What year did napoleon take Portugal?

Answer 1

"He never did. He tried 3 times from 1817 and 1819."

This is partially true. The dates are about 10 years off.

Napoleon, via his marshals invaded Portugal three times from 1807-1809. Under Napoleon's order Jean-Andoche Junot invaded in 20 November 1807. his goal was to cut the ports off from British trade to bring Portugal in line with the "Continental System" whereby Napoleon sought to bankrupt England by denying them trade with all European powers. Napoleon did not have the naval power to defeat the British after the horrible loss at Trafalgar in 1805, so he made it illegal to trade with the British and imposed military retribution if a country traded.

Junot captured a number of ports and eventually captured Lisbon (the capital) by the end of November 1807. France never fully ruled or captured all of Portugal and there were still a number of riots and fighting. Later the British forces, under command of Arthur Wellesley, landed in 1808 and freed the ports and Lisbon again.

Meanwhile, Napoleon deposed the Spanish king and as was his nepotistic way, installed his brother Joseph as king of Spain. This precipitated a popular uprising among the Spanish army and populace on which the British and Portuguese fully capitalized. Now with the Sixth Coalition made and a full scale war on his hands, Napoleon commanded another Marshal, Nicholas Jean de Dieu Soult, to march on Portugal and subdue it and the British threat there. Soult invaded early in January 1809. Unlike the previous invasion a year earlier though, the Portuguese populace rose up and provided some decent defense of their country. Soult scored some victories, taking Porto in the north and eventually marched toward Lisbon once more. The Portuguese, aided by some good British generals and help from the Spanish were able to turn the tide of this, the second invasion, with some tactical victories at Porto and eventually a strong British victory at the battle of Talavera. After this Soult retreated and linked up with Victor and Wellesley retreated behind the newly constructed Torres Vedras defensive line to re-group and reinforce.

The third invasion came in 1810 when Andre Massena invaded with three army groups under Reynier, Perrin and Junot. Massena beat the army bloody against the Torres Vedras but was unable to penetrate the system of 152 forts and defensive lines. Massena fought from October 1810 till April 1811. Beaten terribly Massena retreated and was defeated in a seriese of smaller battles. He eventually retreated across the Pyrenees and did not see combat in the Peninsula again.

Significant portions of Portugal were captured in all three invasions, but the country was never truly conquered as the royal family relocated itself to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Life in Portugal never changed in that they were never ruled by the french for any prolonged period of time.

The war went on till 1814 when Napoleon abdicated and Portugal was not threatened again.