The Adventures of the Habsburgs in Mexico or the Rise and Fall of the Second Mexican Empire

"I forgive everyone. I pray that everyone else can forgive me, and I want my blood, which is about to be shed, to serve the good of the country. Long live Mexico, long live independence."

These are the last words spoken by the first and last emperor of the Second Mexican Empire, Ferdinand Maximilian of Habsburg, before his execution on June 19, 1867. He was doomed from the start when he trusted the French Emperor Napoleon III, who summoned him to rule over the newly conquered Mexico in the midst of the Civil War.

To understand how the Habsburgs are connected to Latin America, particularly Mexico, one must shed light on the background of their power on this continent.

In 1519, the Castilian expedition of Hernán Cortés landed on the coast of Mexico in what is now the state of Veracruz. Shortly before that, in 1516, Charles I of Habsburg became king of Castile and Aragon, and in 1520 he was crowned as Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Charles V.

Conquistadors like Hernán Cortés, Francisco Pizarro, and Francisco de Orellana brought Habsburg power to the new continent, which much later in the 19th century, at the suggestion of the French, would be called "Latin America." Mines full of precious metals, which were then loaded onto the famous galleons, became the main resource for maintaining the dynasty's power in Europe: these funds supported the Spanish tercios, conquering and subduing one region after another.

However, the star of the Spanish Habsburgs waned in the 17th century. The extraction ran dry, and the tercios lost their invincibility on the battlefield. After the death of King Charles II in 1700, the War of the Spanish Succession broke out. As a result, the Spanish throne, along with all its colonies, passed to the descendants of the French Bourbons, who still rule the country today. The dynastic priority finally shifted to the "Austrian" branch of the Habsburgs, who remained emperors first of the Holy Roman, and then the Austrian and Austro-Hungarian Empires.

The Spanish Bourbons lost most of their American possessions in the first quarter of the 19th century after a series of Wars of Independence. As for Mexico, the position of social conservatives was strong here, who initially fought on the side of Spain against the rebels and came to the idea of independence only when a liberal revolution occurred in the metropolis itself in 1820. In fact, Mexican conservatives were not even seeking independence—they simply had no choice.

In 1821, the independent Mexican Empire was proclaimed, and the following year its emperor became the conservative General Agustín de Iturbide, who was sharply opposed to the liberal government in Spain. He understood that a state could not be built from scratch: it had to be built on historical continuity, some tradition. Therefore, the Mexican Empire was declared the successor of the Aztec Empire.

However, the era of the First Mexican Empire was short-lived. Already in 1823, after Iturbide dissolved Congress, a rebellion broke out against the emperor, led by the caudillo Antonio López de Santa Anna. In 1824, Iturbide was captured and executed by the new republican authorities. Subsequently, Santa Anna held the presidency several times: during his rule, Mexico first went to war with France, lost Texas, and then lost the war against the United States, losing vast territories.

In domestic politics, the country continued to be torn by the struggle between liberal and conservative elites, who had diametrically opposed views on state structure. While liberals, represented by the bourgeoisie, sought to abolish class distinctions and develop industry, conservatives, represented by aristocrats, the military, and members of the Catholic Church, wanted to preserve their class privileges and were not at all interested in the emancipation of peasants working on their land. Heads of state changed very often and regularly became victims of conspiracies and uprisings. The same caudillo Santa Anna was formally president as many as five times. However, closer to the middle of the 19th century, a politician appeared in Mexico who created the impression that he could resolve the crisis and establish strong power—this was Benito Juárez.

Born into a peasant family of indigenous Zapotecs, Juárez grew up in poverty. At the age of three, he was orphaned and adopted by his uncle. Despite all the difficulties, he managed to obtain a legal education and build a political career at the level of his native state of Oaxaca. Juárez first emerged on the federal level as a liberal Minister of Justice in 1855 after his return from American exile and the final overthrow of Santa Anna. The new government initiated a series of reforms embodied in the Constitution of 1857, which limited the class and property privileges of the military and the church. Catholicism ceased to be the state religion, and corporate (mostly church) property was to be sold to private individuals.

