Industrial Age · Europe · War

1808

Dos de Mayo Uprising

May 2, 1808

Madrid rose against the French troops occupying it, and Murat's cavalry cut them down in the Puerta del Sol. Goya would paint the reprisals of the next dawn - huddled men, a lantern, a firing squad. The war became Spain's war, and from it came a new word: guerrilla. Goya's paintings of the second and third of May remain among the most powerful anti-war images ever created.