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Warning: This chapter is entirely OTL, but it's necessary to understand TTL's developement. I saved you a quick read in Wikipedia if you didn't know about Spain from 1789 to 1815, and if you already know, up to you if you want to read this or not.


While peace and prosperity roamed across the overseas Spain, the mainland had problems, but to understand this we must go back a little. 1775, a rebellion breaks out in British North America. The British found unable to quell the uprising in it's initial stage and the rebels rapidly assured control of the thirteen colonies east of the Appalachians. Even if the rebellion was relatively succesful and the rebels had stablished their own state, the "United States of America", if the war continued it would be doomed. In 1778 France, seeking to weaken the British Empire, declared support for the rebellion and assisted the rebels militarily and economically. Spain did the same a year later and in 1783 Britain had been effectively expelled from most of their holdings in North America except for the northenmost provinces. The rebellion had two great consequences, first it ruined the finances of France, but we'll go back at that later. Second, it created a precedent, a precedent in which colonists managed to break free from the metropole and succeed. The Revolution inspired many liberals in Spanish America who seeked to do the same and stablish their own state, with the greatest exponent being Francisco de Miranda, a man who seeked to create a contiguous empire from Tierra del Fuego to California called "Colombia" after Columbus.


Back to the first point, France was ruined. In the years after crops failed and poverty increased. In 1789 the king Louis XVI called for the General States to attempt to solve the problem with French finances, however the representants of the third state noticed how the nobility and the church always allied to block their proposals and left the meeting. The third state soon began to radicalise and recruit common people for their cause which resulted in the Taking of the Bastille and a revolution that installed a constitutional monarchy. Liberal ideas began to spread across Europe now that the greatest absolute monarchy had fallen. The prime minister of Spain, José Moñino y Redondo, the Count of Floridablanca blocked the border with France to impede the flow of liberal ideas to Spain. In 1792 the king was discovered while attempting to flee France for Austria and the liberals accused him of treason while all of Europe declared war to France. France managed to fend off some initial attacks and obtained a crushing victory in the Battle of Valmy on September 20th 1792. A day later Louis XVI was forced out of the throne and executed on January 21st 1793, which caused outrage across Europe. This caused the Spanish monarch, Charles IV to declare war to the French Republic and named the old general Antonio Ricardos as captain general of Catalonia. Ricardos crossed the Pyrenees on April 17th 1793. Ricardos was a brilliant commander who routed the revolutionary French multiple times, notably at Céret and then surrounded and captured the impressing Fort de Bellegarde. Due to the harsh terrain and the low number of troops Ricardos couldn't continue pushing. His subordinates were overall incompetent but Ricardos' interventions helped push the French all the way to the fortified town of Collioure on December 20th 1793. Then Ricardos left for Madrid to pledge for more reinforcements as king Charles refused to send them, he caught a cold in the travel and died of pneumonia on March 13th 1794 without receiving any reinforcements. His somewhat capable successor, Alejandro O'Reilly died ten days later leaving the Spanish army uncommanded or in hands of incompetent minds who caused the Spanish forces to get expelled out of France in 1794. France invaded Spain proper later on without much success due to the aforementioned reasons, capturing Roses on February 4th 1795 and the subsequent Peace of Basel by which Spain ceded the eastern half of Santo Domingo to France and the new Prime Minister, Manuel de Godoy, decided to ally with France against Britain.



Pursuiting his goals of maintaining the alliance with France, Manuel de Godoy declared a short war with Portugal called as the "War of the Oranges" due to some oranges she sent to the queen (some say the queen cheated the king with Godoy) and Spain annexed Olivença while forcing Portugal to stablish a blockade on British trade, though they never did. That's why Napoleon proposed a second invasion of Portugal in 1807. Charles accepted French troops to enter Spain to prepare for the invasion and Portugal was swiflty conquered and divided into three kingdoms, one for Godoy himself. However the French troops began to place themselves in strategical parts of Spain and went to directions opposite to that of Portugal such as Zaragoza. The French forced their entrance on fhe fort of Pamplona and the city of Barcelona. Many began to question what Charles and Godoy had done. Charles finally noticed that the French were not here in a friendly mood and tried to leave for America just as the Portuguese royal family did. His son, Ferdinand, an ambitious and mentally handicapped man noticed this and led the people to the town of Aranjuez where Charles was preparing to leave. The mob surrounded the palace and Ferdinand insisted that his father was responsible for the French presence and Charles was forced to abdicate. Godoy was found rolled in a turf in the upper levels of the palace on March 19th 1808. Ferdinand relied on Napoleon for support and agreed to meet with him on Bayonne. His father was also going there, along with most of the family, except for the young prince Francisco de Paula, who was a kid back then. In Bayonne, Ferdinand re-abdicated on his father and Charles abdicated on Napoleon who ceded the throne to his brother Joseph.


