ABSTRACT
At the center of the empire, the crisis of 1808 seemed to paralyze the administrative and military institutions of the monarchy. When the king was deposed, Spain's military elite meekly recognized the new regime as senior officers apparently accepted that they owed allegiance to the crown, which had now passed to Joseph Bonaparte, rather than to the person of Ferdinand VII. The captains general, intendants, and provincial governors who commanded troops throughout the country also stood still. Such, it seems, was their blind obedience to authority that they did nothing to mobilize their forces against the French. 1 Even the Francophobes, it seems, preferred French rule to the breakdown of government.
