The Second Mexican Empire (), officially known as the Mexican Empire (), was a constitutional monarchy established in Mexico by Mexican monarchists with the support of the Second French Empire. This period is often referred to as the Second French intervention in Mexico. The French Emperor, Napoleon III, with backing from Mexican conservatives, the clergy, and nobility, aimed to establish a monarchist ally in the Americas as a counterbalance to the growing power of the United States.
The throne of Mexico was offered by Mexican monarchists, who had lost a civil war against Mexican liberals, to Austrian Archduke Maximilian of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, who had ancestral ties to the rulers of colonial Mexico. Maximilian's ascension was ratified through a controversial referendum. His wife, Belgian princess Charlotte of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, became the empress consort of Mexico, known locally as "Carlota".
While the French army secured control over central Mexico, supporters of the Mexican Republic continued to resist the Empire through conventional military means and guerrilla warfare. Despite being forced to abandon Mexico City, President Benito Juárez never left Mexican territory, even as he relocated his government multiple times to evade Imperial forces.
Maximilian's regime received recognition from European powers such as the United Kingdom and Austria, as well as from Brazil and China, but it was not recognized by the United States. At the time, the U.S. was engaged in its Civil War (1861–65) and did not formally oppose the Empire during the conflict. However, following the Union's victory over the Confederacy, the U.S. recognized the Republican government and exerted diplomatic pressure on France to withdraw its support. The U.S. did not provide material aid to the Republicans.Hamnett, Brian R. A Concise History of Mexico (3rd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2019, 222.
With the conclusion of the American Civil War in 1865, the geopolitical situation shifted. Napoleon III began withdrawing French troops from Mexico in 1866, which had been essential to sustaining Maximilian's regime, and ceased further financial support. Maximilian, whose liberal policies alienated many of his conservative backers, attracted some moderate liberal support by endorsing much of the Liberal Reform legislation, though his efforts at further reform were largely unsuccessful.
Despite the increasingly dire military situation, Maximilian refused to abdicate and remained in Mexico after the French troops departed. He was eventually captured by Republican forces in Querétaro, along with his generals Tomás Mejía and Miguel Miramón. The Second Mexican Empire formally ended on 19 June 1867, when Maximilian and his generals were executed by firing squad. The Mexican Republic was restored, having maintained its existence throughout the French intervention and the monarchist regime.
History
Post-independence Mexico was briefly a monarchy, lasting just over a year, when the emperor abdicated and went into exile, and a federated republic was established in 1824. The idea of monarchy persisted and in 1861, Mexican conservatives and emperor Napoleon III of France brokered a deal to create a new monarchy in Mexico, with Archduke Maximilian agreeing to become emperor, with the military and financial backing of France. The French army ousted Mexican President Benito Juárez from the capital and Maximilian and his wife Carlota arrived in Mexico in 1864. The regime lasted so long as French troops and money supported it but rapidly fell once Napoleon III withdrew that aid.
Mexican monarchism
After a decade of warfare (1810–21), New Spain gained its independence as Mexico under the leadership of the royalist military commander turned insurgent Agustín de Iturbide, who united insurgents and Spaniards under the Plan of Iguala. The Plan promised independence for Mexico as a monarchy (First Mexican Empire), and also invited a member of Spanish royalty to assume the newly established Mexican throne. After the offer was refused by the Spanish royals, Congress searched for an emperor within the newly independent country. After an armed demonstration by Iturbide's regiment of the Army of the Three Guarantees, the Mexican Congress elected the Mexican-born military officer and leader of independence as the first Mexican emperor. Although during the independence struggle, Mexicans considered the idea of republicanism, "monarchy was the default position." Iturbide's rule as emperor lasted less than two years, but the height of his power lasted only six months.Eric Van Young, Stormy Passage: Mexico from Colony to Republic, 1750–1850. Lanham MD: Rowman and Littlefield 2022, 181, 183 in his attempts to govern, Iturbide struggled to find funds to pay the army and the rest of the government, and closed congress, accusing representatives of obstructionism and idleness, eventually leading to a military uprising against Iturbide and his subsequent abdication. The idea of a monarchy had been discredited for a time, but the idea did not disappear, as many of the disorders associated with the First Empire continued well into the Republican era.
French observers began expressing interest in the idea of a Mexican monarchy as early as 1830. Lorenzo de Zavala claimed that in that year, he was approached by a foreign agent hoping to recruit him in a plan to place an Orléans monarch upon a Mexican throne. In 1840 José María Gutiérrez Estrada wrote a monarchist essay endorsing the idea of a legitimate European monarch being invited to govern Mexico. The pamphlet was addressed to the conservative president Bustamante, who rejected the idea. French diplomats tended to sympathize with the Conservatives in Mexico, Victor de Broglie opining that monarchy was a form of government more suited to Mexico at the time and François Guizot giving a positive review of Estrada's pamphlet.
