Afrancesados

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Joseph Bonaparte.
Leandro Fernández de Moratín.

Afrancesados (German for example French people , Francophiles , French- minded people , French friends or French people ), also Josefinos (after Joseph Bonaparte ) was the name for the partisans of the French in Napoleonic Spain and occupied Portugal. The motives ranged from fear and greed for profit to the hope of a radical reform of the state. Many came from the nobility and were moderates or liberals until the 1840s .

Afrancesados ​​in Spain

Afrancesados ​​have been known in Spain since the reign of Carlos III. pejorative the people and especially poets and scientists who contributed to the spread of Gallicisms since the beginning of the rule of the Bourbons in Spain (1700) or who based their poems on the French classical period . With the criticism of the Afrancesados ​​and various attempts to purify the language , the Spanish clergy also tried to prevent the dissemination of the ideas of the Encyclopédie by Diderot and d'Alembert and the criticism of the Inquisition . After 1789, the traditional elites continued to stir up anti-French hatred in the Spanish population.

Afrancesado became a swear word for a person who swore by the constitution of 1808, which King Joseph Bonaparte (José I) had proclaimed after Napoléon Bonaparte renounced the throne of the Bourbons . In addition to pure opportunism, it was also the hope of the Afrancesados ​​that a change of dynasty could promote the liberalization and modernization of Spain that had moved them to take an oath of allegiance to the new king.

The number and power of the party, which in addition to the ministers included numerous civil servants and nobles as well as many intellectuals and artists, but also officers, was greatest at the beginning of 1809. Regionally, their influence was particularly significant in Catalonia, Navarra, Valencia, the Basque Country and Madrid. The politician Juan Sempere y Guarinos , the publicist Javier de Burgos and the poet Juan Meléndez Valdés were among their most important figures . After the fall of foreign rule, the Afrancesados ​​were persecuted; about 10,000 emigrated to France. Declared by Ferdinand VII by decree of May 30, 1814 forfeit of their dignities, offices and goods, they were only given permission to return after the constitution of Cortes (decree of March 8, 1820). By resolution of the Cortes on September 21 of the same year, their goods were also transferred back to them.

In the counter-movement against the Afrancesados ​​lie important roots of Spanish nationalism .

Afrancesados ​​in French exile

In France, the Spanish afrancesados ​​developed a specific culture of exile. A major partisan of the French in exile was the poet and playwright Leandro Fernández de Moratín . Also the former viceroy of New Spain (1800–1803), Miguel José de Azanza, the banker Miguel José de Azanza (who became Joseph Bonaparte's finance minister), Godoy's former foreign minister and head of government under Joseph Bonaparte and head of government under Joseph Bonaparte, Mariano Luis de Urquijo , also Francisco Javier de Burgos and the composer Fernando Sor were Spanish Afrancesados ​​in French exile. In view of the attacks by French ultra-royalists, many Afrancesados ​​became involved in the domestic political conflicts in France. Juan Antonio Llorente was expelled from France during the Trienio Liberal .

Afrancesados ​​in Portugal

In Portugal, the term afrancesados ​​was already being used at the end of the 18th century for the elite who had received their education in France and had adopted ideas from the Enlightenment. In Portugal, the French in 1807 therefore first of were French friends whose followers came from mainly the liberal bourgeoisie postage welcomed. These Portuguese Afrancesados, however, were predominantly revolutionary-republican like Jacobins , so the Imperial French and Royal Spanish occupiers mistrusted them and did not support their reform plans. The French occupation policy therefore quickly discredited the afrancesados. Nevertheless, the French occupation and, above all, its expulsion by a reactionary British occupying power led to the promotion of a pro-French form of liberalism.

“ ... When the Beresford administration ruled the country after the expulsion of the French , the" English faction "was marginalized because the British were now viewed as the new occupiers; the Jacobins were able to prevail ... "

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gérard Dufour: La pensée des Espagnols afrancesados réfugiés en France. In: Cahiers de la Méditerranée 82/2011, pp. 27-36.
  2. ↑ Carsten Sinner: Scientific writing in Portugal at the end of the Antigo regime (1779-1821): The Memórias económicas of the Academia das Ciências de Lisboa , page 152 . Frank & Thimme, Berlin 2012.
  3. ↑ Luís António de Oliveira Ramos: Os Afrancesados ​​do Porto (PDF; 469 kB) . Universidade do Porto 1980.
  4. ^ A b Walther Bernecker, Horst Pietschmann: Geschichte Portugals , pages 75 and 77f. Beck, Munich 2008.
  5. ↑ António Henrique de Oliveira Marques : Histoire du Portugal et de son empire colonial. P. 374ff. Paris 1998 (published in German as History of Portugal and the Portuguese World Empire (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 385). Translated from the Portuguese by Michael von Killisch-Horn. Kröner, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-520-38501-5 .)

swell