Maximilian I of Mexico: Encyclopedia II - Maximilian I of Mexico - Emperor of Mexico

Maximilian I of Mexico - Emperor of Mexico

Maximilian landed at Veracruz on May 28, 1864; but from the very outset he found himself involved in serious difficulties since the Mexican liberals, led by President Benito Juárez, refused to recognize his rule and there was continuous warfare between his French troops and the Mexican republicans.

The Emperor and Empress set up their residence at Chapultepec Castle, located on the top of a hill in the outskirts of Mexico City that had been a retreat of Aztec emperors. Maximilian ordered a wide avenue cut through the city from Chapultepec to the city center; originally named Avenue of the Empress, it is today Mexico City's famous Paseo de la Reforma (The Reform Promenade).

As Maximilian and Carlota had no children, they adopted Agustín de Iturbide y Green and his cousin Salvador de Iturbide y de Marzán, both grandsons of Agustín de Iturbide, an earlier Emperor of Mexico. They gave young Agustín the title of "His Highness, the Prince of Iturbide", and intended to groom him as heir to the throne.

To the dismay of his conservative allies, Maximilian upheld several liberal policies proposed by the Juárez administration – such as land reforms, religious freedoms, and extending the right to vote beyond the landholding class. At first Maximilian offered Juárez an amnesty if he would swear allegiance to the crown, which Juárez refused. Later Maximilian ordered all captured followers of Juárez to be shot: a tactical mistake that only exacerbated opposition to his regime.

After the end of the American Civil War the United States began supplying arms to the republicans. By 1866 the imminence of Maximilian's abdication was apparent to almost everyone outside Mexico.

In 1866 Napoleon III withdrew his troops in the face of Mexican resistance and U.S. opposition under the Monroe Doctrine. Carlota travelled to Europe, seeking assistance for her husband's regime in Paris and Vienna and, finally, in Rome from Pope Pius IX. Her efforts failed, and she suffered a profound emotional collapse (some say insanity) and never went back to Mexico. After the Mexicans executed her husband the following year, she spent the rest of her life in seclusion, first at Miramar Castle near Trieste, Italy, and then at the Château de Bouchout in Meise, Belgium, where she died on January 19, 1927.

Though urged to abandon Mexico by Napoleon III himself, whose withdrawal from Mexico was a great blow to the Mexican Imperial cause, Maximilian refused to desert his followers. Withdrawing, in February 1867, to Querétaro, he sustained a siege for several weeks, but on 11 May resolved to attempt an escape through the enemy lines. He was, however, intercepted before he could carry out this plan and, following a court-martial, was sentenced to death. Many of the crowned heads of Europe and other prominent figures (including Victor Hugo and Giuseppe Garibaldi) sent telegrams and letters to Mexico pleading for Maximilian's life to be spared, but Juárez refused to commute the sentence, believing that it was necessary to send a message that Mexico would not tolerate any government imposed by foreign powers.

The sentence was carried out on June 19, 1867 when Maximilian was executed (together with his generals Miguel Miramón and Tomás Mejía) by a firing squad. Maximilian's body was mutilated by Mexican republicans before being buried in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna, Austria, early the following year.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Emperor of Mexico", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki