Peninsular War

Peninsular War (1808–14), part of the Napoleonic Wars, in which the French, fighting against the British, Portuguese, and Spanish, were driven out of the Iberian Peninsula. To increase his security in Europe, Napoleon sent General Andoche Junot to occupy Portugal (1807), and in 1808 dispatched Joachim Murat to occupy his ally, Spain. The Spanish and the Portuguese soon rebelled, and, with the aid of the British under Arthur Wellesley (later duke of Wellington), the French were driven out of Portugal (1809). In the long struggle that followed, the British, aided by Portuguese and Spanish guerrillas, gradually gained the upper hand, despite many reverses. By 1813 the French forces in Spain had been defeated, and Wellesley invaded southern France. The war ended on Napoleon's abdication.

See also: Napoleonic Wars.