Joseph I of Spain (Napoleon's World)

Joseph I of Spain (7 January 1768 - 28 July 1844) was the elder brother of Napoleon I of France and the first Bonapartist monarch of Spain. A deeply unpopular ruler for much of his reign, Joseph's reign is referred to as the "Josephite Era," in which he attempted to introduce French culture, social norms and tastes to Spain, which was deeply resisted. During his reign, Spain lost the entirety of its American empire due to treaties forcing them to relinquish claims upon territories in the Caribbean to the United States and the broad defeats of beleauguered Spanish armies at the hands of independence movements in South America and Mexico. By 1824, the Spanish empire had collapsed completely. Joseph resisted his brother's attempts to integrate Spain into the Empire during the 1820's, fearing that he would lose his standing as a King, and spent the final twenty years of his life attempting to endear himself to his Spanish subjects, capturing parts of North Africa to satisfy the Spanish public as well as the Pope. His death in 1844, shortly after his brother's, set off a succession of violent conflicts over the next twenty years that would eventually result in the absorption and annexation of Navarre, Barcelona and Catalunia into France in 1857.