Last time we left Mexico it was in an ideological struggle between the conservatives which favored
a very centralized administration that retained many aspects of the former colony with most
favoring the reinstatement of a European style Monarchy, and the liberals which favored curbing
the power of the church and the military and most wanting an establishment of a more USA
style republic.
And this ideological divide wouldn’t really go away for the next century or more.
Since Iturbide’s death Mexico was highly unstable going from being an Empire to an
ill-conceived republic to then being attacked by Spain trying to requinquer it, to then
another ill-conceived republic, to then losing a war with Texas and the USA, while switching
to a third ill-conceived republic, all while this guy, Antonio López de Santa Anna a military
leader/president/dictator kind of controlled things to various degrees during this period.
Ou and while all of this was happening a bunch conservative and liberal rebellions occurred
as well helping to increase the natural chaos of the era.
All of this combined and more that we don’t have time to talk about meant that Mexico
was in a deep state of shit ehh I mean poop.
And it is this state of affairs in the year of 1854 that we start our journey.
As I have mentioned before since the first Mexican Empire, the mexican politics were
largely dictated by one person, Santa Anna.
He is a complicated character to say the least, he was a prominent military leader a president
and a dictator.
Sometimes all at once, sometimes one at a time, sometimes he called politics boring
and left on a military campaign while leaving someone else in charge, sometimes he left
completely only to later come back, it was a game of hats to him.
None the less even though it can’t be said that he completely controlled Mexico during
the entire time since the dissolution of the Empire, he was so prominent in Mexican politics
during this time that many historians just call it “the age of Santa Anna” as all
major events in Mexican history during this era involved him in one way or another.
He wasn’t really liked by the conservatives or the liberals as his “reforms” were
very staunchly centralist not giving either side what they wanted.
He mainly managed to stay in power because of public support, political maneuvering between
the two factions and the backing from the military.
But in 1854 he was finally overthrown by the liberals, who quickly started implementing
their laws known as La Reforma.
Culminating in the 1857 new constitution, which by the way if you’re keeping count
is the 4th ill-conceived republic.
Nonetheless the conservatives weren’t happy to say the least, and with this new 1857 liberal
constitution something had to be done.
So they launched a Coup d'état, taking control of Mexico City and rolling back the liberal
reforms.
The liberals retreated to Veracruz and called the conservative government iligitmenet, and
so the rest of Mexico had to choose whether to support the Liberal government in Veracruz
or the Conservative government in Mexico City and with that the civil war known as the Reform
War started.
Initially the conservative forces head an upper hand already controlling some of the
Liberal states and having a much better equipped and trained army, however USA decided it would
be better for them if Mexico was controlled by the republic leaning liberals rather than
monarchy leaning conservatives, and so they started to support the liberals, who in the
end thanks in part to this support managed to win in 1860 appointing Benito Juárez as
the new Meixcan president in 1861.
But at this point as you would imagine, Mexico was devastated.
It’s infrastructure in ruins, immensely in debt, the economy barely holding together,
and conservative gorillas still patrolling the countryside trying to fight the liberal
government wherever they can.
Benito Juarez had no choice but to default on the Mexican debt which was mainly owned
by the British, French and Spanish.
Obviously these three countries weren’t happy with this and so decided to invade Mexico
to force the liberal government to pay its debt.
But not all of these countries had the same plan.
Napoleon the 3rd king of France was hoping to install a French favoring monarchy in Mexico
as to have an ally in the new world.
And when Mexico defaulted on its debt it gave Napoleon the perfect causes belly to make
this happen, plus USA was in the middle of a civil war meaning they couldn’t interfere
with Napoleon's plan.
When the English and Spanish found out about the ulterior plans of the French they promptly
withdrew their forces as they didn’t want to support a French coup.
Now alone the French army was defeated on May the 5th at the Battle of Puebla by Ignacio
Zaragoza.
This Mexican victory is celebrated today as CInco de Mayo, which if you ask me is kind
of a Random Battle to have a whole holiday around.
Yes the Mexicans won against a much better trained and equipped French army all while
being outnumbered 2 to 1, but in the grand scheme of things the battle didn’t really
change much.