Conservatives fiercely resisted the reforms and began a Civil War, which went down in history as the "War of Reform." By 1860, internal resistance from conservatives was suppressed, and then they turned to external forces for help.

Meanwhile, in distant France, Emperor Napoleon III was building ambitious plans to create a French colonial empire in Latin America. France already had experience with the "Pastry War" against Mexico in 1838–1839, when the French fleet forcibly collected compensation from this country for damages to French citizens, including a pastry chef, incurred during civil unrest.

Under the pretext of collecting unpaid debts, France joined the expedition of the Spaniards and British and invaded Mexico for the second time at the end of 1861. However, unlike his allies, Napoleon III intended not just to collect debts but to change the political regime. Within Mexico itself, he enlisted the support of conservatives, who thus hoped to take revenge for their lost "War of Reform." By that time, a monarchical intellectual thought had already formed in the country, insisting on the need to restore the monarchy headed by a representative of a European dynasty. The monarchy was supposed to correct all the evils that republican rule had brought to Mexico. The key proponent of such views was José María Gutiérrez de Estrada.

In April 1862, the French began a full-scale advance into the country. Despite a loud defeat on May 5 of the same year at Puebla (this day, known as "Cinco de Mayo," is still one of the national holidays of the Mexican people), by May of the following year, 1863, the French managed to break the resistance of the liberals and took control of the country's capital, Mexico City.

Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph of Habsburg, brother of Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I, was invited to the throne of the Second Mexican Empire. He had little prospect of leading any state in Europe, so he agreed to ascend the throne of a country in Latin America, especially since the Habsburgs had once ruled in this part of the world. Moreover, Mexican monarchists told Maximilian about the cruel dictator Juárez and the unfortunate people who were just waiting for their savior. Napoleon III believed he had secured a loyal ruler capable of protecting French interests in the region. In May 1864, the new emperor landed in his new domains.

There was another problem—the United States, which adopted the Monroe Doctrine in 1823. According to its provisions, Americans pledged to oppose any attempts by European powers to expand their influence in the Western Hemisphere. Fortunately for Napoleon III, the Civil War broke out in the States in 1861, so they were temporarily distracted from Mexico.

Some liberals, led by Juárez, did not recognize the new empire and continued armed resistance. The French responded with ruthless "scorched earth tactics." This task was assigned to a special unit within the French Foreign Legion under the command of Colonel Charles-Louis du Pin, a veteran of wars in Algeria, Crimea, Italy, and China. His soldiers hanged women, leaving them dangling on ropes until they provided the necessary information, and beat men to death for the same purpose. As du Pin himself wrote:

"If I were a Mexican, how much hatred I would have for these Frenchmen, and how I would want to make them suffer."

The troops of French General Auguste Henri Brincourt pursued Juárez's partisans to the very border with the United States, but Napoleon III still feared provoking the States into war. Juárez settled in the small border town of El Paso del Norte, which was later renamed Ciudad Juárez and now ranks high in the world for the number of murders per capita.

From 1865, when the federal government won its own Civil War, it began to provide much more significant support to Mexican Republicans. Washington never recognized Maximilian as emperor and, on the contrary, issued a loan to Juárez's government. Americans also provided him with comprehensive support with weapons and other resources. The Republicans seized the initiative.

Napoleon III realized that his venture had reached a dead end: a colonial empire had to be built on a remote territory with a hostile population that had a much more legitimate source of power and enjoyed the support of a much closer and stronger power. Moreover, in Europe itself, the emperor faced the likelihood of an imminent conflict against Prussia.

In 1866, Napoleon III announced the withdrawal of troops from Mexico and left Maximilian I to deal with Juárez and the United States on his own. The last French units left the country in March 1867, after which the days of the Second Mexican Empire were numbered.

Already in May, the Republicans captured the city of Querétaro, where Maximilian had entrenched himself with his supporters. On June 19, the second and last emperor of Mexico was executed along with his two loyal generals.

The victory of the liberals and the restoration of the republic did not lead to the cessation of political violence in the country. Already in the 1870s, the victors quarreled among themselves, and shortly after Juárez's death in 1872, General Porfirio Díaz came to power, ruling the country until the beginning of the Mexican Revolution in 1911.