May Revolution
The May Revolution was a direct reaction to Spain's Peninsular War. In 1808, King Ferdinand VII of Spain abdicated in favor of Napoleon, who granted the throne to his brother, Joseph Bonaparte. A Supreme Central Junta led resistance to Joseph's government and the French occupation of Spain, but eventually suffered a series of reversals that resulted in the Spanish loss of the northern half of the country. On February 1, 1810, French troops took Seville and gained control of most of Andalusia. The Supreme Junta retreated to Cadiz and dissolved itself, and the Council of Regency of Spain and the Indies replaced it. News of these events arrived in Buenos Aires on May 18, brought by British ships.
May Days
The event that sparked the armed conflict in Barcelona was the assault by Civil Guards on the telephone exchange, which had been a workers' collective since its recapture from the army, a decisive moment in the July revolution. Their orders were signed by the minister of internal security Artemi Aiguadér, who later claimed he knew nothing about it. Like the fascists before them they only took the ground floor before being engaged by the workers upstairs with machine-gun fire.