Orange War

Orange War

Part of: Napoleonic Wars on the Iberian Peninsula

Manuel de Godoy, Duke of Alcudia (1801)

date	May 20 - June 9, 1801
place	Alentejo
output	Defeat of Portugal
consequences	Return of the Portuguese territory, except for Olivenza, which came under Spanish rule; France received parts of Portuguese Brazil and economic concessions.
Peace treaty	Peace of Badajoz 1801

Parties to the conflict
Portugal	Spain France
Commander
João de Bragança Sousa e Ligne	Laurent de Gouvion Manuel de Godoy
Troop strength
80,000 men	200,000 men

The Orange War was a brief armed conflict in 1801 between France and Spain on one side and Portugal on the other. The war is also known as the bitter orange war in older history books . "Pomeranze" is an ancient or Austrian-Bohemian name for the bitter orange .

prehistory

The Orange War was, so to speak, a prelude to the Napoleonic Wars on the Iberian Peninsula and is in the context of the Europe-wide conflicts between European states with revolutionary France and Napoléon Bonaparte .

Portugal had been an ally of England since the 14th century ( Treaty of Windsor ). After Portugal's independence was restored in 1640, traditional relations with England and later Great Britain deepened in the following decades.

Portugal had joined the First Coalition against France in 1793 , but since Prussia and Spain had signed a separate peace with the Treaty of Basel in 1795 , they had been almost alone against France. Taking advantage of this weakness, France sent a request to Portugal via Spain that it should terminate its traditional alliance with Great Britain and close its ports to British ships. The background to this demand was a secret treaty between France and Spain ( Third Treaty of San Ildefonso ), with which Spain undertook to declare war on Portugal should it not terminate its alliance with Great Britain.

Course of war

In April 1801 French troops reached Portugal, on May 20, 1801 they were reinforced by Spanish troops under Manuel de Godoy . This took the border town of Olivenza . In nearby Elvas he had oranges picked and sent them to the Spanish Queen Maria Luise of Bourbon-Parma with the hint that he would advance as far as Lisbon . This anecdote gave the war its name. In the conflict, which lasted only 18 days, Spain occupied a number of Portuguese villages, the Portuguese resistance was low.

Result

After the defeat at Olivenza, Portugal accepted the Badajoz Peace Treaty in June 1801 , in which Portugal undertook to pay reparations , close Portuguese ports to British ships, and cede Olivenza to Spain. France received parts of Portuguese Brazil (now French Guiana ) and economic concessions. Because Portugal re-established its relations with Great Britain after the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 , the Napoleonic campaigns on the Iberian Peninsula finally took place .

literature

• Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon, Volume 16. Leipzig 1908, p. 133.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Charles J. Esdaile: The Spanish Army in the Peninsular War . Manchester University Press, Manchester 1988, ISBN 0-7190-2538-9 , p. 54.
2. ↑ Oranges, War of the . In: George Childs Kohn (ed.): Dictionary of wars . Checkmark, New York 2006, ISBN 0-8160-6577-2 , p. 383.