Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

Once the British have established themselves in Sri Lanka, they aggressively expand their territorial possessions by a combination of annexation and intervention, a policy that parallels the approach pursued by Lord Wellesley in India in the early nineteenth century.

This strategy directly threatens the continued existence of the Kingdom of Kandy.

Unrest at the Kandyan court between a ruling dynasty of alien, southern Indian antecedents and powerful, indigenous Sinhalese chieftains provides opportunities for British interference.

The intrigue of the king's chief minister precipitates the first Kandyan war (1803).

With the minister's knowledge, a British force marches on Kandy, but the force is ill prepared for such an ambitious venture and its leaders are misinformed of the extent of the king's unpopularity.

The British expedition is at first successful, but on the return march, it is plagued by disease, and the garrison left behind is decimated.

During the next decade, no concerted attempt is made to take Kandy.

But in 1815 the British have another opportunity.

The king has antagonized local Sinhalese chiefs and further alienates the Sinhalese people by actions against Buddhist monks and temple property.

In 1815 the Kandyan rebels invite the British to intervene.

The governor quickly responds by sending a well-prepared force to Kandy; the king flees with hardly a shot fired.

Captain Francis Light had founded George Town as a free port to entice traders away from nearby Dutch trading posts.

He also encouraged immigrants by promising them as much land as they could clear and by reportedly firing silver dollars from his ship's cannons deep into the jungle

Trade in Penang grew exponentially soon after its founding—incoming ships and boats to Penang will increased from eighty-five in 1786 to three thousand five hundred and sixty-nine in 1802.

Many early settlers, including Light himself in 1794, succumb to malaria, earning early Penang the epithet 'the white man's grave'.

After Light's demise, Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Wellesley, who will go on to become the Duke of Wellington, arrives on the Prince of Wales Island to co-ordinate the island's defenses.

Arthur Wellesley, the French-trained younger brother of Governor-General Richard Wellesley, breaks the power of the Marathas at Assaye in 1803.

The British begin the Second Anglo-Maratha War, against the Scindia of Gwalior, on August 3, 1803.

The British had supported the "fugitive" Peshwa Raghunathrao in the First Anglo-Maratha War, continued with his "fugitive" son, Baji Rao II.

Baji Rao II had soon provoked the enmity of Malhar Rao Holkar when he had one of Holkar's relatives killed.

The fall of Mysore in 1799–1800 had left the Marathas as the only major power left outside British control in India.

The Maratha Empire at this time consists of a confederacy of five major chiefs: the Peshwa (Prime Minister) at the capital city of Poona, the Gaekwad chief of Baroda, the Scindia chief of Gwalior, the Holkar chief of Indore, and the Bhonsale chief of Nagpur.

The Maratha chiefs are engaged in internal quarrels among themselves.

Lord Mornington, the Governor-General of British India, had repeatedly offered a subsidiary treaty to the Peshwa and Scindia, but Nana Fadnavis had refused strongly.

In October 1802, the combined armies of Peshwa Baji Rao II and Scindia had been defeated by Yashwantrao Holkar, ruler of Indore, at the Battle of Poona.

Baji Rao had fled to British protection, and in December the same year had concluded the Treaty of Bassein with the British East India Company, ceding territory for the maintenance of a subsidiary force and agreeing to treaty with no other power.

This act on the part of the Peshwa, their nominal overlord, had horrified and disgusted the Maratha chieftains; in particular, the Scindia rulers of Gwalior and the Bhonsale rulers of Nagpur and Berar had contested the agreement.

The British strategy includes Wellesley securing the Deccan Plateau, Lake taking Doab, then Delhi, Powell entering Bundelkhand, Murray taking Badoch, and Harcourt neutralizing Bihar.

The British have available over fifty-three thousand men to help accomplish their goals.

British-led troops under Arthur Wellesely defeat Maratha forces at the Battle of Assaye on September 23, 1803.

Lake defeats another Scindia force at Laswari in November, ...

...followed by Wellesley's victory over Bhonsale forces at Argaon (now Adgaon) on  November 29, 1803.

Orissa, an area of India along the Bay of Bengal that now comprises the Indian state of Odisha, had been occupied by the British under the British East India Company on October 14, 1803.

The Maratha Empire formally cedes the area in the Treaty of Deogaon, signed by Raghoji II Bhonsale of Nagpur on December 17 in Odisha with the British after the Battle of Argaon; surrendering the province of Cuttack (which includes Mughalbandi/the coastal part of Odisha, Garjat/the princely states of Odisha, Balasore Port, and parts of Midnapore district of West Bengal).

