How did the Napoleonic Wars affect Spanish literature in the early 19th century?

The Napoleonic Wars significantly hindered early 19th-century Spanish literature by causing severe economic and social instability. The conflict led to soaring inflation, a depleted labor force due to military service and emigration, and the devastation of the nation's agriculture and cottage industries.12

These hardships, compounded by the loss of Spain's American colonies, created a difficult environment for literary development. Furthermore, the reactionary policies of King Ferdinand VII, who sought to restore an absolutist monarchy, forced many liberal writers into exile in England and France. This exile exposed these thinkers to the Romanticism flourishing abroad, which they later brought back to Spain.12

The tyrannical persecution of liberal movements also delayed the full expression of native Romantic principles and the production of Romantic dramas until after the king's death in 1833. While some scholars argue that Spanish Romanticism was a "tardy import," others maintain that its principles were already present in Spain but were suppressed by the political climate of the era.12