The Crisis of an Empire
The Crisis of an Empire
This chapter discusses the French invasion of the Iberian peninsula in 1808. The Spanish king was forced to abdicate in favor of Napoleon, who instituted his brother Joseph as the new monarch of Spain. Many Spaniards refused to recognize Joseph as their king and maintained allegiance to Fernando, the captive monarch. Adopting early modern contractualist theories to nineteenth-century conditions, they claimed that in Fernando's absence sovereignty returned to the “people” and was now to be exercised by local assemblies or juntas established throughout Spain and Spanish America. After a short period of anarchy, during which each junta acted on its own, claimed sovereignty, and refused to cooperate with the other juntas, in late 1808 the juntas were joined in a single institution, the Junta Central.
Keywords: captive monarch, French invasion, Iberian peninsula, Napoleon, Joseph, Fernando
Yale Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
