Sincerely I think Portugal didn't play the same rol as Spain or the Brittish and I consider it as Minor nation at this time, for this I don't think Portugal should be added in the game firstly.
I think the nations in the game must be France, United Kingdom, Austria, Russia, Prussia and Spain. Maybe some portuguese troops in the british faction.
DISCLAIMER: Im a Portuguese, so of course I would like to see Portugal in the game. I have studied the Portuguese role during the Peninsular War for 4 years now.
I agree with you that Portugal and Spain should be added in a later stage of the game. But if Spain is in the game it would be stupid to not have Portugal in it too.
So what did Portugal do during the Peninsular War and Napoleonic Wars??
- 1807 - Napoleon is making the Continental Blockade on Britain, all European countries joined the Blockade. Only one didn't, and went against Napoleon. Guess who.... Portugal.
- November 1807 - The Peninsular War started by Spain giving free access to the French army, so Spain and France could invade Portugal together. (some say the war started in 1808 when Napoleon invaded Spain, but it started when he invaded Portugal in 1807, because Portugal is in the Peninsula... so its the Peninsular War).
- January-February 1808 - The Portuguese Army was disbanded and made into the French Portuguese Legion, which followed Napoleon to Russia, and was given the nickname "The Black Legion" by Napoleon himself, because of how hard they fought. From the around 50 000-60 000 strong army, only half or less actually joined the Legion. The months after there were demonstrations and fights in various Portuguese cities against the French.
- 2 May 1808 - the 2 de Mayo revolt happened in Madrid, Spain which revolting spirit also reached Portugal in June.
- June-July 1808 - The Spanish army in northern and southern Portugal went back to Spain to fight the French, this allowed revolts in north and southern Portugal to happen and a reorganisation of the Army. In late July France only had control of the territory close to the Tagus river.
- Early August 1808 - Wellington disembarked with an army of around 12 000 soldiers in Portugal, because it was the SAFEST place in the Peninsula to start an invasion. Later he united forces with the Portuguese Northern Army, which made the Anglo-Portuguese Army around 20 000 soldiers strong.(I will call Arthur Wellesley, Wellington even though he wasnt Duke yet, for simplicity sake)
- Late August 1808 - The Anglo-Portuguese Army fought two battles against the French. On 30th August 1808, the British and French made a peace treaty.
- March 1809 - France invaded Portugal for the second time from the north. Realising they couldnt win alone the Portuguese retreated to the south,
letting the French take the cities north of the Douro River. - July 1809 - The Anglo-Portuguese army made the French retreat back to Galicia. After this Wellington focused on getting the Franch out of the Spanish province of Andalucia.
- September 1809 - The Lines of Torres Vedras were started. They were 3 lines of defences on the mounatins north of Lisbon
- December 1809 - General Massena is given 65 000 soldiers to invade Portugal for a third time. Wellington retreated back to Portugal, because if Portugal fell, the Peninsular War would be ended with a French victory.
- July 1810 - The French invade Portugal a third time.
- Ocotber 1810 - The Anglo Portuguese Army retreats to the finished Lines of Torres Vedras. The French try to fight thorugh it, but fail. So they make camp outside of it. Due to not having enough supplies they retreat in April 1811 back to Spain.
I could go on doing this list...
Spain did also have a major role in the Peninsular War and the Napoleonic War no doubt about that. But you cant compare the two countries. And if you do I would say compared to its size and problems, Portugal did a great job expelling the French out of Portugal, before the British came. The British only came, when they knew the French were away, and it was safe to disembark vast amounts of troops.
During the rest of the Peninsular War, Portuguese and British forces fought alongside eachother from Spain to France, the Anglo-Portuguese army was over 90 000 soldiers strong; 55 000 British soldiers and 35 000 Portuguese soldiers. They might not be mentioned much in the history books written by the British and French, but they were there and they fought hard. Wellington called the Portuguese Cazadores the "Fighting Cocks" due to their ferocity and colour of their uniform. The Portuguese regiments were nearly alwasy put in the middle of the battles or first in the sieges, so they took the biggest blows, and then came the British and took the glory. The winner writes the history.
Portugal was one of the biggest empires at this time, and it was definitely a force to be reckoned with
Portugal was a big empire yes, but it was a trade empire, not a militaristic empire. Since the 1755 earthquake it was on its downfall, during the Peninsular War when the Portuguese court moved to Brazil in 1808, Portugal was a poor place. The military had been robbed of all their weapons, cannons and horses in 1808 by the French and 3 invasions really make a country stop in time. The consequences of the Peninsular War were huge in Portugal and Spain, the amount of destruction put the two countries far back in time. The Industrial Revolution never came to Portugal and it barely came to Spain too.
SUMMARY: To sum it up, Portugal had a big role in the Peninsular War. The British couldnt have fought the French alone, they needed the Portuguese army too, and Wellington acknowledged that, just by retreating back to Portugal in 1810 to form the Anglo-Portuguese Army. Portugal is a mountainous country and for an outside force to invade there are only two routes; the Central route next to the Tagus river or the Alentejo route. If you are in control of them, you can disembark as many troops as you want, that is what Wellington learned and that was what he did. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars at the Congress of Vienna there were 3 diplomats from Portugal but only one from Spain. Both countries were classified as minor powers.
There might be some errors here and there, because Ive just written this on the run, but mostly is correct. Im open to discuss more
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Topic: New faction - Kingdom of Portugal (Read 6424 times)