Napoleon and the Spanish Resistance
Throughout time, the military has been considered one of the key features in a civilization. It has been considered the heart and soul of many countries and empires and has been the center of many cultures. Throughout history we have seen many military leaders and military powers. We have seen military techniques and technology change as we progress. Our schools are filled with legends of great war heroes and hard-fought battles. One such hero is Napoleon Bonaparte, perhaps one of the greatest generals who ever lived. In his adventures and conquest, as general of the French army, he warred against many lands. These included Spain, in which Napoleon met a strong resistance. The Spaniards were using a new military strategy called guerilla warfare, one that Napoleon had no experience against. Guerilla warfare is the use of unconventional war tactics, such as ambush and sabotage, coined by the Spanish rebellion to Napoleon Bonaparte, resulting in an uprising that even he couldn’t put to rest.
To understand why these tactics were so effective, you must first understand the tactics themselves. Before guerilla warfare was popularized, war was mainly a head-to-head meeting between two armies. This idea of mass confrontation was considered a formal and more manly way to conduct war.
However, the Spanish noticed drawbacks to this idea. They had far fewer numbers than the French and by using traditional war methods they were destined for failure. The Spanish started to use guerilla tactics.
Traditional wars at the time were decided, often, just by a couple of mass confrontations between the two opponents. Each battle would usually consist of a significant number of soldiers going straight towards each other until they forced the other to retreat. Guerilla warfare on the other hand doesn’t rely on this premise. In order to successfully defeat your opponent using guerilla tactics, you must rely instead on a series of smaller confrontations (Free Dictionary). By using these “hit-and-run” strategies, guerilla fighters can quickly tire they’re opponents and not lose as many men. Another difference, is that guerilla war relies heavily on ambush. Ambush is when the ambushing force uses concealment to attack an enemy ...
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...oleon returned and heard of the defeat he knew it was the end. Finally realizing that his unstoppable armies had been stopped for good he abdicated on April 11th, 1814. The Peninsular War has helped diminish Napoleon’s armies and expose his weaknesses. His enemies had finally caught on and in the end it was the great Napoleon who finally gave up.
Guerilla warfare is the use of unconventional war tactics, such as ambush and sabotage, coined by the Spanish rebellion to Napoleon Bonaparte, resulting in an uprising that even he couldn’t put to rest. Guerilla warfare, more in depth, is the use of tactics that don’t involve mass confrontation. They rely more on long drawn out smaller confrontations, slowly but surely weakening the enemy. The most prominent of these was the Peninsular War, fought between the French and the British and the Spanish guerillas. The British were able to keep a strong defensive position and with help from the guerillas eventually drove out the French regime. This loss brought Napoleon closer to defeat and his enemies realized it, causing them to go on the offensive and sack Paris, the final blow to the great Napoleon Bonaparte.
When understanding the types Guerilla warfare tactics dates back to the earliest recorded history and continues today, as it will in the future. A formidable strategy used against the military by the Native Americans to preserve their way of life. After the Civil War in 1865, U.S. settlements exceeded ...
Patrick M. Malone, the author of the his research book “The Skulking Way of War: Technology and Tactics among the New England Indians,” served as a U.S. Marine during the Vietnam War, where he experienced the opposition forces using guerrilla tactics, such as hiding and using the environment as their advantage and stealthy raid during night time when is completely dark in the jungles of Vietnam. Patrick M. Malone quoted about what Neil Sheehan said of the U.S. military advisors in Vietnam in 1962 all agree on one desire: “They hoped that the guerillas would one day be foolish enough to abandon their skulking ways and fight fairly in a stand-up battle” (Malone 6). The origin meaning of the term “skulking way of war” was primarily to describe
After suffering from numerous wars, including the Mexican-American war and the Mexican civil war of 1858, the 19th century country of Mexico was nearly reduced to bankruptcy and impoverishment. This left the country unable to pay back the many foreign debts that had accumulated over the years, and as a result, gave way to the invasion of English, Spanish, and French troops into Mexico. Within a year, English and Spanish troops withdrew after civil negotiations, but Napoleon III of France decided to take this opportunity to establish a Latin empire that would further progress the nation’s tyrannical regime. By late 1861, a well-armed French fleet stormed the port city of Veracruz, landing a large French force that drove the Mexicans into retreat. Moving on to the capital of Mexico City, the French sought to obliterate any Mexican resistance, taking over Mexico City and thus the country. Upon getting to the small town of Puebla, however, the well-armed, well-trained French soldiery encountered heavy resistance. The 8,000 strong French army attacked the smaller, poorly trained Mexican army of 4,500. Although the odds appeared to be stacked against the inadequately prepared Mexican army, the Mexicans prevailed on May 5th, 1862. Known as “the premier army of the world” at the tim...