The French Army entered Madrid on May 2nd looking for Francisco de Paula, however the people refused to let the French soldiers enter the palace, so the French fired on the crowd and a brutal street battle ensued on the streets of Madrid in which the Spanish Army decided to ignore the events. The people were massacred the day after, the same day that the mayor Móstoles issued a proclaim in which he stated "War with the French! War without truce, people or king!". All of Spain shaked against the French rule with the imperial soldiers being forced to fight civilians to take each town. Murat ordered his army to march south to Andalusia, being ambushed in the way in the town of Valdepeñas, in which the women of the town led a charge against the French forces, managing to repel them but the French eventually got the upper hand and burnt the entire town. In the meantime, as Spain had no official government several Juntas were formed all across Spain. Floridablanca took control of that of Murcia and led a coalition Junta in Seville, who scrambled to build an army. In the north the French were defeated in Valencia after a popular uprising, The Bruch and laid siege to the fortress of Zaragoza. Again, the population sided completely with the defenders and the French failed to take the city and retreated towards Navarre. In Andalusia, the general Francisco Javier Castaños manaed to trap the French in the hills of Bailén, and after three days of combat marshal Dupont was defeated and captured. That was the first time an imperial army was defeated, and not only defeated, but completely anihilated. Castaños entered Madrid, abandoned by Joseph and pulled all the way to the Ebro river.


Napoleon could not stand such an humilliation and decided to led the army into Spain personally. The forces of Castaños and Palafox (commander of Aragon) had placed themselves in Tudela and the banks of the Quelles river. Castaños expected to lure Napoleon into thinking his army was in a bad shape and allow the French to cross the river, and then Palafox's army would strike the back of the French army from the other side. Palafox refused to accept that plan, insiting in that a defeat would result in the fall of Aragon, to which Castaños replied "Spain! We must defend Spain!" Palafox's stubborness to accept Castaños' orders continued for days until the French surprised them and routed them both. The French went south towards Madrid and in November 30th 1808 the Polish cavalry managed to cross the range of Somosierra and Napoleon entered Madrid on December 4th. Sixteen days later Zaragoza itself was besieged again, with Palafox trapped inside. He refused to surrender and the battle became the most brutal Europe had seen in centuries. This is how marshal Jean Lannes described it:

"I've never seen such bitterness as that proven by our enemies in the defense of this place. Women let themselves be killed in front of the trenches. It's necessary to organise an assault for each house. The siege of Zaragoza has nothing in common with our previous wars. This is a terrifying war. The city burns from it's four corners right now, and hundreds of bombs rain over it, but nothing is enough to intimidate it's defenders... What a war! What a men! A siege in each street, a mine under each house. Being forced to kill so many brave, or better said so many furious men! This is terrible. Victory is not worth it."



After that last stand most of Spain gradually fell to the French offensive. The Junta of Seville absorbed all others to form the Junta Suprema Central (Supreme Central Junta), but were forced out of the city and retreated to the port of Cádiz, and then to the Island of the Lions. There the Junta decided to stablish a full government organism and began to write a constitution, which was published on 1812. The constitution essentially stated that Spain was to be a constitutional monarchy in which the people received the right to express freely. The constitution also stated that "Spanish of both hemispheres are equal and shall be considered as thus", which essentially meant that Spain further integrated the colonies into the mainland (they already were, as the American territories were kingdoms within the Hispanic Monarchy with the same rights and duties as those in Iberia and not colonies in the English way, but oh well, it's easier to explain it this way). However there was no monarch to rule as Charles moved to Parma, the land of his wife, and Ferdinand was trapped by Napoleon in Valençay. There, Ferdinand enjoyed a great life, he organised parties and dinners. Ferdinand deeply admired Napoleon despite all his subjects had declared war to him, if at least the Spanish knew for what kind of king they were fighting...


Spain did not fight alone as a British army commanded by Arthur Wellesley landed in Portugal and cleaned the country of French troops in 1808 and then again in 1810. The Royal Navy helped the Spanish in Cádiz by impedint the French to assault the city. Wellesley's forces, along with Portuguese and Spanish forces managed to inflict a half-victory in Talavera de la Reina despite the Spanish reticence to fight in Sunday, however Wellesley decided to retreat and give up all progress maden in 1811. When Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812 the Coalition troops managed to push back the French, capturing Ciudad Rodrigo, Salamanca and Badajoz, while the French captured Valencia after two sieges and annexed Catalonia into their empire. When the French invasion of Russia turned out to be a disaster the French found themselves in an unsustainable position in Iberia and began to lose ground through the rest of 1812 and 1813, culminating with the Battle of San Marcial on August 31st 1813, which saw the Coalition forces reach the Pyrenees. While the French Empire was collapsing Napoleon signed with Ferdinand VII the Treaty of Valençay, which recognised him as king of Spain and promised that all French troops would leave Spain, but they didn't. Ferdinand reached Spain through the port of Valencia on May 24th 1814, where he published the "Manifest of the Persians" in which he declared void all political activites that had happened in Spain in his absence and restoring the absolutist monarchy. This would eventually trigger a series of uprisings and conflicts that would leave Spain in a state of chaos for years.


The country was destroyed by the war, 10% of the population died, the government had collapsed, foodstocks were empty and the local industry had been completely destroyed (both by the French and British. British soldiers sacked and burned multiple Spanish towns). The fleet was non-existant, the royal trasure had disappeared, most of the Spanish artistic legacy had vanished and the American possessions were in open rebellion. The country was ruined and thrown away from it's status as a premier world power, and it would take many decades before Spain's former greatness could be restored. That, if the empire survived the unrest in America...