Portugal y la Guerra Peninsular. El maldito año 1808

Abstract

The waves of political instability during the post-pombaline period allow a view into the sort of atmosphere in which Junot's invasion took place. They were motivated by the fragility of D. João VI regencies, the continuation of a series of enlightened reformist measures, the conflictuousness of the complex network of interests involving the major political actors, and also the competition between the partisans of the alliances with both France and the United Kingdom. With the invasion, power would be pulverized, allowing the formation of multiple sovereignties, an enormous variety of fluctuations in the political space, and the overlapping of legitimacies (constitutional, political and military). The throng of organisms created and extinguished in order to solve circumstantial problems, would make power ever and ever more diffuse. The consequences of this situation would forever modify the expectations and the meaning of political action.