Absolutely. I hope Mike Loads makes a documentary about military sabers and percussion revolvers some day. My current points of interrest. I loved his films about swords, lances and longbows when I was into that back then.

I agreed with Richard Holmes when he said it in the 1980s does that count.

Mike Loades is great.. I've seen a couple of TV series with him in about ancient weapons. IIRC Weapon Masters was one of them comparing an original with a modern weapon designed to do the same.

As the Maginot Line was greater,no,but I still prefer him to many others.

Yes, scale, speed of construction, modernity, strategic significance.

It strikes me how modern the Lines are. No trenches or stuff, but a series of mutually supporting strongpoints (garrisoned by Portuguese militia troops) with mobile forces behind in the shape of Wellington's field army.

In Baazil we have similar fortifications from this time, most of them near Argentina

And designed for low skilled militia to defend preserving the professional armies of the uk and Portugal FYI I'm not militia is weak it's just they don't get the training or equipment or leadership from the people who really run the army the nco's ie officers point to a point on the map say that's where we are going in a effective army at this point the nco's thanked the map as officers will get lost in their own tent

@@joaofabio5927 They were constructed by the portuguese

@@bluetooth2000 lmao brasil was constructed by the portuguese to be fair

I really do miss the days when the history channel at least taught us about history

It's easier to make up a fantasy history than the truth. And there won't be woke snowflakes complaining about being oppressed by someone else.

😄😄😄

They should change their name to The Crap Channel. coz all they show is… well, crap.

HERE..!!!! HERE..!!!!!!!

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Did you visit every city in Europe? That's quite a big statement. I like more Porto and Coimbra in Portugal than Lisbon.

@@HeavenlyWarrior PORTO 🇵🇹🇵🇹

@@HeavenlyWarrior what's the problem? Jealousy?

@@SergioEstreitinho What problem? Why would I be jealous? lol I just find strange someone saying that Lisbon is their favorite city in Europe. Portugal doesn't have any modern city, it's probably the only country in Europe that only have old cities and do nothing to modernize. Sou português, a propósito.

Wellington was the _de facto_ commander of the reformed Portuguese army. When we say British army we sometimes forget the Portuguese marched in Paris too.

​@@lordcommandernox9197 Agree to a degree as Wellington was C-in-C of the combined Anglo-Portuguese Army, however, the C-in-C of the Portuguese Army itself was General William Beresford.

@@douglasherron7534 Lovely fellow that Beresford

Fake allies you are

England’s ally! Not Britain’s. Scotland had a proper ally; France. France was a true friend to Scotland for hundreds of years. And who knows? Perhaps it will be again! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇫🇷 ❤️

Average Foxhole player

*Afonso

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Imagine you would say something like that out loud today, no matter what nation :D Saudações de Oeiras.

not true.

@@riskinhos why?

Rations, my friends.

@Robert Strong I believe Rommel also complained about Monty once in a similar fashion, something a long the lines of "The swine is not attacking"!

The only time Wellington actually went out and attacked anyone himself was the disastrous and pointless Battle of Toulouse in 1814. Even the Siege of Badajoz was also awash with trenches and strongpoints

@@SantomPh He attacked at Salamanca and Vitoria

Because we want to preserve our space. Or do you think we like our guests to leave trash troughout the place?

We do have fabulous sites as well as sights.

Ya! And british tourist only lives to swallow tons of beer and spread garbage all over the place. By the way: learn to speak portuguese... this is a matter of education and civism....

@@ZecaPinto1 Yes, very right...

Verdade! And yet, the best kept secret of Portugal is the Portuguese themselves! Always willing to help and share the little they have!

You're being somewhat unfair on Spain in claiming she supported Napoleon's invasion. The King of Spain was a virtual prisoner of the French in 1808, and French troops had also marched into strategic points in Spain, which they seized by trickery, at the same time as Junot's army entered Portugal. Moving forwards in time, as part of Wellington's strategy, the peasant population of the area of Portugal through which the French would have to invade to reach Lisbon from the North was evacuated, along with anything the French might use for food (living off the land was the French norm). This 'scorching' of the land meant the French were starving right from the moment they sat down before the Lines. It's amazing Massena held on for as long as he did; certainly much longer than Wellington believed he would be able to sustain himself.

@@ShanghaiRooster Spain actually initially suported France's initial invasion of Portugal to get some territory it was only after that that France captured the Spanish king.

