Images of the ally and enemy in the press of Cadiz of the period of the French siege, 1810-1812
Kosykh Tatiana
In early 1810, when the major part of the Iberian Peninsula was under the control of the French army, the impregnable Cádiz, unsuccessfully besieged by French troops for almost 30 months, turned into the capital of independent Spain. The press of Cádiz 1810-1812, represented by dozens of printed publications, reflected the process of activation of the social and political life of the city and became one of the strongest weapons of anti-French propaganda. The author of this paper attempts to analyze the material of three newspapers – El Conciso, Diario mercantil de Cádiz and El Observador – with the aim to identify the features of the representation of the images of the enemy and ally in the press of besieged Cádiz in 1810-1812. The text focuses on the opinions on France, the French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte, «josefinos», George III, British soldiers and the Duke of Wellington reflected in the newspapers. It is noted that the newspapers demostrated various attitudes towards the significance of the French Revolution and the role of French soldiers in the Napoleonic Wars, which was largely due to the political orientation of the newspapers. Nevertheless, the Cádiz press demonstrates the similarity of attitudes towards the images of Napoleon as the tyrant and usurper of the French throne, and the British soldiers and the Duke of Wellington as the blessed saviors of Spain from the French occupation.
The study is sponsored by the Russian Science Foundation, grant 18-18-00226.