cervera y Topete Juan Cervera Valderrama José María Manuel Céspedes y Pineda Francisco Chacón Medina Salazar Cosme Damián de Churruca y Elorza Gabriel Císcar y Císcar Christopher Columbus Víctor María Concas y Paláu José de Córdoba y Rojas Luis de Córdova y Córdova Juan de la Cosa Manuel Deschamps Martínez Juan Domingo Deslobbes y Cortés Segundo Díaz de Herrera y Serrano Juan Díaz de Solís José Luis Díez y Pérez Muñoz Juan Manuel Durán González Manuel Emparán de Orbe Antonio de Escaño y García de Cáceres José Esguerra y Guirior Cesáreo Fernández Duro Tomás Geraldino Geraldino Nicolás Geraldino Sutón José Goicoa Labart José González Hontoria Federico Carlos Gravina y Nápoli Julio Guillén Tato Juan Antonio Gutiérrez de la Concha y Mazos de Güemes Mateo Hernández Ocampo Luis Hernández Pinzón y Álvarez Francisco Herrera Cruzat Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros Jaime Janer Róbinson Jorge Juan y Santacilia Ángel Laborde Navarro Rafael De Laiglesia Darrac José María Lazaga y Ruiz Blas de Lezo Santiago Liniers y Bremond Miguel Lobo y Malagamba Ferdinand Magellan Alejandro Malaspina Melilupi José Malcampo y Monge Francisco de Paula Márquez y Roco Cripiano Mauleón Godoy Ignacio María Mendizábal Vildosola Casto Méndez Núñez Augusto Miranda Godoy Francisco Moreno Fernández Salvador Moreno Fernández Francisco Antonio Mourelle de la Rúa Juan José Navarro de Viana y Búfalo José Navarro Torres Pedro Novo y Colson Nicolás Otero Figueroa Martín Alonso Pinzón Vicente Yáñez Pinzón Rosendo Porlier y Astiegueta Cecilio Pujazón García Andrés Reggio Brachiforte Francisco Riquelme Ponce de León José Rodríguez de Arias y Álvarez Campana Juan Ruiz de Apodaca y Eliza Francisco Javier de Salas y Rodríguez-Morzo Blas Salcedo y Gutiérrez del Pozo Victoriano Sánchez Barcáiztegui Pedro Pablo Sanguineto Basso José de la Serna y Occina José Solano y Bote Zenón de Somodevilla y Bengoechea Vicente Tofiño de San Miguel y Vandelvalle Joaquín Toledo y Parra Antonio de Ulloa y de la Torre-Giralt Francisco Javier de Uriarte y Borja Cayetano Valdés y Flores Juan Varela Ulloa Casimiro Vigodet y Garnica Fernando Villaamil y Fernández Cueto Juan María de Villavicencio y la Serna Francisco Javier Winthuysen y Pineda Antonio Yepes Arigori Joaquín Zarauz Santander
Badalona
Badalona is a municipality to the immediate north east of Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain. It is located on the left bank of the small Besòs River and on the Mediterranean Sea, in the Barcelona metropolitan area. By population, it is the twenty-third in Spain, it became a city in 1897. Badalona was founded by the Romans in the 3rd century BC, with the name of Baetulo, although human settlements in the area existed from 3500-2500 BC; the Iberians had fortified villages on the Melasas and Boscà hills since the 7th century BC. The Roman town's plan was based on their common scheme of the cardo and decumanus, occupying some 11 ha, with a line of walls measuring 413x261 m and having large defensive towers. In the 1st century BC it had some 15,000 inhabitants; the current Badalona was formed in the 10th century, as a new urban nucleus built over and around the old Roman city. It comprised a group of houses built around the church. At the same time, a rural nucleus grew up outside the town walls; this rural and urban dichotomy would remain until the mid-18th century.
Sant Jeroni de la Murtra Monastery, built in the 14th century, is where the Catholic Monarchs would spend their summers. This is where they received Christopher Columbus after his first voyage to the Americas. Badalona was one of the most important towns during the Spanish industrialization process, from the 19th century onwards. Today, Badalona is in the middle of a process of major urban change which will provide one of the challenges for the 21st century. Monastery of Sant Jeroni de la Murtra Roman City Roman Baths The Venus of Badalona is a small Roman sculpture in white marble that symbolized the wealth of the city in Roman times. La Rambla Carrer del Mar Pont del Petroli Giants Anastasi i Maria. Pavillard house, built by Joan Amigó i Barriga in 1906, considered the best modernist work in the city. Teatre Zorrilla, reopened in 1999 Anís del Mono, a distillery in Modernist style Casa de la Vila Santa Maria's Church, in Neoclassicist style Can Canyadó farmhouse Godmar Castle Maignon Market Torner Market Palau Municipal d'Esports de Badalona Màgic Badalona Beaches Summer nightlife Badalona Museum Badalona has a RENFE station R1 from Barcelona to Mataró - Blanes, as well as a small harbour.