@@masterplokoon8803 It's true that the Treaty of Fontainebleau in 1807 between Napoleon's Marshal of the Palace, Géraud Duroc, and Eugenio Izquierdo, acting as agent for Manuel Godoy, proposed to carve Portugal into three - the south would fall to Godoy, the central part would be administered by France and the north to the child King Louis II of Etruria (whose mother was daughter to King Charles IV). In the same year, Napoleon abolished the Kingdom of Etruria (one of many puppet states set up by the French in Italy), forcing Louis and his mother to seek refuge in Spain. In 1808, they were forced to flee from Spain. Maria Luisa was arrested in a convent in Rome and the child was placed in the care of his grandparents until the fall of Napoleon. The true aim of Bonaparte was to destroy Portugal in order to impose the Continental System across Europe, and he knew exactly how to push Godoy's buttons in order to gain his agreement for a French army to cross Spain to get to Portugal by offering him the south of the country. Godoy was a court favourite of the feeble Charles IV, but was widely detested across Spain by people who could see him for what he was. It's really not on to suggest Spain initially supported the French when in reality it was one cowardly and venal man out for himself. A few years previously, after Trafalgar, Godoy had attempted to distance Spain from France, but did a swift about-face after the French victories over Prussia in 1806. It speaks much for Napoleon's contempt for the Spanish Court that he offered the Principality of the Algarves, not to Spain, but to the court favourite as a personal fiefdom.

@@ShanghaiRooster Spain also colaborated with France to take Olivença from Portugal in 1801. They backstabbed Portugal before.

@@masterplokoon8803 Yes indeed. And just as with the later invasion of 1808, the 'cause' was France's determination to exclude Britain from the continent. The town should have been returned after the wars ended, but neither Spain nor Portugal was ready to hand back territories gained at the other's expense (the Misiones Orientales, now in Brazil, having been handed over to Portugal in exchange for Olivença in 1801).

The biggest fort of the Lines in it's namesake city is technically still property of the Wellington's. Sir Wellington was given the title of Marquis of Torres Vedras, and Count of Vimeiro, (as well as the Duke of Victoria and Baron of the Douro titles) which are still held by his descendant Sir Arthur C. Wellington.

Estás em que ano? Como assim nunca aprendeste isto na escola?

@@imjennasidel6703 já acabei a escola, nunca se falou sobre as fortificações de torres Vedras

@@imjennasidel6703 devo mencionar que fui aluno de 18 a história portanto não há o argumento de não ter prestado atenção

@@darthnox7958 nasceste em que ano? Não falaste das invasões francesas e nas linhas de Torres?

@@imjennasidel6703 obviamente que falei nas invasões francesas, mas não houve tempo de se falar especificamente nas torres Vedras, estás a agir como se isto fosse um escândalo, nem todos tem os mesmo professores, nem todos tem as mesmas circunstâncias, as vezes têm de e passar certas matérias mais rápido, outros professores preferem aprofundar outra partes, o programa está sempre a mudar, é normal

@@diogorodrigues4151 ah true don’t know why I always thought it was during the French invasions it kinda fits anyway ahahah

Não sabia dessa história mas se for veridica até que é engraçada 😂

That's because the Peninsula Wars are not present in Portuguese consciousness and are very poorly taught in school. Absolutely no one cares about this crucial era. This despite the fact that Portugal, previous to those invasions, was heading towards a very positive future after Marquês de Pombal had reorganized the nation after the Earthquake of Lisbon that destroyed much of the country's most important infrastructures. In fact, i will state that much of our present lagging STILL TO THIS DAY can be traced to the French Invasions. The destruction and human effort needed to recover from them were a final blow to our efforts to keep the route trades and our colonies under control. Those very same British that were "helping" (mostly themselves as they were already fighting the French) us also had acts of piracy and attacks on our trading ports. The Dutch pirated could not be stopped. We did not have money nor man power to fight them off anymore. This ended very poorly as the instability turned our crown weak and unable to react. The British declared war to Portugal (what nice allies we got there, almost as bad as our enemies from Spain and France) because of the lands between Angola and Mozambique. The King D. Carlos had to bow down to the British to avoid fighting a war we would never win. This caused massive internal issues in Portugal that ultimately ended with the King's assassination and the end of Monarchy. What came after that were decades of political wars and Coups that sank Portugal into the ground, stopped our development while the entire west was full on into industrial revolution and took most of our people back to a near Medieval Feudal Age during the 19th century. As we all know, this chaos was only stopped when the dictator Salazar was begged to take charge. For a while it seemed that he would create the miracle needed. Kept away the families that had destroyed the country, planned the modernization of the state, reorganized the trade with the colonies we still had, started the industrialization of the country, built infrastructure, focused on the alphabetization of the people and even managed to keep neutrality in WW2 as he was determined to keep Portugal out of the military conflicts that had nothing to do with us (like WW1 where thousands died for nothing). Sadly, profound social changed occurred and he wasn't a man of his time anymore. Animosity towards him grew and his desire to keep the colonies as they were seen, CORRECTLY, as the only hope Portugal had to remain independent of external powers, soiled his legacy. The Entry in the EU was now mandatory as we had no means of subsistence in the modern world. We became a society of beggars who sold away production rights and abandoned our own control over the economy. The EU hides our issues with "free" money while thousands of us leave the country every year only to be switched by immigrants that ultimately will destroy our culture and ways of life.

