Orphaned just years after his birth, and cast into life with a negligent uncle, Benito Juarez seemed destined to live his life as a humble shepherd in a tiny village outside of Oaxaca, Mexico. But young Benito had a passion for learning, and a desire to achieve more. This ambition led him to study to join the clergy, and then into law school. But soon the revolution sweeping across his country led the humble lawyer from a governorship in Oaxaca to an exile in New Orleans, and then back to Mexico, where he became the country's first Indian president. But Juarez's struggles didn't end there. Soon after coming to power, Juarez confronted power-hungry generals within his own country, and the invading influence of Napoleon III, who hoped to make Mexico part of his global empire, ruled over by the installed emperor, Maximilian Hapsburg. Juarez alone, a man who grew up in poverty as part of one of Mexico's oppressed peoples, stood up to the French Empire and reclaimed Mexico for its people. Book jacket.
This book explores French imperialism in Latin America in the nineteenth century, taking Mexico as a case study. The standard narrative of nineteenth-century imperialism in Latin America is one of US expansion and British informal influence. However, it was France, not Britain, which made the most concerted effort to counter US power through Louis-Napoléon’s military intervention in Mexico, begun in 1862, which created an empire on the North American continent under the Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian. Despite its significance to French and Latin American history, this French imperial project is invariably described as an “illusion”, an “adventure” or a “mirage”. This book challenges these conclusions and places the French intervention in Mexico within the context of informal empire. It analyses French and Mexican ideas about monarchy in Latin America; responses to US expansion and the development of anti-Americanism and pan-Latinism; the consolidation of Mexican conservatism; and, finally, the collaboration of some Mexican elites with French imperialism. An important dimension of the relationship between Mexico and France, explored in the book, is the transatlantic and transnational context in which it developed, where competing conceptions of Mexico and France as nations, the role of Europe and the United States in the Americas and the idea of Latin America itself were challenged and debated.
This is a book which is long overdue and one that treats Lincoln as an international figure, not merely an American one. It examines events leading to the US invasion of Mexico, Lincoln's opposition to it in the Congress, his support of Mexico as President during and after the US Civil War, and the impact of the Mexican-American War nationally and internationally. It also includes documents from archives in the USA and Mexico.
In this new telling of Mexico’s Second Empire and Louis Napoléon’s installation of Maximilian von Habsburg and his wife, Carlota of Belgium, as the emperor and empress of Mexico, Maximilian and Carlota brings the dramatic, interesting, and tragic time of this six-year-siege to life. From 1861 to 1866, the French incorporated the armies of Austria, Belgium—including forces from Crimea to Egypt—to fight and subdue the regime of Mexico’s Benito Juárez during the time of the U.S. Civil War. France viewed this as a chance to seize Mexican territory in a moment they were convinced the Confederacy would prevail and take over Mexico. With both sides distracted in the U.S., this was their opportunity to seize territory in North America. In 1867, with aid from the United States, this movement came to a disastrous end both for the royals and for France while ushering in a new era for Mexico. In a bid to oust Juárez, Mexican conservatives appealed to European leaders to select a monarch to run their country. Maximilian and Carlota’s reign, from 1864 to 1867, was marked from the start by extravagance and ambition and ended with the execution of Maximilian by firing squad, with Carlota on the brink of madness. This epoch moment in the arc of French colonial rule, which spans North American and European history at a critical juncture on both continents, shows how Napoleon III’s failure to save Maximilian disgusted Europeans and sealed his own fate. Maximilian and Carlota offers a vivid portrait of the unusual marriage of Maximilian and Carlota and of international high society and politics at this critical nineteenth-century juncture. This largely unknown era in the history of the Americas comes to life through this colorful telling of the couple’s tragic reign.
The "superbly entertaining and well‑researched" (Financial Times) history of Maximilian and Carlota, the European aristocrats who stumbled into power in Mexico--and faced bloody consequences. In the 1860s, Napoleon III, intent on curbing the rise of American imperialism, persuaded a young Austrian archduke and a Belgian princess to leave Europe and become the emperor and empress of Mexico. They and their entourage arrived in a Mexico ruled by terror, where revolutionary fervor was barely suppressed by French troops. When the United States, now clear of its own Civil War, aided the rebels in pushing back Maximilian's imperial soldiers, the French army withdrew, abandoning the young couple. The regime fell apart. Maximilian was executed by a firing squad and Carlota, secluded in a Belgian castle, descended into madness. Assiduously researched and vividly told, The Last Emperor of Mexico is a dramatic story of European hubris, imperialist aspirations clashing with revolutionary fervor, and the Old World breaking from the New.
