The Peninsular War: A New History - Hardcover

Esdaile, Charles

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1403962316 ISBN 13: 9781403962317

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Trade, 2003

Synopsis

At the end of the 18th century Spain remained one of the world's most powerful empires. Portugal, too, was prosperous at the time. By 1808, everything had changed. Portugal was under occupation and ravaged by famine, disease, economic problems and political instability. Spain had imploded and worse was to come. For the next six years, the peninsula was the helpless victim of others, suffering perhaps over a million deaths while troops from all over Europe tore it to pieces. Charles Esdaile's brilliant new history of the conflict makes plain the scope of the tragedy and its far-reaching effects, especially the poisonous legacy that produced the Spanish civil war of 1936-9.

About this title

About the Author

Charles Esdaile is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Liverpool. He is the author of The Wars of Napoleon, The French Wars, and others. He lives in England.

Reviews

The Peninsular War could fairly be called Napoleon's Vietnam-a bloody, protracted struggle, part conventional and part guerilla, that sapped the strength of the French Empire and left Spain and Portugal in ruins. This new history is a sure guide through the quagmire. The war was on one level a military epic-Napoleon's nemesis Wellington made his name on the Peninsula-and Esdaile (The Wars of Napoleon) provides an enthralling narrative of the major campaigns and battles, along with a detailed assessment of the character and quality of the armies that fought there. But he also probes the political and social dimensions of the conflict, where nothing was simple. The Bonapartist regime in Spain, he finds, combined well-meaning reform with corruption and repression; the Spanish resistance was a blend of liberal and reactionary tendencies; the celebrated Spanish guerilla fighters were often no better than bandits; and the Spanish people were by turns patriotic and apathetic, hostile to both the traditional Spanish élites and the French interlopers who piled on new forms of exploitation. In this chaotic context, the Peninsular War became a byword for brutality: civilians were regularly pillaged and massacred by soldiers on every side acting out of starvation, reprisal for guerilla attacks or sheer drunken rage. Drawing on first-hand accounts of the conflict, Esdaile paints an indelible picture of the cruelties of Napoleonic warfare. His vigorous writing, comprehensive analysis and even-handed judgments make this an indispensable treatment of one of the watersheds of European history.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Trade
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1403962316
• ISBN 13: 9781403962317
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 640