Britain’s Struggle with France

Abstract :

When Sir Arthur Wellesley and a small British force landed in Mondego Bay just outside Lisbon in August 1808, there was little thought about what the consequences might be. This was the first act of Britain’s Peninsular War and the next few years turned out to be very unlike the previous century of intermittent conflict between Britain and France. By 1809 the British government had developed a peninsular strategy, whereby it sought to continue the war against Napoleon by supporting the Portuguese and Spanish whilst gradually building up its military presence in Iberia. It was a long struggle, and British, Portuguese and Spanish troops finally entered France in early 1814, five and a half years after the Mondego landing.¹