Timeline: Spain and Austria Fight Back (1807-1809)
Britain's strategy in the struggle against Napoleon was based on providing subsidies to his opponents and harrying France on the seas and in its colonies, but without committing British ground forces to fighting on the Continent. The only exception was in the Iberian Peninsula. Napoleon's decision to include the peninsula in his dynastic plans was a necessary consequence of the Continental System: Napoleon could not allow the vast gap in his blockade represented by an independent Spain and Portugal, free to trade with Britain, to go unplugged.
Spain had until 1807 avoided Napoleon's control. Though declining in stature as a world power, the Spanish remained proud. They remembered their great tradition of explorers, colonies, and visionary rulers like Ferdinand and Isabella. They had a rich culture and history, and the Napoleonic era was the time of several great Spanish painters such as Goya. When Napoleon manipulated the Bourbon king of Spain off the throne and installed his brother Joseph as king, an anti-French guerilla war broke out. Britain, seizing the opportunity to harm France, sent an army under the Duke of Wellington to aid the guerillas, called peninsulars. On 30 November General Junot's forces occupied Lisbon, Portugal joined Spain in the draining and bloody Peninsular War, Napoleon's 'Spanish Ulcer' which was to last until June 1813. The war became more grave for France in May 1808 when the people of Madrid rebelled against Joachim Murat's French occupation forces. When Napoleon briefly took personal command in Spain between November 1808 and January 1809, he left the country convinced that it was pacified. But further victories and the extension of his power in Germany and Italy had to be paid for by an ever increasing tax burden and conscription imposed on the peoples of the empire. Almost everywhere, this burden came to outweigh the liberating effects of Napoleonic rule embodied in the law codes and the abolition of outdated social regulations and constraints.
By 1808, Alexander I was starting to get upset with his new ally Napoleon, primarily over the "Grand Duchy of Warsaw," a French-controlled Polish state; Alexander had always hoped that Poland would belong to Russia. Napoleon called a meeting of all his puppet monarchs at Erfurt, Saxony, on September 1808. However, this larger meeting was only an excuse for Napoleon to confront Alexander. Napoleon hoped that the arraying of all of Europe's nobility in one place would impress Alexander. It did not. It is interesting to note that at Erfurt, Talleyrand secretly told Alexander that Napoleon's empire was over-extended, and that he should simply bide his time until the collapse. Talleyrand's action may be seen as traitorous to Napoleon, and he was probably trying to play both sides, ensuring that he would have a safe place if Napoleonic France where to fall. Or, perhaps Talleyrand saw some need for balance between the European powers and was trying to remedy the extremely unbalanced situation that Napoleon had caused, which resulted in constant wars.
In April 1809 Austria resumed hostilities against Napoleon seeking to capitalize on popular discontent with his imperial rule by proclaiming the German 'War of Liberation.' Ironically, with the help of German soldiers from the Confederation of the Rhine, the French quickly quelled the Austrian agitation at the Battle of Wagram on 5-6 July. In a momentous few months between April and July, Napoleon defeated the Austrians in the campaign culminating with the Battle of Wagram, a British army under Arthur Wellesley (the future duke of Wellington) landed in Portugal, Pope Pius VII excommunicated Napoleon, France annexed the Papal States, and the pope was arrested.