Knowing Maximilian’s weakened force was destined to be defeated, Juárez offered him the chance to abdicate his position as Mexico’s Emperor. This left Austria’s archduke severely underpowered against Juárez, resulting in considerable ground being lost. Not wanting war with the United States, Napoleon withdrew his support of Maximilian, and ordered his army to retreat. However, this coincided with the end of the American Civil War, and the United States took exception to the attempt of the ruling Mexican government being pushed into its territory, and rebuked France for violating The Monroe Doctrine: a set of laws that stated an attempt by a European power to colonise one of the United States’ neighbours would be considered an act of aggression against the US itself. With the support of the French Army, Maximilian’s forces successfully pushed Juárez north, almost completely out of the country into Texas. Because he’d been duped by one of the most spectacular lies ever told. And he refused to return the vast wealth of the Roman Catholic Church that was previously confiscated by Juárez.īut Maximilian’s intentions were irrelevant. He was unwavering in his mission to abolish peonage, and grant Mexicans better rights.
Maximilian’s intentions upon being made Emperor were pure: he desired to be a benevolent leader, and a caretaker of Mexico’s “peasant” class. And along with his wife Carlota-the daughter of Belgium’s King Leopold-he sailed to Mexico to take up his crown. Napoleon sent him word, communicating that the Mexican people had voted Maximilian as the nation’s new king, and wished for him to rule as Mexico’s emperor. One was found in Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph the Archduke of Austria, and one of Europe’s most powerful men. Their end goal was to push Juárez’s military out of the country, and to implement a new moderate government that would rule on behalf of the French empire.īut Napoleon couldn’t front this plot himself. He schemed with conservative Mexicans, who desired to rid the country of President Benito Juárez. And to achieve this goal, he hatched one of the most devious conspiracies in history. Napoleon III-the sitting Emperor of France, and nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte-saw an opportunity in the crisis, seeking to make Mexico the first French colony in North America. But France? Well, it had a more devious plan. Once arrived, the Spanish and British ended up cutting deals with the government that would favour them in receiving future payments first. In 1861, a joint force comprising British, Spanish, and French powers sailed to Mexico to collect on their debts. Stemming the flow of money leaving the country-it hoped-would allow the economy to stabilise.īut some of Mexico’s creditors across the Atlantic took umbrage. So in the first year of that decade, the Mexican government decided to suspend payments to its European creditors for two years.
And as the conflict continued, it was unable to continue making good on what it owed.
And Mexico was completely bankrupt.Īfter decades of internal conflict between its government’s warring factions, it found itself heavily in debt.
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