La guerrilla de los afrancesados: la primera guerra civil

Abstract

The afrancesados’ guerrilla: the first civil war

This article, deriving from the colloquium Guerra di popolo, guerriglia, guerra civile. L’elaborazione teorica dal Risorgimento al secondo conflitto mondiale, held in Milan in March 2002, tackles a phenomenon which has been only recently saved from oblivion — thanks to scientific rather than political will: the existence of guerrilleros who fought alongside the French. The “counter-guerrilla” or “guerrilla afrancesada” is analyzed in depth through the experiences and circumstances of its protagonists, ranging from nobles and Dominican friars to smugglers and people with adventurous lives. What emerges is the complexity of the conflict, which in turn shows that the change from patriot to renegade was “relatively frequent” and that it contained elements of a “first civil war”.

Received: 2007