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We owe nothing to subversives who want to destroy us, and betrayed us numerous times, building masonic lodges in our land while under the pretense of "helping". Judea Delenda Est

I believe that is because the Napoleonic Wars were a bitter-sour moment in our history. In one side, we came out victorious along our allies against what was, at the time, the number one military power in the world. But it cost us dearly. Our Empire was basically over at that moment (although we dragged on through the 20th century). The devastation it caused and the social repercussions of it relegated Portugal to a secondary position in the world and there was no way back. So, the Napoleonic Wars don't get enough attention. Even because the Republic, that came after, kinda considered we had perhaps joined the wrong side, that of the absolutist monarchies!

Glad you like them!

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it was actually a portuguese engeriers who presented to them the idea

*engeniers

Lisbon was very vulnerable to a land army; the French had superior artillery and infantry and didn't need a navy to take the city. They proved this in Spanish cities like Barcelona, Zaragoza and Coruña.

@@SantomPh And yet, not in PORTUGAL CARALHO

@@2004lus The french took most of Portugal... If Napoleon didnt went to the east to wreck the Coalition the peninsular war would have ended in victory for the French Empire.

@@jorgemargenat2277 I was joking but the fact is the french retreated the 3 times with losses. How we say "Ficaram a ver navios" because at that time the territory of Portugal was the entire world

@@2004lus Yes i know, but why there was a need for 3 french expeditions? Maybe it was becuase the french army was really overextended fighting in the iberian peninsula, central and eastern europe. If Napoleon didnt have so many open fronts, if he didnt betray the spanish or tried to put his brother as king of Spain the Iberian Theater wouldnt developed into a logistical nightmare. After all the french occupied Lisbon before the peninsular war when they were allies with Spain and didnt have all of europe fighting them.

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@@lisababy7571 hi ilumination person i'm fine tank you, you very good

@@franciscojose6496 It's nice to meet you here....

@@franciscojose6496 So where are you from ?

@@lisababy7571 oh honey nice meet you too of course

It's quite doable if you consider that there were 7000 men working on it. And remember. This was early 19th century Europe. People over here had been building amazing castles and cathedrals for over a 1000 years. Compared to those these forts are quite simple feats of engineering. And completely possible. As history shows.

Today there is high interest in prolonging the time it takes to construct buildings and to launder as much money as possible, it's a Republic Not a Monarchy, inneficiency, rampant corruption and traitors governing is the motto of all Republics

When he said that it was al sifted earth, a part of my brain was mentally comparing that with the turf sections at Hadrian's Wall. But then they weren't protecting against gunpowder and cannonballs. Or Napoleon! Darn it! I'm sure he used to have a nickname for his guns but can't recall offhand. Anyone?

His "daughters"

Penso que na verdade o termo 'invicta' foi associado à cidade portuense aquando das batalhas entre D. Pedro contra os Miguelistas, uns bons anos mais tarde. A cidade do Porto associou-se a D. Pedro e foi cercada pelos Miguelistas durante meses, nunca tendo sucumbido. Tanto é, que D. Pedro doou o seu coração à cidade (e que agora tem estado nas notícias por "viajar" para o Brasil para as comemorações do bicentenário da independência que D.Pedro lhes proporcionou).

First in and last out!

He kind of doesn't, as the novels and tv series underplayed the Portuguese so much. The tv series doesn't even show a single Portuguese uniform throughout. This is the domain of actual history and not the perpetuation of the spaniards guerrillas myth.