There are links to Barcelona via the Barcelona Metropolitan Transport metro and bus system, as well as the Trambesòs line. Badalona has the second-largest Moroccan and Pakistani populations of Catalonia. Other significant communities include Maghrebis and Indians; the harbor is chiefly important for its fishing and boat-building trades, while in town there are gas and mineral-oil works, as well as the manufacture of woolen and cotton goods, biscuits and brandy. The surrounding fertile plains produce an abundance of grain and fruit; the city is home to the historic distillery which produces Anís del Mono, a spirit made of herbs and anise, the most famous anisette in Europe. In May, in occasion of the celebration of Saint Anastasi, the patron saint of Badalona and festivals are organized all around the city; the most important celebration takes place the day before Saint Anastasi Day when, at night, people gather at the maritime promenade to participate in the popular Cremada del Dimoni --similar to the famous Valencian Falles.
The city's most important sport complex is the Palau Municipal d'Esports de Badalona, which won the Mies Van der Rohe award in 1992. The Palace was the setting for basketball competition during the Olympic Games in 1992. Nowadays, it is home of the basketball team from Badalona, Joventut Badalona known as la Penya; this place will be the center of the Badalona Capital Europea del Bàsquet, intended to be a theme park celebrating basketball - with a basketball museum, shopping center, basketball courts, a harbour, indoor karting and more activities. Alcanar, Spain San Fernando, Spain Parla, Spain Valparaíso, Chile Gothenburg, Sweden Sitges, Spain Joventut Badalona in Liga ACB Palau Municipal d'Esports de Badalona CF Badalona Panareda Clopés, Josep Maria. Guia de Catalunya, Barcelona:Caixa de Catalunya. ISBN 84-87135-01-3. ISBN 84-87135-02-1. Badalona travel guide from Wikivoyage "Badalona". Encyclopædia Britannica. 1911. Official site Government data pages Information from the Diputació de Barcelona
Camarón de la Isla
José Monje Cruz, better known by his stage name Camarón de la Isla, was a Spanish flamenco romani singer. Considered one of the all-time greatest flamenco singers, he was noted for his collaborations with Paco de Lucía and Tomatito, the three of them were of major importance to the revival of flamenco in the second half of the 20th century, he was born in San Fernando, Cádiz, into a gypsy family, the second of eight children. His mother was Juana Cruz Castro, a basket weaver, whose gift of singing was a strong early influence, his father, Juan Luis Monje, was a singer as well as a blacksmith, had a forge where Camarón worked as a boy. His uncle José nicknamed him Camarón because he was blonde and fair skinned; when his father died of asthma, while still young, the family went through financial hardship. At the age of eight he began to sing at inns and bus stops with Rancapino to earn money. At sixteen, he won first prize at the Festival del Cante Jondo in Mairena de Alcor. Camarón went to Madrid with Miguel de los Reyes and in 1968 became a resident artist at the Tablao Torres Bermejas where he remained for twelve years.
During his time at Tablao Torres Bermejas, he met Paco de Lucía, with whom he recorded nine albums between 1969 and 1977. The two toured extensively together during this period; as Paco de Lucía became more occupied with solo concert commitments, Camarón worked with the flamenco guitarist Tomatito. In 1976, at the age of 25, Camarón married Dolores Montoya, a Romani girl from La Línea de la Concepción whom he nicknamed "La Chispa". At the time La Chispa was only 16; the couple had four children. Many consider Camarón to be the single most popular and influential flamenco cantaor of the modern period. Although his work was criticized by some traditionalists, he was one of the first to feature an electric bass in his songs; this was a turning point in the history of Flamenco music. In years, his health deteriorated due to heavy smoking and drug abuse. In 1992, Cruz died of lung cancer in Spain, it was estimated. On 5 December 2000 the Ministry of Culture of the Junta de Andalucía posthumously awarded to Camarón the ´Llave de Oro del Cante´, the Golden Key of Flamenco.
This was only the fourth key awarded since 1862. In 2005, film director Jaime Chávarri released the biopic Camarón in Spain starring Óscar Jaenada as Camarón and Verónica Sánchez – star of popular Spanish TV series Los Serrano – as La Chispa; the film, produced in consultation with Camarón's widow, was subsequently nominated for several Goya Awards. In 2006, Isaki Lacuesta directed La Leyenda del Tiempo, in which a Japanese woman visits Camarón's birthplace to learn to sing like him. In 2018, the documentary film Camarón: Flamenco y Revolución, from the Spanish director Alexis Morante, was released through Netflix. In an interview, the director would say that one of his goals with the film was "to explain how the myth was built". with Paco de Lucía Al Verte las Flores Lloran Cada Vez que Nos Miramos Son Tus Ojos Dos Estrellas Canastera Caminito de Totana Soy Caminante Arte y Majestad Rosa María Castillo de Arena Camaron en la Venta de Vargas with Paco de Lucía and Tomatito Como el Agua Calle Real Viviré Potro de Rabia y Miel with Tomatito Te lo Dice Camarón Flamenco Vivo Camarón Nuestro Paris 1987 Other La Leyenda del Tiempo Soy Gitano Contributing artistThe Rough Guide to Flamenco The titles given for the first five albums with Paco de Lucía are those in popular usage, being the titles of the first tracks.
