FYI May 02, 2022

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On This Day

1808 – Outbreak of the Peninsular War: The people of Madrid rise up in rebellion against French occupation. Francisco de Goya later memorializes this event in his painting The Second of May 1808.
The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain, it is considered to overlap with the Spanish War of Independence.[d] The war began when the French and Spanish armies invaded and occupied Portugal in 1807 by transiting through Spain, and it escalated in 1808 after Napoleonic France had occupied Spain, which had been its ally. Napoleon Bonaparte forced the abdications of Ferdinand VII and his father Charles IV and then installed his brother Joseph Bonaparte on the Spanish throne and promulgated the Bayonne Constitution. Most Spaniards rejected French rule and fought a bloody war to oust them. The war on the peninsula lasted until the Sixth Coalition defeated Napoleon in 1814, and it is regarded as one of the first wars of national liberation and is significant for the emergence of large-scale guerrilla warfare.

The war began in Spain with the Dos de Mayo Uprising on 2 May 1808 and ended on 17 April 1814 with the restoration of Ferdinand VII to the monarchy. The French occupation destroyed the Spanish administration, which fragmented into quarrelling provincial juntas. The episode remains as the bloodiest event in Spain’s modern history, doubling in relative terms the Spanish Civil War.[10]

A reconstituted national government, the Cortes of Cádiz—in effect a government-in-exile—fortified itself in the secure port of Cádiz in 1810, but could not raise effective armies because it was besieged by 70,000 French troops. British and Portuguese forces eventually secured Portugal, using it as a safe position from which to launch campaigns against the French army and provide whatever supplies they could get to the Spanish, while the Spanish armies and guerrillas tied down vast numbers of Napoleon’s troops.[e] By restricting French control of territory, the combined allied forces, both regular and irregular, prevented Napoleon’s marshals from subduing the rebellious Spanish provinces, and the war continued through years of stalemate.[12]

The British Army, under then Lt. Gen. Sir Arthur Wellesley, later the 1st Duke of Wellington, guarded Portugal and campaigned against the French in Spain alongside the reformed Portuguese army. The demoralized Portuguese army was reorganized and refitted under the command of Gen. William Beresford,[13] who had been appointed commander-in-chief of the Portuguese forces by the exiled Portuguese royal family, and fought as part of the combined Anglo-Portuguese Army under Wellesley.

In 1808, the Spanish Army in Andalusia defeat the French in the Battle of Bailen, considered the first open-field defeat of the Napoleonic army in Europe. In 1812, when Napoleon set out with a massive army on what proved to be a disastrous French invasion of Russia, a combined allied army defeat the French at Salamanca and take the capital Madrid. In the following year the Coalition scored a victory over King Joseph Bonaparte’s army in the Battle of Vitoria paving the victory of the war in the Iberian Peninsula. Pursued by the armies of Spain, Portugal and Britain, Marshal Jean-de-Dieu Soult, no longer getting sufficient support from a depleted France, led the exhausted and demoralized French forces in a fighting withdrawal across the Pyrenees during the winter of 1813–1814.

The years of fighting in Spain were a heavy burden on France’s Grande Armée. While the French enjoyed several victories in battle, they were eventually defeated, as their communications and supplies were severely tested and their units were frequently isolated, harassed or overwhelmed by partisans fighting an intense guerrilla war of raids and ambushes. The Spanish armies were repeatedly beaten and driven to the peripheries, but they would regroup and relentlessly hound and demoralize the French troops. This drain on French resources led Napoleon, who had unwittingly provoked a total war, to call the conflict the “Spanish Ulcer”.[14][15]

War and revolution against Napoleon’s occupation led to the Spanish Constitution of 1812, promulgated by the Cortes of Cádiz, later a cornerstone of European liberalism.[16] The burden of war destroyed the social and economic fabric of Portugal and Spain, and ushered in an era of social turbulence, increased political instability, and economic stagnation. Devastating civil wars between liberal and absolutist factions, led by officers trained in the Peninsular War, persisted in Iberia until 1850. The cumulative crises and disruptions of invasion, revolution and restoration led to the independence of most of Spain’s American colonies and the independence of Brazil, which remained a monarchy, after severing ties with Portugal.

