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"Crer e Querer para Vencer"
750 Km2 of Portuguese Territory Illegally Occupied and Colonized by Spain: OLIVENÇA & JUROMENHA
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Grupo dos Amigos de Olivença
Forum Olivença
OLIVENÇA
Usurpação/Etnicídio Perfeito
OLIVENÇA INTERNATIONAL DISPUTE
"WAR OF THE ORANGES"
Spain Sides with Napoleon and Declares War on Portugal
Since the political turnaround in 1796 and the signing of the St Ildefonso Treaty, France and Spain became much closer. By 1801 Spain would follow France's orders. "Bonaparte demanded that Portugal should close all its ports to English ships, and ally itself with Spain to help implement that order. 15,000 men under General Leclerc were sent from France with orders to enter Portugal through the Beira border; and on 20 May 1801 Spanish forces entered the Alentejo, and occupied Olivença and Juromenha without firing a shot".
The Spaniards were led by Manuel Godoy who had ascended in a few years from simple soldier, to prime minister, Captain-general, Duke de Alcudia, and "Prince of Peace" thanks to special royal favours close to the Spanish throne.
Portugal in Shock
In Portugal no one believed that as the catholic King of Spain, Carlos IV was the father-in-law to Prince João the Portuguese Prince Regent, he would make war to serve the interests of France. In consequence, Portugal was ill prepared and unguarded. In Spain, the war was ridiculed and jeered.
Derision in Spain
On the day of the invasion, a group of frontline marksmen, entered the gardens of Elvas castle. There were casualties, some killed and others injured; while a few were able to get hold of two branches of an orange tree, and carried them to Godoy and he sent them immediately to Queen Maria Luisa as his first exploit of the war; and on 24 May an extraordinary article was published in the 'Gazeta de Madrid' with this official declaration: "The troops that were attacking, the moment they heard my voice when I arrived at the front, they presented me with two branches from an orange tree from the gardens of Yelbes, which I have presented to the Queen".
The Madrid population laughed so much and mocked the ridiculous news that they christened it straight away with the name of "the war of the oranges" a name which has been preserved to this day.
Spain's & France's Demands
During this shameful campaign, the general belief that the war declared by Spain was no more than a pretence to fool France, explains the slowness of the military chiefs, the inaction by everyone; and that belief became more accepted in the small Portuguese army, until it was discovered that Luis Pinto de Sousa, the kingdom's provisional Minister of Foreign Affairs, had arrived in Badajoz on 28 May to negotiate peace with Manuel Godoy and Lucien Bonaparte, the French ambassador to Spain.
It was a painful calvary these negotiations. The first conditions, presented by Lucien Bonaparte and by Manuel Godoy were very hard: besides the closure of our ports to English ships, which was a condition in common by both adversaries, the French ambassador demanded an indemnity of 25 million pounds in silver coin, the admission of its woolen products, and the enlargement of the French Guiana border to the river Arawai; the Spanish general claimed Elvas, Campo Maior, Juromenha and all the territory to the Odiana (Guadiana).
Portugal's Futile Resistance
Luis Pinto de Sousa rejected these conditions. New meetings took place between the three powers, ending on 6 June. Lucien Bonaparte reduced the indemnity to 20 million and Manuel Godoy demanded only the town and territory of Olivença. Pinto de Sousa also rejected these demands bringing to an end all the discussions. But, having received that night the news of the surrender of Campo Maior and that General LeClerc's French troops had crossed the border, placing Portugal in very grave danger, the next morning the Portuguese minister renewed the negotiations and signed the treaty that was imposed.
Godoy's Trickery - Portugal Loses Olivença
The conquest of Olivença had not appeared on the instructions given by King Carlos IV to the general, or chief of the Spanish army. It was Godoy who inserted it in the negotiations, as a 'sinc que non' condition of peace. Luis Pinto de Sousa offered in exchange for that demand "an indemnity worth several million pesetas; and proposed also besides that indemnity ceding the island of Principe" (Gulf of Guinea).
