Africa Begins at the Pyrenees? The Experience of Cross-Cultural Contact of British Soldiers in Andalusia 1810—1812

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, there was a presentation which was dominated in Britain about romantic Andalusia, which has hidden Islamic heritage of past centuries, and only the most courageous traveler can decide to take in a journey to it. With the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars and the Pyrenean campaign of the French army, everything had changed, and British soldiers became “travelers in red uniforms”. Some of them visited occupied by the French troops Andalusia in 1810—1812. This article attempts to view Andalusia as a “frontier” between Europe and Africa and to reconstruct the image of southwestern Spain in the narratives of British participants of military operations on the Iberian Peninsula. The author analyzes the peculiarities of the relationship of British officers with local inhabitants, as well as with soldiers of the enemy army, the French and the Poles, and reveals the specificity of the British perception of allies and enemies in Andalusia the context of the Spanish War of Independence.

Keywords

Napoleonic Wars, Spanish War of Independence, Peninsular War, French Occupation of Andalusia, image of the “Other”, cross-cultural dialogue

Acknowledgment

The study is sponsored by the Russian Science Foundation, project № 21-78-00078 “Images of Enemy and Ally in Reception of the British Participants of the Military Campaigns in the West Mediterranean and the Pyrenees 1793—1814”.

Received

31.07.2021

Publication date

16.08.2021

Number of characters

41691

Cite

GOST	Kosykh T. Africa Begins at the Pyrenees? The Experience of Cross-Cultural Contact of British Soldiers in Andalusia 1810—1812 // ISTORIYA – 2021. – V. 12. – Issue 7 (105) [Electronic resource]. URL: https://history.jes.su/S207987840015315-5-1 (circulation date: 25.07.2024). DOI: 10.18254/S207987840015315-5
MLA	Kosykh, Tatiana "Africa Begins at the Pyrenees? The Experience of Cross-Cultural Contact of British Soldiers in Andalusia 1810—1812." ISTORIYA 12.7 (105) (2021) DOI: 10.18254/S207987840015315-5
APA	Kosykh T. (2021). Africa Begins at the Pyrenees? The Experience of Cross-Cultural Contact of British Soldiers in Andalusia 1810—1812. ISTORIYA 12(7 (105)) DOI: 10.18254/S207987840015315-5

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