John Lawrence Tone – författare

John Tone recounts the dramatic story of how, between 1808 and 1814, Spanish peasants created and sustained the world's first guerrilla insurgency movement, thereby playing a major role in Napoleon's defeat in the Peninsula War. Focusing on the army of Francisco Mina, Tone offers new insights into the origins, motives, and successes of these first guerrilla forces by interpreting the conflict from the long-ignored perspective of the guerrillas themselves.

Who defeated Spain? From 1895 to 1898, Cuban insurgents fought to free their homeland from Spanish rule. Though often overshadowed by the ""Splendid Little War"" of the Americans in 1898, according to John Tone, the longer Spanish-Cuban conflict was in fact more remarkable, foreshadowing the wars of decolonization in the twentieth century.Tone offers new answers to old questions concerning the war. He examines the origin of Spain's genocidal policy of ""reconcentration""; the causes of Spain's military difficulties; the condition, effectiveness, and popularity of the Cuban insurgency; the necessity of American intervention; and, Spain's supposed foreknowledge of defeat. The Spanish-Cuban-American war proved pivotal in the histories of all three countries involved. Tone's fresh analysis introduces new topics for discussion about the war in which the concentration camp was invented, Cuba was born, Spain lost its last American colonies, and America gained an overseas empire.

From 1895 to 1898, Cuban insurgents fought to free their homeland from Spanish rule. Though often overshadowed by the “Splendid Little War” of the Americans in 1898, according to John Tone, the longer Spanish-Cuban conflict was in fact more remarkable, foreshadowing the wars of decolonization in the twentieth century.Employing newly released evidence — including hospital records, intercepted Cuban letters, battle diaries from both sides, and Spanish administrative records — Tone offers new answers to old questions concerning the war. He examines the origin of Spain’s genocidal policy of “reconcentration”; the causes of Spain’s military difficulties; the condition, effectiveness, and popularity of the Cuban insurgency; the necessity of American intervention; and Spain’s supposed foreknowledge of defeat.The Spanish-Cuban-American war proved pivotal in the histories of all three countries involved. Tone’s fresh analysis will provoke new discussions and debates among historians and human rights scholars as they reexamine the war in which the concentration camp was invented, Cuba was born, Spain lost its empire, and America gained an overseas empire.

John Tone recounts the dramatic story of how, between 1808 and 1814, Spanish peasants created and sustained the world''s first guerrilla insurgency movement, thereby playing a major role in Napoleon''s defeat in the Peninsula War. Focusing on the army of Francisco Mina, Tone offers new insights into the origins, motives, and successes of these first guerrilla forces by interpreting the conflict from the long-ignored perspective of the guerrillas themselves. Only months after Napoleon''s invasion in 1807, Spain seemed ready to fall: its rulers were in prison or in exile, its armies were in complete disarray, and Madrid had been occupied. However, the Spanish people themselves, particularly the peasants of Navarre, proved unexpectedly resilient. In response to impending defeat, they formed makeshift governing juntas, raised new armies, and initiated a new kind of people''s war of national liberation that came to be known as guerrilla warfare. Key to the peasants'' success, says Tone, was the fact that they possessed both the material means and the motives to resist. The guerrillas were neither bandits nor selfless patriots but landowning peasants who fought to protect the old regime in Navarre and their established position within it. from the book: "That unfortunate war destroyed me; it divided my forces, multiplied my obligations, undermined my morale. . . . All the circumstances of my disasters are bound up in that fatal knot.--Napoleon Bonaparte on the Spanish war

Entre 1895 y 1898 se desarrolló el primer acto de la guerra de Cuba: el ejército español enfrentado a los insurgentes cubanos. Esta época, sin embargo, suele quedar eclipsada en la historiografía por la entrada de Estados Unidos en la guerra, y la derrota final de España.John Lawrence Tone, analiza estos tres años cruciales empleando nuevas fuentes documentales, archivos hospitalarios, cartas interceptadas y diarios de batalla de los dos bandos. Con esta ingente documentación, mucha de ella inédita, Tone narra una historia alternativa de la guerra de Cuba; un episodio fundamental en la historia de tres países que aún provoca encendidos debates entre historiadores, sociólogos y expertos en derechos humanos.

John Tone recounts the dramatic story of how, between 1808 and 1814, Spanish peasants created and sustained the world''s first guerrilla insurgency movement, thereby playing a major role in Napoleon''s defeat in the Peninsula War. Focusing on the army of Francisco Mina, Tone offers new insights into the origins, motives, and successes of these first guerrilla forces by interpreting the conflict from the long-ignored perspective of the guerrillas themselves. Only months after Napoleon''s invasion in 1807, Spain seemed ready to fall: its rulers were in prison or in exile, its armies were in complete disarray, and Madrid had been occupied. However, the Spanish people themselves, particularly the peasants of Navarre, proved unexpectedly resilient. In response to impending defeat, they formed makeshift governing juntas, raised new armies, and initiated a new kind of people''s war of national liberation that came to be known as guerrilla warfare. Key to the peasants'' success, says Tone, was the fact that they possessed both the material means and the motives to resist. The guerrillas were neither bandits nor selfless patriots but landowning peasants who fought to protect the old regime in Navarre and their established position within it. from the book: "That unfortunate war destroyed me; it divided my forces, multiplied my obligations, undermined my morale. . . . All the circumstances of my disasters are bound up in that fatal knot.--Napoleon Bonaparte on the Spanish war