But, Godoy refused everything, not for the worth of Olivença - because writing in his 'memoirs', he called it depreciatingly "the nest of contraband" - but to show off to his sovereigns and to the world proof of his military ability. The king approved the proceedings; and had a sword of honour made, crafted with diamonds and the following motto written by Pedro Ceballos: "Lusitanorum inclyto debellatori Emmanueli Godoy" which meant: "To Manuel Godoy, illustrious victor of the Lusitanians", and it was the king himself who, by his own hands girded Godoy with the sword.
On 10 October, the "Prince of Peace" was appointed "generalissimo" of the sea and land. And to crown the good luck of the old soldier of the Royal Guard, on 13 January 1807, with the eager support of Queen Maria Luisa, the king granted him the title of "admiral of Spain and the Indies" and the name of "Serene Highness". Solely to satisfy Godoy's vanity the favourite of a shameless Queen and favourite of a monarch of "indole manec y candoroso caracter" entirely dominated by his wife, a city was snatched from the border- lands, so intimately linked to our history and especially to our battles with Spain after the Restoration. In this way was dismembered from Portugal a territtory that since the year 1297 by the Treaty of Alcanizes, sealed between Diniz I of Portugal and Ferdinand IV of Castile, had always belonged to us.
The Two in One Treaty of Badajoz (Portugal-Spain & Portugal-France) is Broken by Franco-Spanish Treaty in 1807 to Divide Portugal
In the two peace treaties, sealed at Badajoz on 6 June 1801, between Portugal and France and between Portugal and Spain, but which in reality represented only one treaty - as the preamble expressly declared - would be considered null and void, not in the case of simple hostilities but of real war, which on 27 October 1807, the Spanish government went against us, having agreed with Napoleon to support the famous Treaty of Fontainbleu for a future division of Portugal into three parts, two which represented Spain's share in that outrageous treaty; the provinces of Douro and Minho with Porto would be given to the 'king of Etruria' ceded to Napoleon by article nine of the same treaty - a young child of the deceased Prince Luis of Parma who married his cousin Maria Luisa, fourth daughter of the Queen (Maria Luisa) of Spain, with the title 'king of Lusitania Setentrional'; and the province of Alentejo and kingdom of Algarve to Manuel Godoy with the title of 'Prince of the Algarves' Three provinces of Portugal were thus kept by the most beloved people of the Queen Maria Luisa: her favourite daughter as guardian of her son, and the 'Prince of Peace'. But, Spain also directly entered with France in the division of our islands and overseas possessions; and with her would colaborate in the military occupation of Portugal.
As a consequence of the treaty, on 19 November 1807, French forces commanded by Junot, invaded Portugal making a forced march on his way to take Lisbon. At the same time, Porto was occupied by a Spanish division under the command of general Francisco Taranco y Plano; and leading another Spanish division, general Francisco Maria Solano, Marquis of Socorro, occupied Setúbal in the "Principality of the Algarves".
It was Spain's war against Portugal by which the end result would be our dismemberment; the death of a whole and autonomous nation.
It was too much for this unqualified conduct of a government - that had made its ambitious favourite prevail, and who had snatched Olivença - to render it, "ipso facto", annulled the Treaty of Badajoz.
With the aim of putting an end, for good, to France's demands, in so far as Guiana's borders (in South America) were concerned, it was decided by the Cabinet at Rio de Janeiro to annexe it. To justify an expedition, sent against Cayenne, the Regent, Prince João had a Manifesto published on 1 May 1808, declaring null and void the Treaty of Badajoz of 1801, as well as all other treaties the French emperor had compelled him to accept. Once more it would de considered annulled the treaty of the same date with Spain.
In 1809,southern Spain had already achieved its freedom from Napoleon's domination. To administer this part of the country and to continue the war against Napoleon, a Central Junta was set up in Seville, represented by all the Provincial Juntas. The English government had as its ambassador in the city, the Marquis of Wellesley, the older brother of Sir Arthur Wellesley, who had gained the highest prestige in his peninsular campaign. In the difficult ministerial post for Portugal at the aforementioned government, was D Pedro de Sousa e Holstein, the future Count, Marquis and Duke of Palmela, who was nominated by the Prince Regent.
As part of the instructions that Count de Linhares, D. Rodrigo de Sousa Coutinho, Foreign Affairs and War minister had sent from Rio de Janeiro to D. Pedro de Sousa e Holstein, negotiations started for an alliance and trade treaty, along with the restitution of Olivença, "so as to extinguish altogether the French tyranny". Towards the end of January 1810 the Central Junta was substituted by a Regency Council which in the name of Ferdinand VII, a prisoner in France by Napoleon, governed the free part of Spain. The Portuguese minister succeeded in negotiating an alliance treaty in which not only was stipulated the return of that town, but was also granted the eventual right for Princess Carlota Joaquina, wife of the Portuguese Prince Regent to the Spanish crown.
That treaty did not go forward (as the English apparently opposed it), but it is useful to know the article, that referred to the restitution of Olivença, written by the Foreign Affairs minister of the Regency Council, D. Eusebio de Bardaxi y Azara.
Treaty of Cadiz - ART. IV
Spanish Text: "A fin de borrar enteramente la memoria de las fanesias disensiones, que existian entre las dos monarquias, contra los intereses de ambas, consiente el gobierno español en que la ciudad de Olivenza, su territorio y dependencias sean reunidas de nuevo à perpetuidad à la corona de Portugal."
English Translation:"So as to wipe out entirely the memory of the persistent discord, that has existed between the two monarchies. against each other's interests, the government of Spain agrees that the city of Olivença, its territory and dependencies be reunited again in perpetuity to the crown of Portugal")
During the Penisular War something happened that deserves recalling. In January 1811 Olivença was occupied by Marshall Soult's troops: although they did not lack ammunitions or supplies, and had a garrison in excess of 1,000 men, with eighteen pieces of artillery, the Spanish governor, D. Manuel Herk, surrendered quickly. On 15 April, after a few days siege, Olivença was captured from the French by the 4th Division of the southern Anglo-Portuguese army, under the leadership of Marshall William Carr, Chief General of the Portuguese army. Part of that division commanded by General George Lowry Cole, was the 9th Portuguese Brigade: composed of the 7th "caçadores" regiments and the 11 and 23 infantries. The latter were to occupy the town. Although not a single Spanish soldier figured in the forces that attacked Olivença, and the Portuguese infantry was stationed in the town, Beresford gave orders for Olivença to be handed to the Spanish authorities, causing deep upset to our troops!
The government's High Court Judge, José António de Oliveira Leite de Barros, who then discharged the post of auditor general of the Portuguese army, immediately sent word to Marshall Beresford, notifying him that under article III of the Treaty of Badajoz, by which it had been ceded to the Catholic King, Carlos IV, the town of Olivença and its territory, had been amended by the Manifesto of the Prince Regent, of 1 May 1808, so that Olivença should revert back to Portugal. Replying to the governors of the Kingdom and the office of the auditor general, Beresford made it known that it was for the Portuguese to take up the matter with the Spanish minister in Lisbon; and Lord Wellington, to whom, according to instructions received from Rio de Janeiro, the governors sought again the return of the town, also refused, making the promise that at the end of the war he would use his good offices to see that it was restored to us.
When the allies, after Napoleon's abdication, regulated the general peace conditions, by the first treaty of Paris, 30 May 1814, the annulment of the treaties between Portugal and France - an annulment already proclaimed by Prince D. João in his manifesto - was confirmed by an additional article, signed by Prince Talleyrand, Louis XVIII's Foreign Affairs minister, and by the Count of Funchal. Domingos António de Sousa Coutinho, our ambassador in London. That article considered, as agreed, the doctrine that the state of war, between the two powers, annulled all previous treaties and agreements.
The Treaty of Badajoz, by which Spain, in 1807, invaded Portugal and contributed with its troops towards our dismemberment, was potentially null and void. But Ferdinand VII and his Prime Minister, D. Pedro Ceballos, the old obsequious ally of Godoy, did not want to recognize it.
The Spanish government, in spite of the heroic effort and sacrifices that the Portuguese army had given to its recapture, continued to regard as being in force the ceding of Olivença; and not even by the general peace of 1814, returned it to Portugal.
(account to be continued).
From the account "The Dispute of Olivença" by Queirós Veloso, published in "A Revista", 1953 - www.geocities.com/revistaolivença/rev01p01.htm
Translated English text not to be reproduced in any form without autorization. Copyright. All rights reserved.
**See also: Between a Bully and a Fickle Friend - 10/Nov/2001, Rui da Silva
