The Mexican Adventure

On account of huge unpaid foreign debts, Emperor Napoleon III of France had his troops supported by British and Spanish forces march into Mexico in 1862 in order to remove the republican government. Following the withdrawal of the British and the Spanish and supported by the indigenous clerical party a Mexican delegation offered the crown of the Mexican Empire (Segundo Imperio Mexicano) to Erzherzog Maximilian of Austria, the brother of Kaiser Franz Joseph I. Emperor Maximilian and his Charlotte of Belgium arrived in Mexico in 1864 and hostilities were immediately instigated by the republican party under Benito Juarez. Following the French withdrawal in 1867, the Imperial Army which consisted mainly of the Austrian and Belgian Volunteer Legions was defeated by the republicans. Although the Empress was able to escape, the Emperor was captured and executed on the orders of a court-martial and a republic was declared again on the 15th of July 1867.

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