A talk by Peter Booker

There are many offbeat stories concerning the Peninsular War, but of especial interest to residents of the Algarve is the period spent in the Algarve by the invading French forces. When were they here? What did they do here and how did they relate to the locals? And what precisely is the story of their leaving? Why and when did they go? The second story is that of the invention of the concentration camp. In this war, Britain had to decide how to deal with prisoners of war. One method was to send them back home so that they could fight against the allies again. This was the solution of the so-called convention of Sintra in September 1808. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Peninsula, Spanish armies captured a whole French army. When so much of Spain was overrun by the French, what could they possibly do with 20 000 Frenchmen? This is the story of their incarceration in arguably the world´s first concentration camp.