ABSTRACT
When Ferdinand VII returned to Spain in March 1814, he was restored to the throne of a monarchy that had been badly warped by wars on both sides of the Atlantic. In Spain, the struggle against Napoleon had inflicted huge damage. The Peninsular War had mobilized tens, sometimes hundreds of thousands of British and Spanish soldiers against French occupying forces of up to about 240,000 men. It had involved major offensives conducted by conventional armies fighting under British and Spanish officers, while multiple bands of Spanish partisans fought prolonged guerrilla wars in the countryside, inflicting heavy human and material losses. And while Spaniards were fighting Napoleon at home, the American territories of the monarchy had plunged into civil wars, which undermined Spain's prestige and system of rule in its most important possessions.