The Aztecs and Incas had military warehouses setup in different areas in case of war. They mainly used clubs and relied upon man-to-man conflict with no real tactics.... ... middle of paper ... ...
The government changed its tactics to end the rebellion, resorting to low intensity war. Paramilitaries with differing levels of tacit and explicit support terrorized Zapatistas and their sympathizers. The killings in Acteal in 1997 that claimed the lives of 45 innocent people remains a particularly gruesome example of paramilitary massacres.
First, both are similar in how they spread their message across. Basically, both made the enemy seem like a cruel heartless monster who only has the capability to kill while the heroes are the country’s soldiers/citizens. Both play on the pathos of citizens. They paint this idea that citizens must fight because the enemy is filled with barbarians.
Turbiville, Graham. 2010. “Firefights, Raids, and Assassinations: Tactical Forms of Cartel Violence and their Underpinnings.” Small Wars and Insurgencies 21, no.1 (January): 123-44.
These men had returned with the news of a Spanish outpost with the name Las Guasimas. By afternoon of the same day the Rough Riders had been order to head out to the location of Las Guasimas and eliminate all opposition and secure the surrounding area, the men would camp outside the outpost then attack the next morning. For started, the Rough Riders were at a disadvantage, they were not accustom to the dense jungles of Cuba in which they were fighting in, and did not know the jungles trails like the Spanish did. Yet the next morning the attack commenced, with General Young, commander of the cavalry and regulars, attacked the outpost straight on.
The relationship between conventional and guerilla operations was a key element of the Vietnamese communists’ “Dau Tranh” strategy to fight and win the Vietnam War. A brief description of the Dua Tranh (meaning struggle) strategy is appropriate since it was the basis for North Vietnam’s success. The strategy consisted of an armed struggle and a political struggle. The armed struggle began with Stage One hit and run guerilla tactics to “decimate the enemy piecemeal and weaken then eliminate the government’s administrative control of the countryside...
inexperienced and out of form with foreign combat, the U.S. quickly defeated the Spanish in
The Conquest of New Spain Cortés came not to the New World to conquer by force, but by manipulation. Bernal Daz del Castillo, in the "Conquest of New Spain," describes how Cortés and his soldiers manipulated the Aztec people and their king Montezuma from the time they traveled from Iztapalaopa to the time when Montezuma took Cortés to the top of the great Cue and showed him the whole of Mexico and its countryside, and the three causeways which led into Mexico. Castillo's purpose for recording the mission was to keep an account of the wealth of Montezuma and Mexico, the traditions, and the economic potential that could benefit Cortés' upcoming conquest. However, through these recordings, we are able to see and understand Cortés' strategy in making Mexico "New Spain." He came as a wolf in sheep's clothing and manipulated Montezuma through his apparent innocence.
?Spanish-American War and Philippine Resistance.?? U.S. Department of the Army:? Army Area Handbooks.? 1993.? St. Louis.? Online.? UM-St. Louis Libraries.? Internet 12 Mar. 2000.? Available gopher://gopher.umsl.edu/00/library/govdocs/armyahbs/aahb4/aahb0247.
They resisted the continental system ? the system Napoleon set up ? based on Roman government, because it was cutting off their supply?s as it was aimed as destroying the British economy. Conflict broke out and Portugal violated the blockade against the British trade and Spain revolted against Napoleon?s brother?s rule. These small revolts resulted in guerrilla warfare ? small bands of troops that attack in short bursts. Napoleons worst battle was in Russia and it led to his downfall. Napoleon amassed a huge army when Czar Alexander I refused to suppress British trade, and marched on Russia in 1812. Napoleon wanted to fight the Russians in one big battle but the Russians, seeing that they were vastly outnumbered, withdrew and went back to Russia to build a better army. As they went back to Russia the instituted a ?scorched earth policy?, meaning, that they burned everythi...
.... The English did this all day until then ran out of ammo and at the end of the day of fighting the Spanish had lost 5 of their big warship along with five hundred dead and eight hundred wounded (Armesto 200-180).
Reasons for Napoleon's Defeat The Campaign of 1812 should have been another crusade for Napoleon, but he now faced 2 new policies that he had never faced before, the severe Russian winter and the notorious scorched-earth policy. On June 23, 1812 Napoleon's Grande Armee, over 500,000 men strong, poured over the Russian border. An equal amount of Russian forces awaited them. The result of the campaign was a surprise.