ABSTRACT
Wellington’s Portugal proclamation, telling its people to destroy their own crops and villages, was controversial but militarily effective. The looting and plundering of Portuguese homes and foodstuffs by the French, referred to in the proclamation, was also something carried out at other times by British troops in what was a highly environmentally destructive war. The people had remained in some villages, trusting to the enemy’s promises and vainly believing, that by treating the enemies of their country in a friendly manner, they should conciliate their forebearance and that their properties would be respected, their women would be saved from violation, and that their lives would be spared. The army under command will protect as large a proportion of the country as will be in their power, but it is obvious that the people can save themselves only by resistance to the enemy, and their properties by removing them.
