Peninsular War - Guerrilla War

Guerrilla War

The Spanish War of Independence was one of the most successful partisan wars in history and is the origin of the word guerrilla in the English language (from the Spanish Guerra de guerrillas "War of little wars"). However, this guerrilla warfare was costly to both sides. Not only did the so-called patriotic Spaniards trouble the French troops, they also petrified their countrymen with a combination of forced conscription and looting. Many of the partisans were, in fact, either fleeing the law or trying to get rich, although later in the war the authorities tried to make the guerrillas militarily reliable, and many of them formed regular army units, such as Espoz y Mina's "Cazadores de Navarra", among others.

The idea of forming the guerrillas into an armed force had positive and negative effects. On one hand, uniform and stronger military discipline would stop men from running off into the streets and disappearing from the band; however, the more disciplined the unit was, the easier it was for the French troops to catch them when they sprang an ambush. Only a few partisan leaders formed up with the authorities; most did so just to lay off criminal charges and to retain the effective status of an officer in the Spanish army, so that their weaponry, clothes and food would be paid for.

The guerrilla style of fighting was the Spanish military's single most effective application. Most organized attempts on the part of regular Spanish forces to take on the French led to their defeat; however, once the battle was lost and the soldiers reverted to their guerrilla roles, they effectively tied down greater numbers of French troops over a wider area with much less expenditure of men, energy, and supplies. Wellington's final success in the Peninsula is often said to be largely due to the collapse and demoralization of the French military structure in Spain caused by the guerrillas.

It was these obscure triumphs—a platoon shot down in an ambush, a courier and his message captured as he galloped across the plain—which made possible the orthodox victories of Wellington and his Anglo-Portuguese army and eventually the liberation of Portugal and Spain.

Mass resistance by the people of Spain prefigured the total wars of the 20th century, and eventually inspired parallel struggles by the Russians and Prussians. Tsar Alexander, when threatened with war, rebuked the French ambassador: