Rewriting the "Detestable" Rules of War: The "Guerrilla System" and Counterinsurgency in Napoleonic Spain and the Mexican-American War, 1808-1848

Swenson, Benjamin J.

Rewriting the "Detestable" Rules of War: The "Guerrilla System" and Counterinsurgency in Napoleonic Spain and the Mexican-American War, 1808-1848

Document Type

Doctoral thesis
Published Version

Author

Swenson, Benjamin J.

Director

Jacobson, Stephen

Publication Date

2021-10-01

Pages

470 p.

Citation

Swenson, B. Rewriting the "Detestable" Rules of War: The "Guerrilla System" and Counterinsurgency in Napoleonic Spain and the Mexican-American War, 1808-1848. Universitat Pompeu Fabra; 2021. handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10803/673475

This citation was generated automatically.

Doctoral program

Programa de doctorat en Història

Abstract

During the Peninsular War (1808-1814) the Spanish launched an unprecedented guerrilla insurgency that undermined Napoleon’s grip on that state. The advent of this novel and illegal “system” of warfare ushered in an era of military studies on the use of unconventional strategies in military campaigns – and changed the modern rules of war. A generation later during the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), Henry Halleck and Winfield Scott used the knowledge from the Peninsular War to implement an innovative “conciliatory” counterinsurgency program directed at the Mexican people – which set the U.S. doctrinal standard informing an international consensus on the proper conduct for occupation. The Spanish war against the French influenced both belligerents in Mexico: the Mexicans tried to mount a guerrilla war modeled along Spanish lines, and the Americans adapted their tactics, rules, and laws of war between 1808 to 1848 to avoid the disastrous imperial overreach exemplified by the French in Spain.
Durante la Guerra de la Independencia (1808-1814), los españoles lanzaron una insurgencia guerrillera sin precedentes que socavó el control de Napoleón sobre ese estado. El advenimiento de este “sistema” de guerra novedoso e ilegal marcó el comienzo de una era de estudios militares sobre el uso de estrategias no convencionales en campañas militares, y cambió las reglas modernas de la guerra. Una generación más tarde, durante la Guerra México-Estadounidense (1846-1848), Henry Halleck y Winfield Scott utilizaron el conocimiento de la Guerra Peninsular para implementar un innovador programa de contrainsurgencia "conciliador" dirigido al pueblo mexicano, que estableció el estándar doctrinal de los Estados Unidos informando a un consenso internacional sobre la conducta adecuada para la ocupación. La guerra española contra los franceses influyó en ambos beligerantes en México: los mexicanos intentaron montar una guerra de guerrillas siguiendo el modelo español, y los estadounidenses adaptaron sus tácticas, reglas y leyes de guerra entre 1808 y 1848 para evitar la desastrosa extralimitación imperial ejemplificada por los franceses en españa.

Keywords

Adame, Alcabala, Mexico, American, Arab warfare, Aragon, British, Carlist, Catalonia, Catholic church, Civil War, COIN, Constitution, Contra-guerrillas, Cortez, Empecinado, Expansionism, France, Geneva convention, Jack Hays, Henry Halleck, Insurgency, Insurrection, Joseph Bonaparte, Laws of war, Lieber code, Madrid, William Marcy, War, Military, Napoleon, Occupation, Pacification, James Polk, Prescott, Reille, Rocca, Santa Anna, Saragossa, Senate, Sertorius, Spain, Suchet, Zachary Taylor, United States, U.S. Army, Vietnam, Winfield Scott, Wellington, Vattel, Vendée, Veracruz, Zaragoza, 1808, 1846, 1848