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Born On This Day

1882 – Isabel González, Puerto Rican activist who helped pave the way for Puerto Ricans’ American citizenship (d. 1971)
Isabel González (May 2, 1882 – June 11, 1971)[1] was a Puerto Rican activist who helped pave the way for Puerto Ricans to be given United States citizenship. As a young unwed pregnant woman, González had her plans to find and marry the father of her unborn child derailed by the United States Treasury Department when she was excluded as an alien “likely to become a public charge” upon her arrival in New York City. González challenged the Government of the United States in the groundbreaking case Gonzales v. Williams (192 U.S. 1 (1904)). Officially the case was known as Isabella Gonzales, Appellant, v. William Williams, United States Commissioner of Immigration at the Port of New York No. 225, argued December 4, 7, 1903, and decided January 4, 1904. Her case was an appeal from the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York, filed February 27, 1903, after also having her writ of habeas corpus (HC. 1-187) dismissed. Her Supreme Court case is the first time that the Court confronted the citizenship status of inhabitants of territories acquired by the United States. González actively pursued the cause of U.S. citizenship for all Puerto Ricans by writing letters published in The New York Times.[2]

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FYI

 
 
NASA: Astronomy Picture of the Day
 
 

Joanne Guidoccio, I’m happy to welcome equestrian and author Julia Merritt. Today, Julia shares equine tips and her debut novel, horse/man. Virtual Book Tour: horse/man
 
 
 
 
The Passive Voice, From Publishers Weekly: Let Fiction Be Fiction
 
 
The Passive Voice, From Anne R. Allen’s Blog… with Ruth Harris: Why Every Writer Needs a Social Media Executor, NOW!
 
 
 
 
Workplace Coach Blog: 5 Statements Never to Make to a Bully
 
 
 
 
Al Cross and Heather Chapman at The Rural Blog: More than 1,300 small urban areas will be classified rural under new Census criteria; Scientists say modern farming methods and climate change have made modern produce and grains less nutritious; Rural Assembly Everywhere will be free and livecast May 10-12, with talks on farming, politics, book bans and more ->
 
 
 
 
By Bill Heavey, Field & Stream: 21 Strange and Ingenious Uses for WD40 What can you do with a can of WD40? Lubricate M-16s, catch bigger fish, de-ice rod guides, clean turtles, repel pigeons, remove dog poo, make a flame-thrower, and much, much more.
 
 
 
 
Rare Historical Photos: These heartbreaking photos show the child workers of Maine’s sardine canneries, 1911

 
 
 
 

By Tristin Hopper, Calgary Herald: Canadian astronauts no longer free to rob and kill with abandon in space or on the moon Amendment buried in 2022 federal budget bill extends Canadian criminal jurisdiction to the cosmos
 
 
 
 
By Kira Welter, Chemistry World: Pepto-Bismol compound’s structure unveiled after 120 years
 
 
 
 

By Adam Zewe, MIT News: From seawater to drinking water, with the push of a button Researchers build a portable desalination unit that generates clear, clean drinking water without the need for filters or high-pressure pumps.
 
 
 
 

By SnooCupcakes8607, Reddit: This is the letter my neighbor sent me after I let him babysit my pets while I was on vacation. [OC]

 
 
 
 
By Eva Holland, The Walrus: Arsenic and Gold: My Family’s Role in the Poisonous Legacy of Giant Mine Could my grandfather have done more to stop the dangerous dust that spewed from the mine for decades?

 
 
 
 
By Miranda Mazariegos, NPR: Pablo Neruda’s question poems, now translated and illustrated for children
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

Recipes

By Joe Yonan, The Washington Post: Here’s How to Turn Your Grilled Cheese Sandwich Into an Umami Bomb These indulgent beauties pack a welcome punch of umami.
 
 
Taste of Home: Taste of Home Vegetarian Cooking
 
 
Just the Recipe: Paste the URL to any recipe, click submit, and it’ll return literally JUST the recipe- no ads, no life story of the writer, no nothing EXCEPT the recipe.
 
 
DamnDelicious
 
 


 
 

 
 

 
 
 
 

E-book Deals:

 

BookGorilla

The Book Blogger List

BookBub

The Book Junction: Where Readers Go To Discover Great New Fiction!

Books A Million

Digital Book Spot

eBookSoda

eBooks Habit

FreeBooksy

Indie Bound

Love Swept & The Smitten Word

Mystery & Thriller Most Wanted

Pixel of Ink

The Rock Stars of Romance

Book Blogs & Websites:

Alaskan Book Cafe

Alternative-Read.com

Stacy, Carol RT Book Reviews

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