The Spanish Uprising and the Imposition of Joseph Bonaparte (March–May 1808)

By March 1808, Spain was in political turmoil, caused by military defeats, economic collapse, and public dissatisfaction with Spanish leadership. The crisis exploded into a popular uprising, leading to the downfall of King Charles IV and his powerful minister, Manuel de Godoy.

The Fall of Charles IV and the Abdication Crisis

• March 1808 – A popular revolt erupted against Godoy, the chief minister of Spain, whom many blamed for the country’s weakness and French domination.
• Under pressure from the people and the nobility, King Charles IV was forced to abdicate in favor of his son, Ferdinand VII (r. 1808; 1814–1833).
• Ferdinand VII was briefly declared king, but Napoleon had other plans for Spain.

The Abdication at Bayonne – Spain Falls to Napoleon (May 1808)

• Napoleon summoned Ferdinand VII to Bayonne (France) under the pretense of recognizing his rule.
• Instead, he forced Ferdinand to abdicate, returning the throne to Charles IV, who then abdicated in favor of Napoleon’s brother, Joseph Bonaparte.
• With French troops already in Spain, Joseph Bonaparte was installed as the new King of Spain in June 1808.

French Military Presence and the Invasion of Portugal

• To support Joseph Bonaparte’s rule, Napoleon sent a massive French army into Spain.
• These forces were also tasked with launching a second invasion of Portugal, this time from Spanish territory.
• Portugal, Britain’s key ally, remained a central target for Napoleon’s expansionist ambitions.

The Afrancesados – Spanish Supporters of French Rule

Not all Spaniards opposed the new regime. A small but influential group known as the afrancesados welcomed Joseph Bonaparte and the French occupation.

• The afrancesados believed that Spain needed modernization, seeing Napoleon’s rule as an opportunity to reform the country along French lines.
• Many were intellectuals, bureaucrats, and progressive elites, favoring a centralized state, legal reforms, and an end to feudal privileges.
• However, they were widely despised by the majority of Spaniards, who saw them as traitors collaborating with the foreign occupiers.

The Stage is Set for the Peninsular War

With Napoleon's army occupying Spain and preparing to invade Portugal, Spain and Portugal became the central battlegrounds of the Napoleonic Wars.

However, Napoleon’s imposition of Joseph Bonaparte as king would soon trigger a massive Spanish rebellion, leading to the Peninsular War (1808–1814)—one of the most brutal and consequential conflicts of the Napoleonic era.

 

The War of Independence (1808–1814) – Spain’s Struggle Against Napoleonic Rule

In Spanish historiography, the Iberian phase of the Napoleonic Wars (1808–1814) is known as the War of Independence (Guerra de Independencia Española). It became a popular uprising, transforming into a brutal, irregular conflict that united all social classes, political factions, and regions in a common struggle against the French occupation.

A War Without Rules – The Brutality of Irregular Warfare

Unlike traditional wars with clear battle lines and rules of engagement, the War of Independence was fought as a savage, unrelenting struggle:

• Spanish guerrilla warfare became the defining feature of the conflict, with bands of armed civilians, militias, and regular troops launching surprise attacks on French forces.
• Both sides committed atrocities, leading to a cycle of violence and reprisal killings.
• The war was fought in towns, villages, and countryside, not just in open battles, making civilians direct participants and victims.

Francisco Goya – The War’s Most Famous Chronicler

The horrors of the war were immortalized by Spanish painter Francisco Goya, whose works depict the raw brutality of the conflict.

• His series of etchings, The Disasters of War (Los Desastres de la Guerra) graphically illustrates:
  • Executions, massacres, and mutilations carried out by both French and Spanish forces.
  • The suffering of civilians, including starvation, rape, and reprisals.
  • The destruction of entire villages as part of the scorched-earth tactics used by both sides.
• His famous painting "The Third of May, 1808" (El Tres de Mayo 1808) depicts French soldiers executing Spanish prisoners, capturing the merciless repression of the uprising in Madrid.

A National Struggle Against Napoleon

The Spanish resistance, initially spontaneous and disorganized, evolved into a coordinated national movement, aided by:

• The British army under the Duke of Wellington, which reinforced the Spanish and Portuguese armies.
• Local and regional juntas, which kept Spain politically fragmented but resistant.
• The deep Catholic faith of the Spanish people, which saw Napoleon’s rule as a threat to religion and motivated widespread rebellion.

The War of Independence became one of the bloodiest and most brutal conflicts of the Napoleonic Wars, not just because of the guerrilla tactics, but because it was a total war involving all levels of Spanish society.

It was not just a fight against Napoleon, but a struggle for Spain’s national identity, shaping its modern history and self-perception as a nation that resisted foreign domination.

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