The French army just retreated, waited for reinforcements and then defeated the Mexican
army anyways.
Yes there are some interesting aspects of the battle applyed to it retroactively but
during that time it was just another battle of many in Mexican history.
But I digress.
Napoleon now controlled Mexico, well kind of.
The Liberal government of Benito Juarez relocated to Chihuahua with the countries treasury,
hoping to continue the fight against the French, which they did but very unsuccessfully.
Napoleon also gained support from the Mexican conservatives whom ever since their lose in
the Reform War wanted to get their power back.
So with Mexico now largely in the French hands and with the help of the conservatives the
second Mexican Empire was declared.
Not long after that a suitable European monarch to take the new throne was searched for.
Kind of having a dejavu here.
A suitable monarch was quickly found, Austrian born Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph from the
house of Habsburg-Lorraine the younger brother of Franze Joseph yes that Franz Joseph.
But unlike his brother Maximilian was a true renaissance man believing in the many ideas
that came from the enlightenment.
By age 17 he was taking 55 different classes ranging from fencing to history and engineering,
he also spoke 7 to 8 languages including Spanish.
In everything Maximilian ever did, he was trying to surpass his older brother, to show
everyone that even though not in line for the throne he would be a better ruler than
Franz Joseph.
In the end he was largely ignored and held several royal positions within the Austrian
kingdom before being asked by Napoleon the 3rd if he wanted the Mexican throne.
Maximilian didn’t want to take the crown at first saying he will only take it, if the
Mexican people vote in favor of him.
Napoleon along with the Mexican conservatives obliged and staged a dubious vote which unsurprisingly
turned out overwhelmingly in the favor of Maximilian.
Unbeknownst to the fabricated vote Maximilian promptly left for Mexico with his wife Charlotte
of Belgium, hoping to once and for all prove to everyone that he will be a great monarch.
Maximilian arrived to Mexico to a very cold welcome.
There wasn’t even anyone in Veracruz to meet him, he just kind of stepped off the
boat and waited.
Turns out the conservative attache that was supposed to meet Maximilian in Veracruz confused
the time of his arrival and so came much later.
Nonetheless Meximilian was taken to Mexico City where he chose Chapultepec castle as
his seat of power.
But this is where the entire situation started to become much more clearer to Meximilian.
First he found out that he wasn’t actually elected by the Mexican people and many of
them didn’t want him here.
Second he realized he was only in power, because of the French military in Mexico that was
keeping him in power.
Without it the liberal government of Juarez would come back.
Third, turns out that Mexico was financial in a disaster.
This combined with the fact that a large portion of the treasury was taken by the liberals
and that it wasn’t him but the French government who controlled the Mexican finance ministry,
meant that even though Maximilian was the emperor he did not have control over the country's
coffers or the military keeping him in power.
But that didn’t disway the young emperor who had something to prove.
He quickly got to work reforming the Mexican Empire according to the ideas of the enlightenment,
which by the way where very similar to the ideas that the liberals implemented at the
start of the reform war just a couple of years back.
Meximilian abolished the large haciendas’ monopolies in Mexico, restricted working hours,
banned child labor, cancelled all pesents’ debt under 10 pesos, and banned all the selling
and reselling of indebted Mexican peasents known as peons, who up untill now where more
like slaves.
He enacted many more other liberal reforms but we don’t have time to talk about all
of them.
Naturally all these liberal reforms started to anger the conservatives who brought Maximilian
here to get rid of the liberal reforms not to pass them.
However Maximilians wife known in Mexico as Carlota through lavish Austrian style galas
and parties to keep the aristocrats at least somewhat occupied.
Plus in the conservative minds having a liberal monarch is still better than a liberal government.
Meximilian also brought many Austrian engineers to help build up the Mexican infrastructure
and mainly rebuild Mexico city in the style of the European capital cities.
For example, today's famous Paseo de La Reforma was built by Maximilian.
Suddenly the tide started to change.
Many liberals seeing Maximilian’s reforms started to take up administrative jobs within
Maximilian’s government, thinking maybe having this emperor isn’t that bad.
