Editing Peninsular War (section)

===Revolution under siege===
{{further|Siege of Cádiz}}
[[File:Cortes de cadiz.jpg|thumb|''The Proclamation of the Constitution of 1812'' by [[Salvador Viniegra]]]]
The French invaded Andalusia on 19 January 1810. 60,000 French troops{{mdash}}the corps of Victor, Mortier and Sebastiani together with other formations{{mdash}}advanced southwards to assault the Spanish positions. Overwhelmed at every point, [[Juan Carlos de Aréizaga|Aréizaga]]'s men fled eastwards and southwards, leaving town after town to fall into the hands of the enemy. The result was revolution. On 23 January the Junta Central at Seville decided to flee to the safety of Cádiz.{{sfn|Esdaile|2003|p=220}} It then dissolved itself on 29 January 1810 and set up a five-person Regency Council of Spain and the Indies, charged with convening the Cortes.{{sfn|Martínez|1999|p={{page needed|date=February 2014}}}} Soult cleared all of southern Spain except Cádiz, which he left Victor to blockade.{{sfn|Southey|1828d|p=396}} The system of juntas was replaced by a regency and the [[Cortes of Cádiz]], which established a permanent government under the [[Spanish Constitution of 1812|Constitution of 1812]].

Cádiz was heavily fortified, while the harbour was full of British and Spanish warships. [[José María de la Cueva, 14th Duke of Alburquerque|Alburquerque's]] army and the Voluntarios Distinguidos had been reinforced by 3,000 soldiers who had fled Seville, and a strong Anglo-Portuguese brigade commanded by General William Stewart. Shaken by their experiences, the Spaniards had abandoned their earlier scruples about a British garrison.{{sfn|Esdaile|2003|p=282}} Victor's French troops camped at the shoreline and tried to bombard the city into surrender. Thanks to British naval supremacy, a naval blockade of the city was impossible. The French bombardment was ineffectual and the confidence of the ''[[gaditanos]]'' grew and persuaded them that they were heroes. With food abundant and falling in price, the bombardment was hopeless despite both hurricane and epidemic{{mdash}}a storm destroyed many ships in the spring of 1810 and the city was ravaged by yellow fever.{{sfn|Esdaile|2003|p=283}}

Once Cádiz was secured, attention turned to the political situation. The Junta Central announced that the ''cortes'' would open on 1 March 1810. Suffrage was to be extended to all male householders over 25. After public voting, representatives from district-level assemblies would choose deputies to send to the provincial meetings that would be the bodies from which the members of the ''cortes'' would emerge.{{sfn|Esdaile|2003|p=284}} From 1 February 1810, the implementation of these decrees had been in the hands of the new regency council selected by the Junta Central.{{sfn|Argüelles|1970|p=90}} The viceroyalties and independent captaincies general of the overseas territories would each send one representative. This scheme was resented in America for providing unequal representation to the overseas territories. Unrest erupted in [[Quito]] and [[Sucre|Charcas]], which saw themselves as the capitals of kingdoms and resented being subsumed in the larger "kingdom" of [[Viceroyalty of Peru|Peru]]. The revolts were suppressed (See [[Luz de América]] and [[Bolivian War of Independence]]). Throughout early 1809 the governments of the capitals of the viceroyalties and captaincies general elected representatives to the Junta, but none arrived in time to serve on it.