Formally, all of them are entitled El Camarón de la Isla con la colaboración especial de Paco de Lucía with the exception of Canastera. Camarón de la Isla web Flamenco Forum Camarón; the beginning... The perfection
Peninsular War
The Peninsular War was a military conflict between Napoleon's empire and Bourbon Spain, for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when the French and Spanish armies invaded and occupied Portugal in 1807, escalated in 1808 when France turned on Spain its ally; the war on the peninsula lasted until the Sixth Coalition defeated Napoleon in 1814, is regarded as one of the first wars of national liberation, significant for the emergence of large-scale guerrilla warfare. The Peninsular War overlaps with what the Spanish-speaking world calls the Guerra de la Independencia Española, which began with the Dos de Mayo Uprising on 2 May 1808 and ended on 17 April 1814; the French occupation destroyed the Spanish administration, which fragmented into quarrelling provincial juntas. The episode remains as the bloodiest event in Spain's modern history, doubling in relative terms the Spanish Civil War. A reconstituted national government, the Cortes of Cádiz—in effect a government-in-exile—fortified itself in Cádiz in 1810, but could not raise effective armies because it was besieged by 70,000 French troops.
British and Portuguese forces secured Portugal, using it as a safe position from which to launch campaigns against the French army and provide whatever supplies they could get to the Spanish, while the Spanish armies and guerrillas tied down vast numbers of Napoleon's troops. These combined regular and irregular allied forces, by restricting French control of territory, prevented Napoleon's marshals from subduing the rebellious Spanish provinces, the war continued through years of stalemate; the British Army, under Lt. Gen. Sir Arthur Wellesley the 1st Duke of Wellington, guarded Portugal and campaigned against the French in Spain alongside the reformed Portuguese army; the demoralised Portuguese army was reorganised and refitted under the command of Gen. William Beresford, appointed commander-in-chief of the Portuguese forces by the exiled Portuguese royal family, fought as part of the combined Anglo-Portuguese Army under Wellesley. In 1812, when Napoleon set out with a massive army on what proved to be a disastrous French invasion of Russia, a combined allied army under Wellesley pushed into Spain, defeating the French at Salamanca and taking Madrid.
In the following year Wellington scored a decisive victory over King Joseph Bonaparte's army in the Battle of Vitoria. Pursued by the armies of Britain and Portugal, Marshal Jean-de-Dieu Soult, no longer able to get sufficient support from a depleted France, led the exhausted and demoralized French forces in a fighting withdrawal across the Pyrenees during the winter of 1813–1814; the years of fighting in Spain were a heavy burden on France's Grande Armée. While the French were victorious in battle, their communications and supplies were tested and their units were isolated, harassed or overwhelmed by partisans fighting an intense guerrilla war of raids and ambushes; the Spanish armies were beaten and driven to the peripheries, but they would regroup and relentlessly hound the French. This drain on French resources led Napoleon, who had unwittingly provoked a total war, to call the conflict the "Spanish Ulcer". War and revolution against Napoleon's occupation led to the Spanish Constitution of 1812 a cornerstone of European liberalism.
The burden of war destroyed the social and economic fabric of Portugal and Spain, ushered in an era of social turbulence, political instability and economic stagnation. Devastating civil wars between liberal and absolutist factions, led by officers trained in the Peninsular War, persisted in Iberia until 1850; the cumulative crises and disruptions of invasion and restoration led to the independence of most of Spain's American colonies and the independence of Brazil from Portugal. The Treaties of Tilsit, negotiated during a meeting in July 1807 between Emperors Alexander I of Russia and Napoleon, concluded the War of the Fourth Coalition. With Prussia shattered, the Russian Empire allied with the First French Empire, Napoleon expressed irritation that Portugal was open to trade with the United Kingdom. Pretexts were plentiful. Furthermore, Prince John of Braganza, regent for his insane mother Queen Maria I, had declined to join the emperor's Continental System against British trade. Events moved rapidly.
The Emperor sent orders on 19 July 1807 to his Foreign Minister, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, to order Portugal to declare war on Britain, close its ports to British ships, detain British subjects on a provisional basis and sequester their goods. After a few days, a large force started concentrating at Bayonne. Meanwhile, the Portuguese government's resolve was stiffening, shortly afterward Napoleon was once again told that Portugal would not go beyond its original agreements. Napoleon now had all the pretext that he needed, while his force, the First Corps of Observation of the Gironde with divisional general Jean-Andoche Junot in command, was prepared to march on Lisbon. After he received the Portuguese answer, he ordered Junot's corps to cross the frontier into the Spanish Empire. While all this was going on, the secret Treaty of Fontainebleau had been signed between France and Spain; the document was drawn up by Napoleon's marshal of the palace Géraud Duroc and Eugenio Izquierdo, an agent for Manuel Godoy.
The treaty proposed to carve up Portugal into three
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Spain
Andalusia
