France Invades Mexico

If you tell people that Mexico was twice a monarchy

, they might be surprised; it's not necessarily a well-known fact. In the 1860s, after a lot of strife, the pro-democracy liberals and the pro-monarchy conservatives seemed to be at an impasse. Then, just as things looked up, the conservatives helped a foreign power invade and put a monarch on a false throne.

Benito Juarez became Mexico's president in 1861, after civil and international wars had crippled the country's economy. One of his first acts in office was to temporarily suspend interest payments to Mexico's debtors in Europe--mainly Spain, France, and Great Britain. The countries wanted their money of course, and the lot of them planned to send representative forces to Mexico to demand payment. Napoleon III, the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, was the ruler of France at the time; he was a very gung-ho leader and he enthusiastically sent forces to the New World to retrieve what was owed to them. When the leaders of Spain and Britain realized that Napoleon III planned to invade Mexico permanently, they canceled their travel plans; a French fleet left for the Americas in 1862.

Napoleon III wasn't alone in his plans; he had insider help. The Mexican conservatives had always argued that the country would be better off under a monarch's rule, tightly controlled by one central body with ties to the omnipresent Catholic church. They had already tried once; immediately upon winning freedom from Spain, Agustin de Iterbide had taken power as the Emperor of Mexico. But the empire had collapsed after less than eight months, and the first few liberal-led Republics hadn't fared much better. Despite Benito Juarez's mass appeal and realistic goals, the conservatives believed that nothing less than a European-guided rule would do.

So when Napoleon III's fleet arrived on Mexico's shores, it took them less than a year to capture the capital city. With the aid of the wealthy and treacherous conservatives, the French forces were able to usurp the fledgling Juarez government, and promptly declared Mexico to be an empire once again. Napoleon offered the crown to Maximilian, an intelligent Austrian noble and French ally. Maximilian and his wife Charlotte moved into the Chapultepec castle in Mexico City in May 1864, and French forces expanded their invasion into the surrounding countryside.

The French intervention made Emperor Maximilian a victim of European and Mexican politics, unfortunately. He was a progressive man who believed in land rights, education, labor laws, and limits to the monarchy's power. Unfortunately, his ideas were too liberal for the Imperialists who had put him in power, and the terms of his rule made him an enemy of the Republicans. Even Benito Juarez liked him personally, but couldn't accept working with the man who represented the Mexican loss of freedom.

The liberals fought back, aided by the United States. The French did very badly in the war and the monarchy failed after approximately three years. Napoleon III announced the withdrawal of French troops in 1866; the remaining conservatives couldn't hope to hold ground without their support. In February 1867, Mexico City was recaptured; Benito was re-instated as President, Maximilian was executed, and the conservative party was thoroughly discredited. Mexico was a force to be reckoned with, and no European power ever tried to steal it again.

by: Robert Nickel

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