The Maximillian Adventure

(The French Intervention in Mexico)

(1862-67)

Using problems over repayments of loans for his own Imperial and political ends, Napoleon III of France, trying to live up to his famous ancestor’s reputation, invaded Mexico in 1862.  Despite suffering a humiliating defeat at the hands of a Mexican force under General Ignacio Zaragoza at Puebla, the French subdued every other Mexican force they encountered:  entering Mexico City in June 1863.   A puppet government was then set up, with the Archduke Fernando Maximilian of Austria-Hungary as Emperor, who arrived in Mexico in 1864.   It was, however, only the French army, now under control of the great Bazaine, who kept Maximilian on the throne:  rebel Mexican forces under Juarez, the ex-President, in the north, and Porfirio Diaz in the south, being constantly defeated, but never eradicated, by the French flying columns.  

The American Civil War ended in 1865, allowing the US Government to begin looking south with some concern:  but the guerrilla war was slowly turning into one of territorial conquest. The French army, although still generally victorious in the field against a rebuilt Mexican Republican army, was gradually pushed back into the major cities: any attempt at setting up a series of garrisons merely resulting in the French units being ‘bottled up’ and gradually worn down by vast numbers of Mexicans.   Napoleon, unable to justify any further financial and military commitment to Mexico, began replacing French units in the field with units from Maximilian’s new Mexican Imperial Army, and the war continued throughout 1866 with French troops defending the cities whilst their Imperial Mexican colleagues were either defeated by, or deserted to, the Republicans.  

Finally, in February and March 1867, the French army withdrew from Mexico, and fighting concentrated around the last Imperial stronghold of Queretaro. This fell in May 1867, with Maximilian being formerly deposed, tried, and then shot by the Republicans on June 19th.   Benito Juarez regained his place as leader, but had barely started the process of rebuilding Mexico when he died in 1872.  Diaz took power and ruled like an Emperor for the next thirty years.

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