The British view on the French occupation of Spain and Portugal, 1807-1814
Kosykh Tatiana
The article is devoted to the analysis of the British view of the French and their occupation policy in Spain and Portugal during the Peninsular War. The author investigates diaries, memoirs and letters of the British soldiers, who turned out to be eyewitnesses of the French occupation of the Iberian Peninsula in 1807–1814. The author concludes that the perception of the French occupation by soldiers of the Wellington Army was significantly different from the views that dominated among the inhabitants of Britain. In the British public consciousness an idea of the necessity to fight together with the Spaniards and the Portuguese against French tyranny on the peninsula was predominated as a result of anti-French propaganda. However, the British soldiers who participated in the hostilities in Spain and Portugal often perceived their military opponent as an ally in battles against Pyrenean backwardness.