The peasants also started to turn to Meximilian’s side mainly the indios class who saw having
an emperor a much better option than being controlled by a majority mestizo/criollo liberal
government.
And over all, even the people who didn’t want a monarchy started to become much less
vocal about it, as everyone was sick of fighting at this point and if peace meant having an
Austrian monarch so be it.
Maximilian even tried to endear himself to the Mexican people by walking around the capital
with no guards or ontarouge wearing a Sombrero and a Mexican charro, just chatting with the
people and seeing how the day was going.
He even offered Juarez a pardon and a prime ministerial position in his new government.
Juarez however declined, he didn’t fight Santa Anna and then the reform war just to
now work under a foreing monarch.
And that is where the troubles for Maximlian start piling on.
The liberals were almost stomped out by the French army but then the US civil war ended.
USA now no longer preoccupied decided it was time to intervene.
The reasons for the intervention where mainly that the US didn’t support the liberals
in the reform wars just to see them now lose power and also because all of this was a European
intervention in the Americas, which under the US Monroe Doctrine was a no go.
Which seems kind of hypocritical but I digress.
President Andrew Johnson couldn’t get the congress to agree on an intervention plan,
so he just relocated a lot of the US army to the Mexcian Border and then just had them
“lose their weapons and supply” somewhere in that area.
The Mexican liberals, now with US support could finally go on the offencive and started
to win a bunch of battles and retake some land.
Meximilian was now forced to enact the Balck Decree which made anyone forming any armed
bands to be imprisoned and executed within twenty four hours.
This did slow down the liberals but also angered many other people who were appalled by all
the killing, sometimes even of innocent people who happened to have guns on them, so many
people started to support the liberals again.
While this was happening USA exerted a lot of diplomatic pressure on France urging them
to leave at once, this combined with a looming Franco-Prussian war back in Europe, meant
that Napoleon had no choice but to withdraw all of his troops from Mexico.
Without the French army the Mexcian Empire would surely fall and Napoleon urged Maximilian
to leave the country.
But Maximilian ever the naive Emperor was convinced by his conservative advisors that
a solid defence can be mustered up against the liberals even without the French.
However unbeknownst to Maximilian the conservatives didn’t have much power anymore ever since
their defeat in the reform war and this proposed defence was just a pipedream.
As a last ditch effort Maximilian himself went on to lead his troops in to battle, and
when it became obvious that the Liberals will win, he allegedly hoped for a “lucky bullet”
that would kill him in battle fighting for his country, but it never came and eventually
he was captured and sentenced to death.
A day before the execution Maximilian was offered a chance to escape but he refused
as his Mexican generals who were ordered to be executed with him couldn’t make it and
he wouldn’t leave them behind.
Also escaping would mean shaving his beard which along with the escape itself would taint
his proud Habsburg heritage if caught, and so he will stay and face the firing squad
as an Emperor.
His last words before a firing squad where in flawless spanish.
"I forgive everyone, and I ask everyone to forgive me.
May my blood, which is about to be shed, be for the good of the country.
Viva Mexico, viva la independencia!"
Maximilian wasn’t a perfect monarch, he was naive, easily swayed by other people and
even though goal oriented he was very indecisive on how to get to those goals.
But with his liberal ideas and openness to hear out his advisors, with his care for all
people regardless of class and his passion to improve the living standards for all Mexicans,
he was in a way the perfect monarch for Mexico.
And ironically while pursuing their goal to stabilize the country, the liberals may have
squandered the best chance for peace and stability, Mexico had in a long time.
Or maybe not, maybe the US would invade or France would fully take over, who knows.
However I will end with this statement, after the reinstatement of the republican government
Juarez thought about releasing a list of all the liberals that asked for or gotten a job
within the Maximilian administration, to which Sebastián Lerdo a prominent liberal him self
replied “If you publish that list, there will no longer be a liberal party”.
That is where this video ends, please do read the description for so much more information
that I was unable to cram in to this already pretty long video.
Information like the fact that there are several contradicting sources on what the actual last
words of Maximilian were, so if you want to know what Maximilian may have said, check
out the description.
Also please if you can, do support me on Patreon the editing and research for my videos takes
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As always my name is M. Laser and stick around for history.