Dos de Mayo Uprising

The Dos de Mayo Uprising was a popular revolt against French occupation in Madrid on 2 May 1808. French forces suppressed it, but the revolt helped ignite the Peninsular War.

French occupation of Madrid: French military control of Madrid established during Napoleon’s intervention in Spain. French troops in the capital formed the immediate setting for the uprising.
Treaty of Fontainebleau (1807): An agreement allowing French troops to cross Spain to invade Portugal, signed in 1807. Its troop movements enabled France to establish a powerful presence in Spain.
Joachim Murat: A French marshal and Napoleon’s brother-in-law who commanded French forces in Spain in 1808. Murat directed the French response that ended the uprising.
Monteleón barracks: An artillery barracks in Madrid where Spanish officers and civilians resisted French troops on 2 May 1808. Its defense became the uprising’s best-known episode of organized resistance.
Juntas of Spain: Local and provincial governing bodies formed in Spain in 1808 to resist French rule. The uprising belonged to a wider surge of organized resistance.
Transfer of the Spanish royal family to Bayonne: The removal of members of Spain’s royal family to Bayonne, France, amid Napoleon’s intervention. The attempted departure of the remaining royals helped trigger the crowd’s resistance.
Napoleon's invasion of Spain: Napoleon’s intervention in Spain that placed French forces in control and precipitated a succession crisis. The invasion created the occupation against which Madrid’s residents rose.
Luis Daoíz: A Spanish artillery captain killed while resisting French forces at Madrid’s Monteleón barracks on 2 May 1808. Daoíz became one of the best-known military defenders of the city.
The Second of May 1808: Francisco de Goya’s painting of Madrid residents fighting French cavalry during the uprising. The painting gives a vivid visual account of street combat.
Siege of Zaragoza: Two French sieges of Zaragoza in 1808 and 1809 during the Peninsular War. It shows how resistance spread beyond Madrid into prolonged urban warfare.

Linked from 8 pages