The War of Independence and the Constitution of Cádiz
Napoleon puts his brother on the Spanish throne; Madrid rises on 2 May 1808, a brutal war follows, and patriots in besieged Cádiz write one of Europe's first liberal constitutions.
- The Peninsular War: A New History — Charles Esdaile, Allen Lane (2002)
- Spain: A History — Raymond Carr (ed.), Oxford University Press (2000)
- Spanish Identity in the Age of Nations — José Álvarez Junco, Manchester University Press (2011)
- Goya — Robert Hughes, Knopf (2003)
In 1808 Napoleon lured the Spanish royal family to Bayonne, forced them to abdicate and made his brother Joseph king. On 2 May the people of Madrid rose against French troops; the reprisals the next day were painted by Goya in “The Third of May 1808”. Across Spain local juntas declared war on the French. What the British call the Peninsular War became a savage struggle of regular armies, sieges (Zaragoza, Girona) and guerrillas, a word Spain gave the world. Wellington’s Anglo-Portuguese army, Spanish forces and the guerrillas together drove the French out by 1814.
- The Peninsular War: A New History — Charles Esdaile, Allen Lane (2002)
- Goya — Robert Hughes, Knopf (2003)
In besieged Cádiz an assembly, the Cortes, declared that sovereignty lay in the nation and on 19 March 1812 proclaimed a constitution, nicknamed “La Pepa”, with a constitutional monarchy, freedom of the press and an end to the Inquisition. It gave the word liberal to the world’s politics. But Ferdinand VII returned in 1814, tore it up and restored absolutism, opening a century of coups, civil wars and swings between liberals and reactionaries.
- Spain: A History — Raymond Carr (ed.), Oxford University Press (2000)
- The Peninsular War: A New History — Charles Esdaile, Allen Lane (2002)
- Spanish Identity in the Age of Nations — José Álvarez Junco, Manchester University Press (2011)
Why it matters today
Spaniards call it the "War of Independence", and it gave modern Spanish nationalism its first popular epic, the Dos de Mayo, and its first liberal charter, "La Pepa". It also began a century of struggle between liberals and absolutists, the "two Spains" that ran on to the Civil War.