A monarchist faction in 1846 promoted the idea of establishing a foreign prince at the head of the Mexican government, and president Paredes was viewed as being sympathetic to monarchism, but the project was not pursued due to the more pressing matter of the American invasion of Mexico. The candidate being proposed at the time was the Spanish prince, Don Enrique.
The last official Mexican effort to explore the possibility of establishing a monarchy occurred under the presidency of Santa Anna in the early 1850s, when conservative minister Lucas Alamán directed monarchist diplomats José María Gutiérrez de Estrada and Jose Manuel Hidalgo to seek a European candidate for the Mexican throne. With the overthrow of Santa Anna's government in 1855, these efforts lost their official support and yet Estrada and Hidalgo continued their efforts independently.
French invasion and establishment of monarchy
The international situation shifted making a French invasion and establishment of a monarchy in Mexico a real possibility. Conservative Mexican politicians Estrada and Hidalgo managed to get the attention of Emperor Napoleon III of the French, who came to support the idea of reviving the Mexican monarchy and re-establishing a French imperial presence in the Americas. During this time the Second French Empire was establishing a going through a period of colonial expansion. Napoleon III's conquest of Algeria was unpopular and tied with the establishment of an Empire in Mexico. Prior to 1861 any interference in the affairs of Mexico by European powers would have been viewed in the U.S. as a challenge to the Monroe Doctrine. In 1861 however, the U.S. was embroiled in its own conflict, the American Civil War, which made the U.S. government powerless to intervene directly, but it never condoned the French invasion or the regime it established. In July, Mexican President Benito Juárez declared a two-year moratorium on repayment of Mexican debt to France and other nations, much of it loans contracted by the defeated rival conservative government. Napoleon finally had a pretext for armed intervention. Encouraged by his Spanish-born wife, Empress Eugenie, who saw herself as the champion of the Catholic Church in Mexico, Napoleon III took advantage of the situation. Napoleon III saw the opportunity to make France the great modernizing influence in the Western Hemisphere, as well as enabling the country to capture the South American markets. To give him further encouragement, his half-brother, the duc de Morny, was the largest holder of Mexican bonds on which President Juárez had suspended payment.
French troops landed in December 1861 and began military operations in April 1862. They were eventually joined by conservative Mexican generals who had never been entirely defeated in the War of Reform. Charles de Lorencez's small expeditionary force was repulsed at the Battle of Puebla on 5 May 1862, delaying the French push to capture the capital. Reinforcements were sent and placed under the command of Élie Forey. The capital was not taken until a year later in June 1863 and the French now sought to establish a Mexican regime under its influence. Forey appointed a committee of thirty-five Mexicans, the Junta Superior, who then elected three Mexican citizens to serve as the government's executive: Juan Nepomuceno Almonte (the natural son of independence leader José María Morelos), José Mariano Salas, and Pelagio Antonio de Labastida. In turn this triumvirate then selected 215 Mexican citizens to form together with the Junta Superior, an Assembly of Notables.Bancroft, pp. 77-78
The Assembly met in July 1863 and resolved to invite Archduke Maximilian to be Emperor of Mexico. The title of the executive triumvirate was formally changed to the Regency of the Mexican Empire. An official delegation left Mexico and arrived in Europe in October. In Europe, Maximilian was continuing negotiations with Napoleon III. He requested a plebiscite to ratify the establishment of the Empire by the Assembly of Notables. The referendum was granted, and the result was affirmative; critics viewed it as illegitimate and suspect due to being conducted by the occupying French authorities. Maximilian also rebuffed French efforts to outright annex the state of Sonora, an act which would later be used in his trial to defend against the Republican government's accusation that Maximilian had been a French puppet.Bancroft, pp. 136 Maximilian formally accepted the crown on 10 April 1864 and set sail for Mexico. He arrived in Veracruz on 28 May and reached the capital on 12 June.
Although French troops controlled the center of the country, the port of Veracruz, the capital Mexico City, and other major cities as north as Monterrey and as south as Oaxaca, President Juárez remained in the national territory, moving north toward the border. In the countryside, republican guerrillas waged warfare against the French troops and their Mexican army allies.
Maximilian's reign According to Edward Shawcross, The Mexican Expedition faced backlash from the French government due to its costs, so they decided to lower expenses by installing a man named Archduke Maximilian, the brother of the Austrian Emperor Franz Josef, as Emperor of Mexico. When he took the throne, he agreed to a treaty known as the Miramar Convention with France, which stated that Mexico's government would pay for the costs of the expedition and support the presence of French troops.