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Napoleon's greatest mistake occurred 200 years ago. He signed a treaty with Spain in which Portugal was divided into three regions after the conquest. Spain provided some troops and allowed the French to cross the country in exchange for the South. Portugal as a country would cease to exist thenceforth. On the 30th November the unopposed French Army entered Lisbon. The memory of their rule and three invasions still lingers. Since I can remember, I hated the French for what they did to this country and its people and I despised Napoleon. I have to concede I didn't know the whole story and certainly I knew too little about the man himself. Today, things have changed for the better, proving yet again that ignorance is the root of all evil. As far as I'm concerned, to know Napoleon is to love Napoleon...
He did all he could to avoid invading Portugal. He was very patient, contrary to what many think. The fact was that Portugal loved to be 'French' (to copy Frenchness is traditional and endless around here still) but had no need of France. On the other hand, the moment Portugal tried to 'get rid of the English' (as Napoleon ordered) would have been the moment when Britannia already 'ruling the waves' (with the biggest and most powerful fleet in the world) would incorporate our colonies, starting with the 'Jewel in the Crown': Brazil. So, what could the Portuguese do, except to stall, an art in which this people is an expert? Napoleon tried to get Spain to conquer Portugal to avoid putting France at war in yet another front. But Spain had never achieved that before and couldn't achieve it then either.So, Napoleon had few choices. Having no fleet to face the British at sea, all he could do was to unite Europe against them. The Continental Blockade determined that no port in Europe could be open to the British. With that achieved, a kind of 'European Fleet' would fight them in the colonies and would invade Britain. The fight was for world supremacy. It was France or Britain. The simple fact that, after two centuries, I'm writing in English for all the world to understand, shows who won and how important that fight was.
All European countries said yes. Only Portugal said no. Napoleon did all he could to convince the Portuguese to forsake the English Alliance. He knew the whole Court would move to Brazil if he invaded, and yet he did. Worst of all, he did it without setting foot on this country. He truly underestimated an identity which was already seven centuries old. (What else was and is new?)
The result was pathetic: a sea of blood called 'Peninsular War', that only ended with Napoleon's abdication. If he had led the army into Portugal and stayed for a while, I very much doubt the British could disembark. Leaving it in the frail hands of Junot (with policies all the population hated) he made room for Wellington to come and shine. In fact, what Wellington started in Portugal, he finished at Waterlooo. As it was done, this treaty was the beginning of the end for Napoleon: the British had the population on their side, which made it very easy for them to keep a foot on the Continent (in fact, two feet, when Spain was dragged into the fight for the refusal to accept French rule). The Portuguese outsmarted Napoleon all the way: by moving the Court, the Fleet and the Capital of the Empire to Brazil; by creating the militia, which were taken to the highest level in the guerrilla in Spain afterwards; and by employing the scorch-earth tactics, which the Russians afterwards applied to defeat Napoleon, also under the advice of the Portuguese. And, once to be remembered in the history of the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance, Wellington was a Commander who listened to and implemented the Portuguese ideas.
Exiled by the English in the island of Santa Helena (one of the so many Portuguese discoveries) Napoleon recognised in hindsight: Ce ça qui m'a perdu! (That was my undoing!). ÇA (THAT) has a name, is nearly nine centuries old nowadays and was born under the Sign of Pisces: it's my country, Portugal. With thousands of books written about Napoleon all over the world, it's amazing there are so few about this reality. It's unfinished business, and we all know unfinished business (specially the important ones) makes ghosts walk the Earth. As I do get along with ghosts (specially the important ones) I make it my business from now on.
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