The French Occupation of Mexico Part IV — The Reign of Maximilian I.Click on links in case you

The French Occupation of Mexico Part IV — The Reign of Maximilian I.Click on links in case you missed: Part I, Part II, Part III.After the successful French conquest of Mexico, Napoleon III sought a puppet emperor to rule over his new Mexican Empire.  Maximilian I was a an Austrian prince who hailed from the ancient and noble House of Habsburg-Lorraine.  Before the French occupation of Mexico and during the rise of the Second Mexican Republic, Maximilian was approached by the aristocracy of Mexico with the offer of becoming emperor.  The conservative aristocrats wanted to end the republican movement, wanted a strong Imperial government which would grant them favors, and wanted the Catholic Church to have more power in Mexican politics.  Maximilian declined their offer, a wise decision considering that the attempt to thwart the Second Mexican Republic ended in failure.  However the affinity of the Mexican aristocracy for Maximilian led Napoleon III to choose him as his puppet emperor.  Using French influence over Austrian politics and the Habsburg family, Napoleon III was able to convince Maximilian to become Emperor of Mexico.  He landed at Veracruz on the 21st of May, 1864.As soon as he was in power, Maximilian became the emperor that almost everybody hated.  He tried to implement a system of government similar to that of the French Empire.  However this system was too liberal and secular for the Mexican aristocracy, who wanted a return back to the olden days of the First Mexican Empire, which had fallen almost 40 years ago.  Many of the liberal reforms decreed by Maximilian were the same as those of President Juarez and the republic. He created some of the first child labor laws, he protected land rights of peasants, he ended debt slavery, forbade all forms of corporal punishment, and broke the monopoly of the haciendas over agriculture.  While the Mexican aristocracy was Maximilian main base of support, he quickly alienated the conservative elite.In the meantime, despite the reforms the people of Mexico hated him simply because he was an invader and an illegitimate ruler of Mexico.  Maximilian further exacerbated his relations with the people by ordering  all who were caught aiding the republicans were to be immediately executed.  In April of 1865 the Civil War in the United States had ended, and Maximilian offered his services in resettling ex-Confederates in a special colony called “New Virginia”.  In addition, he also encouraged people from Europe to settle in Mexico.  These policies enraged the Mexican populace, who believed Maximilian was selling out Mexico to foreigners and attempting to “Eurpeonize” the country. By 1866 Maximilian’s reign was becoming precarious.  However, events would further weaken Maximilian’s rule.  With the end of the American Civil War, the US Government reasserted it’s commitment to enforcing the Monroe Doctrine, which was a policy to counter all European military influence in Latin America.  Secretary of War Edwin Stanton even threatened an invasion of Mexico.  Worse yet, the remaining republican forces, centered near the border regions in the north and south of Mexico, began to grow stronger and more organized.  After the end of the American Civil War, North America was awash in surplus arms, many of which flooded across the border to arm the Mexican resistance.  Soon, French and Mexican Imperial forces would find themselves in a bloody guerrilla war the would shake the fragile foundations of the Second Mexican Empire. -- source link

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