Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Book in excellent unread/unused condition. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> The Brassey’s Almanacs provide a source of ready reference for students and historians in a style that is logical and comprehensive as well as compact. They avoid the dense approach of the academic reference or the brief coverage of a general description by dividing wars and campaigns according to the themes of Chronology the Leading Participants the Armies: Organisation and Establishments and Aids to Further Study. Facts and statistics are supported by an exten- sive range of illustrations. This volume tackles the bloody and contro- versial war that devastated Spain and Portugal for six long years between 1808 and 1814. More than a dozen famous battles were fought on an epic scale in this complex war. Instigated by Napoleon Bonaparte’s attempt to force Portugal to close her ports to British trade in late 1807 the introduction of French troops into Spain to browbeat the Portuguese caused great resentment amongst the Iberian populace. When in 1808 Napoleon usurped the Spanish throne the seething undercurrent broke out into violence directed against French troops. Napoleon spent the next six years attempting to manage his ‘Spanish Ulcer’; by proving a constant drain on French resources the war would ultimately play a major part in Napoleon’s eventual downfall. Central to the campaigns fought by the Portugase and Spanish regulars and the vicious guerrilla war against the French was the support of a British Army whose actions established Wellington’s reputation as the pre-eminent British soldier of his era. (SP)