🇲🇽 1864–1867 | The French Intervention in Mexico | Part II What you’re seeing:
The rise and fall of Mexico’s Second Empire. Maximilian and Carlota took the throne in 1864, backed by Mexican conservatives and French power. Three years later, Maximilian was dead and Juárez was back in México City. Why did Maximilian lose his supporters?
The conservatives who crowned him wanted their lands back. Instead, Maximilian promised a “wisely liberal” government. He upheld Juárez’s reforms, kept church and state apart, and protected indigenous lands. He soon alienated the clergy, the conservatives, and the French generals. Why did France withdraw?
After the U.S. Civil War ended in 1865, Washington could again pressure France to end its intervention in México. In Europe, the rise of Prussia threatened France and made Napoleon III less willing to keep troops tied down across the Atlantic. By 1866, the French withdrawal had begun. What happened to Carlota?
With the empire collapsing, Carlota sa...