The Republic of Mexico was shakily emerging from its most recent civil war which finally established the primacy of its new Liberal Constitution. Burdened by crushing debt, much of which was the fault of the previous Conservative Government which borrowed from Europe to prosecute the war, President Benito Juarez refused to repay.It was 1862 and United States was fully engaged in its own civil war. Ruthlessly, Napoleon III of France saw his opportunity to force repayment of the debts to France as well as to strike a blow against Western Democracy. The perfect moment came when the defeated Mexican Conservatives offered the Imperial Throne of Mexico to Austrian Prince Maximilian. Promising his complete support, and promoting the lie that the Habsburg Prince would be welcomed with open arms, Napoleon plotted to seize Mexico and reestablish a European Power in The New World, violating the United States' long standing Monroe Doctrine.The French Army invaded Mexico and brought in Allied forces from Austria, Belgium, and even Egypt! The next five years saw sieges and battles of all scales in a war reminiscent of the Great Napoleon's in Spain, and presaged French and US involvement in Southeast Asia a century later.Not a general history of that war, "Viva Juarez!" is a two volume reference book on all military aspects of the conflict, especially intended for historical miniatures war gamers, but which speaks to the serious student of military history, as well. "Volume 1-The Armies," (62 pages) provides the most complete collection of uniform information for all combatants ever assembled in one source. Second Empire French, Austrian, Belgian, Egyptian, and even late American Civil War uniforms are all part of the historical mix. Lavishly illustrated plates by contemporary artists and modern ones, including Knötel, Hefter, and Boissellier are provided. Completing the collection, former Disney artist, Nick Stern, has provided more examples in his own style. Besides details of dress, Readers will find full organizational data for all combatant armies is included, with illustrated sections on weaponry and their details."Volume 2-The Battles" (208 pages) provides all available information for refighting thirty-one of the most important actions of that bitter war. All engagements appear in chronological order, with descriptions of the action, thorough Orders of Battle, and at least one period battlefield map printed in color, full page size for maximum accessibility. Previous works on the subject have been based on the limited English language sources. But more than two years research with previously unused sources in contemporary French, German, and Spanish books, periodicals, and museum map collections, have resulted in a unique contribution to the historical literature. "Viva Juarez!" is now the "go to" source for one of the pivotal military campaigns in Mexican history and that of the Americas.
Filled with fresh interpretations and information, puncturing old myths and challenging new ones, Battle Cry of Freedom will unquestionably become the standard one-volume history of the Civil War. James McPherson's fast-paced narrative fully integrates the political, social, and military events that crowded the two decades from the outbreak of one war in Mexico to the ending of another at Appomattox. Packed with drama and analytical insight, the book vividly recounts the momentous episodes that preceded the Civil War--the Dred Scott decision, the Lincoln-Douglas debates, John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry--and then moves into a masterful chronicle of the war itself--the battles, the strategic maneuvering on both sides, the politics, and the personalities. Particularly notable are McPherson's new views on such matters as the slavery expansion issue in the 1850s, the origins of the Republican Party, the causes of secession, internal dissent and anti-war opposition in the North and the South, and the reasons for the Union's victory. The book's title refers to the sentiments that informed both the Northern and Southern views of the conflict: the South seceded in the name of that freedom of self-determination and self-government for which their fathers had fought in 1776, while the North stood fast in defense of the Union founded by those fathers as the bulwark of American liberty. Eventually, the North had to grapple with the underlying cause of the war--slavery--and adopt a policy of emancipation as a second war aim. This "new birth of freedom," as Lincoln called it, constitutes the proudest legacy of America's bloodiest conflict. This authoritative volume makes sense of that vast and confusing "second American Revolution" we call the Civil War, a war that transformed a nation and expanded our heritage of liberty.
"The mining boom that began in northern Mexico in the 1890s set in motion fundamental social change. On the one hand it uprooted many workers, and the concerns of government officials, middle-class, reformers, and company managers coalesced into laws and programs to control the restless masses. But changes in the mining economy and political culture also precipitated class consciousness among merchants and artisans as well as skilled and unskilled workers. This study of the Hidalgo mining district in Chihuahua from the 1890s to the 1920s examines class formation, in particular its relation to social control, popular values, and pre-industrial traditions. In arguing that class identity stemmed less from the nature of one's work than from the beliefs one held, this work brings together the disparate themes of moral economy of mine workers, new mining technology, and the management policy of mine owners during the Mexican Revolution."--Provided by publisher.
Napoleon III's motives for intervening in Mexico in the 1860s were consistent with his foreign policy, which was based on his belief that free trade was the best foundation for peace. He saw the establishment of a friendly government in Mexico as an opportunity to expand that policy to encompass the world by ensuring European access to American markets, and preventing monopoly by the United States. His attempts to achieve this, however, were thwarted by his representatives in Mexico and the suspicions of his neighbours.
