Efforts to establish a Mexican monarchy during French intervention in the 1860s

¶ … Mexican Monarchy (French intervention in Mexico-1860's area)

The French attempt to establish a monarchy in democratic Mexico

The French attempt to establish a monarchy in democratic Mexico

Every year, Mexicans -- and many Americans -- celebrate Cinco de Mayo. Yet celebrants outside of Mexico often have little idea of what event they are honoring. Cinco de Mayo is not, as is often mistakenly assumed, Mexico's independence day. Instead it honors the real but improbable feat of the Mexican conquest of the French forces at Puebla, Mexico, 100 miles east of Mexico City on the morning of May 5, 1862. 4,000 loyal Mexican government forces triumphed over a French army twice that size composed some of the most elite French units, including members of the French Foreign Legion (Cinco de Mayo, 2010, Think Quest).

The immediate cause justifying the French invasion was Mexico's nonpayment of its debts to creditor European nations. Originally, the French came to Mexico as part of a joint Spanish and English force, ostensibly to collect what was owed to the French by the democratically-elected government of Mexico. Mexico was heavily indebted to Europe, as a result of financing its recent conflicts with the United States and its own civil wars. In 1861, the democratically-elected president of Mexico Benito Juarez officially terminated Mexico's debt repayments for two years, to help his nation become more financially stable (Cinco de Mayo, 2010, Think Quest). The Mexican treasury was bankrupt.

As a result of this announcement, Mexico's creditor nations of Spain, Great Britain and France sent troops to Mexico to demand repayment. Spain and Great Britain were merely interested in their money, and were able to negotiate a modified schedule of repayments (Cinco history, 2006, Viva Cinco de Mayo). But France remained. Unwittingly, Juarez's action had given the French forces a perfect excuse to wage war upon the fragile Mexican government. Juarez had just fought a civil war to assert his right to govern Mexico. Juarez was a liberal and the first Mexican leader ever to be unaffiliated with the Mexican army. He was still opposed by Mexican aristocratic forces and powerful landowners, whom he had only barely defeated in the Mexican Civil War (Cinco history, 2006, Viva Cinco de Mayo).

France knew that Juarez's hold upon power was tenuous. France believed that because his control of is nation was so shaky, and the fact that Juarez was democratically elected meant that it could easily dominate the Mexican nation. In the eyes of the devout monarchist Emperor Napoleon III, Juarez's base of power in the majority of the populace, rather than in the military (the latter of which Juarez had substantially weakened by withdrawing many of its constitutional privileges) only made him easier to defeat, not stronger (Tuck 2008).

The French Emperor Napoleon was determined to colonize the democratic Latin American nation of Mexico and establish a new French Empire in the hemisphere. More so than any of the other European powers, Napoleon III hated and feared the United States, and wished to assert his nation's permanent influence and control in the region to counterbalance American influence (Cinco history, 2006, Viva Cinco de Mayo). America's westward expansion and the incorporation of new states into its territory frightened Napoleon, as it was evidence of the young nation's greater strength of resources and land in comparison to France.

Napoleon III had visions of embarking upon the expansion of France's colonial outreach into Central and South America. Much like the original Napoleon, he wished to claim the vastness of the known world for France. Mexico seemed like an ideal base from which France could extend its influence. In Napoleon III's grand plan, the new French Empire would feed raw materials into France. France could use these resources to produce more goods and services and dominate international trade (Cinco history, 2006, Viva Cinco de Mayo). France could also control the flow of goods and services through Southern and Central America.

The French saw their actions as justified because of the sweeping and threatening United States annexation of California, Arizona and New Mexico, even more so than Mexico's nonpayment of debt (Cinco de Mayo, 2010, Think Quest). Given that the United States was embroiled in its own Civil War at the time, France thought that it was an ideal moment to install a puppet government in Mexico, as there were no American military resources to spare to curtail France's imperialistic efforts. The French were exceedingly proud of their military strength, and the defeat of Mexico at the hands of the United States -- even before the Mexican Civil War and Reform Wars weakened the nation still further -- convinced the French that the conquest of Mexico would be easy. After all, the French army had not been defeated by any nation in fifty years. The Emperor took the precaution of sending its most elite forces, including the French Foreign Legion, on its journey to Mexico. France's determination to establish a monarchy at this critical time was manifested in the fact that Maximilian, a Hapsburg Prince, and his wife, Carlota, accompanied the invading French military, in contrast to the other European forces that simply came with soldiers (Cinco history, 2006, Viva Cinco de Mayo).

After other invading European powers negotiated a settlement with Mexico's newly elected constitutional government and left, France began to wage war. Many of the Mexican conservatives and land owners of Mexico who feared the new democracy joined the French effort to establish a monarch. President Benito Juarez's indigenous heritage was seen as a threat to their dominance, as many of the landowners had European ancestry. Juarez had made efforts to liberalize and secularize the Mexican government and had abolished many of the special privileges accorded to the clergy that had formerly existed in Mexico. As a result, the Catholic Church actively supported the French monarchist effort to conquer Mexico. Additionally, the Pope feared the rise of radical, secular governments in Europe, and saw a parallel in Mexico's liberal revolution to the revolutions that had shaken so many European monarchies in 1848 (Tuck 2008).