"Napoleon in Spain" Topic

It certainly turned out to have been a mistake. Whether things could have been handled better, I'm not qualified to say.

It was probably a worse mistake than invading Russia.

Might have been interesting if that was his sole focus

Mistake? No, more like an unmitigated disaster.

Great for wargaming, however.

For France, yes.

For wargamers, no.

"Whether things could have been handled better, I'm not qualified to say."

Well, when you announce to a nation that you've deposed--and locked up--their royal family to give the job of King to your brother, who has never been there and speaks not a word of their language, and you send in an invasion force consisting of half-trained units straight from the depots, then annex part of the country--I'm going to go out on a limb and say there was room for improvement. But it's hard for me to imagine a happy ending from the French point of view regardless. As miniMo says, great for wargamers. Most things which are great for wargamers were someone's big mistake.

As they say, hindsight is 20/20.

Great comments – trying to drop his half-wit brother onto the Spanish throne was a huge mistake, and as noted then fighting at half measures; while not a Penninsular war fan it certainly was a boon for gamers!

Well, the Sun king got away with it (except it was his son) a century earlier. But I do agree it was a TITANIC mistake.

Thanks

John

The War of the Spanish Succession was a completely different situation, The last Hapsburg line King had died without an heir, and several candidates were on offer.

Napoleon just got tired of his rather inept ally (Carlos IV) and decided to replace him, disinheriting Carlos's sons in the process.