Results of the "Continental System."
From the very first the result of the "Continental System," as the Emperor's plan was named, was very different from what he had expected. The English manufactures and colonial wares, which he intended to exclude, contrived to creep, nevertheless, within the bounds of his empire. All along the coasts of Germany, France, Italy, and Spain, there sprang up an extraordinary development of smuggling. From Heligoland, the Channel Isles, Gibraltar, and Sicily, hundreds of vessels sailed by night to land their cargoes in secret. But if the merchandize arrived, it came by such hazardous and circuitous ways that its price was vastly increased. Napoleon did not succeed in ruining the commerce of England, but he succeeded in making Germans and Russians and Italians pay monstrous prices for their coffee or their sugar, and got their well-earned curses for it.
The French invade Portugal.
Napoleon's restless energy in carrying out his scheme for the isolation and financial ruin of England, led him into new troubles in another part of Europe, less than three months after he had ended his Polish campaign by the peace of Tilsit. The little kingdom of Portugal was, with Turkey, almost the last state in Europe which had not accepted the Continental System. Loth to lose their valuable commerce with England, the Portuguese tried evasion, and returned shifty answers when Napoleon bade their prince-regent accept the Berlin Decrees. Without waiting for further provocation the tyrant, who had now grown impatient of the slightest remonstrance against his fiat, declared that "the house of Braganza had ceased to reign," and sent an army under General Junot across Spain to occupy Lisbon. The prince-regent was forced to fly by sea, and the French overran the whole of his kingdom.
Joseph Bonaparte proclaimed King of Spain.
But from the first moment of his interference in the Peninsula, it is probable that Napoleon had wider schemes than the mere conquest of Portugal. The crown of Spain was now worn by the imbecile and worthless old king Charles IV., who lived in constant strife with his cowardly and intriguing son and heir, the Infant Ferdinand. There was nothing to choose between them in the way of incompetence and effeteness. In 1807 this wretched pair were at the height of their domestic quarrels, and each was trying to curry favour with Napoleon. They were always carrying complaints about each other to him, and asking for his support. Then Napoleon, as if he were the recognized arbiter of kings, summoned the quarrelsome father and son to meet him at Bayonne on the French frontier, that he might settle their disputes. They came, each full of charges against his relative; but Napoleon, when he had them both safely under his hand, suddenly adopted a new tone, pronounced them both unfit to rule a great nation, and then declared that his own brother, Joseph Bonaparte (whom he had made ruler of Naples two years before), would be the best king for Spain. Accordingly, he forced the two Bourbons, half by threats, half by cajolery, to abdicate, and sent them into the interior of France. A few Spanish nobles who had accompanied them to Bayonne were induced to accept Joseph, and then Napoleon pretended that his brother was legally constituted King of Spain. There were many French troops in the Peninsula, who had been sent there under the pretence that they were to help Junot in conquering Portugal. At the concerted signal these regiments seized the neighbouring Spanish fortresses, and proclaimed Joseph king. After a rising of the populace of Madrid had been put down with much bloodshed by the French troops in the capital, it seemed as if Napoleon's piracy and kidnapping were to be crowned with success (June 15, 1808).
Resistance of the Spaniards.
This, however, was in reality far from being the case. As a matter of fact he had now succeeded in involving himself in the most protracted and exhausting war in which he was ever engaged. He had roused by his treachery the most revengeful and fanatical people in Europe, and had now to conquer a barren and arid country, "where large armies starve and small armies get beaten." Spain sprang to arms on the news of the crime of Bayonne. The great towns everywhere proclaimed Ferdinand VII. king, and though the central government was destroyed, "juntas" or revolutionary committees were formed in every province and began to raise troops to resist King Joseph.
England determines to aid the Spaniards.
The news of the Spanish insurrection was received with joy in England, more especially because it was the first really national rising against the Emperor that had yet been seen. Even the Whigs were enthusiastic for aiding Spain. "Hitherto," said Sheridan, "Bonaparte has contended with princes without dignity, numbers without ardour, and peoples without patriotism; he has yet to learn what it is to combat a nation animated by one spirit against him." Misled by their sympathy into over-estimating the strength of Spain and the valour of her raw provincial levies, the English government, influenced mainly by Canning, a disciple of Pitt, who was now the most prominent among the younger Tory statesmen, determined to strike a bold blow by land against Napoleon. For the last three years the very considerable body of regular troops in England, set free from the task of watching the Boulogne army, had been frittered away on small expeditions against outlying parts of the French and Spanish dominions, and had suffered nothing but checks. Now the cabinet determined to send a really formidable army to the Peninsula. It was resolved to throw 20,000 men ashore in Portugal to assail Junot, who was cut off from the rest of the French armies by the revolt in Spain. To the Spaniards were sent subsidies of arms and money, but no troops.