Guerrilleros de papel: mil y más papeles en torno a la Guerra de la Independencia

Abstract

This study investigates the use of political propaganda against Napoleon in Spain in 1808 as well as the tensions implicated in the change of ideology during this period. The study is based on a collection of patriotic leaflets and pamphlets against Napoleon that were edited mainly in Madrid between August and October 1808. Manuel Sainz Gomez gathered this material for Ferdinand VII. The propaganda material reflects the urge to find solutions to improve the decaying administrative and institutional systems as well as the need to broaden the battlefield with written words whether handwritten or printed. The social mix, that plays such a key role during the initial stages of contemporary Spain, tries to find its own scope within the political collapse and attempts its recycling into the new society. Framed in this variegated spectrum aristocrats, middle class, civil servants, clergy and soldiers—, find themselves the authors of leaflets and pamphlets that will be used as ammunition in this «paper guerrilla».