OK, dunno if this has been posted before, but is there any way during the Peninsular War that any French commander in any part of Spain could've significantly neutralised the guerilla forces operating in most parts of the country, even with the presence of Wellington's British and Portuguese regular army ?
Peninsular War-GUERILLEROS defeated or at least neutralised
- Thread starter Melvin Loh
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When popular support to your army is zero and everybody in the country feel invaded the only way to achieve "victory" is total genocide. And this isn't possible in this situtation.
The mistake of Napoleon (and most French of his time) was to think that the Spaniards would be happy to be free from the stupid Bourbons, but Spain in 1808 wasn't the same that France in 1789. The only way to achieve victory in the Peninsular War was just to avoid the war itself. Napoleon should have avoided the occupation of the Spanish cities, kept Carlos IV on the throne or gave the crown to Fernando as a French puppet, and then he would have both the French and Spanish armys free to invade Portugal, completing the isolation of Britain.
The mistake of Napoleon (and most French of his time) was to think that the Spaniards would be happy to be free from the stupid Bourbons, but Spain in 1808 wasn't the same that France in 1789. The only way to achieve victory in the Peninsular War was just to avoid the war itself. Napoleon should have avoided the occupation of the Spanish cities, kept Carlos IV on the throne or gave the crown to Fernando as a French puppet, and then he would have both the French and Spanish armys free to invade Portugal, completing the isolation of Britain.
Quite a few anti-guerilla tactics proved effective later in the 19th century, but most of those tactics were devised well after the Peninsular War and in response to the effectiveness of the Spanish guerillas. Given how much Revolutionary France innovated tactics, I suppose it is not completely out of line to think that they might figure out some of the finer points of counter-insurgency as well. Of course, as long as Britain has control of the seas and will continue to supply the Spanish, defeating the guerillas will be very difficult even if the French are using a good strategy.
Faeelin
Banned
Mmm.
I think we're mapping the problems of guerilla warfare in the modern era onto that of Spain.
Napoleon had seen guerillas before; in the Vendee, in Sicily, etc. The French had beaten them, why would Spain be different? And he had support from liberals (and some conservatives in Spain) at the beginning.
The real problem was that the British army was in Spain, and that Spain was too large. Remove the British, and Spain, while still a quagmire, isn't the fiasco it was in OTL.
I agree that keeping Carlos or Ferdinand on the throne would've been the best idea.