Rum Rebellion Rum Rebellion The Rum Rebellion of 1808 was the only successful armed takeover of government in Australian history. During the 19th century, it was widely referred to as "the Great Rebellion". On 26 January 1808, 20 years to the day after Arthur Phillip founded the first European settlement in Australia, the New South Wales Corps under the command of Major George Johnston, working closely with John Macarthur, deposed the Governor of New South Wales, William Bligh. Afterwards, the military ruled the colony, with the senior military officer stationed in Sydney acting as the lieutenant-governor of New South Wales until the
The Third of May 1808 of May 1808" has inspired a number of other major paintings, including a series by Édouard Manet, and Pablo Picasso's "Massacre in Korea" and "Guernica". Napoleon I of France declared himself First Consul of the French Republic on November 10, 1799, and crowned himself Emperor in 1804. Because Spain controlled access to the Mediterranean, the country was politically and strategically important to French interests. The reigning Spanish sovereign, Charles IV, was internationally regarded as ineffectual. Even in his own court he was seen as a "half-wit king who renounces cares of state for the satisfaction of hunting", and a cuckold