Segundo Imperio Mexicano

Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph von Habsburg-Lothringen, was born on July 6, 1832, as Archduke of Austria and Prince of Hungary and Bohemia. He wed on July 27, 1857, to Princess Marie Charlotte AmélieAugustine Victoire Clémentine Léopoldine, granddaughter of Marie Amelia of the Two Sicilies, Queen of France, sister of Leopold II, Emperor of Belgium and first cousin to Queen Victoria I of the UnitedKingdom.

The young couple lived in Milan until 1859, when the Austrian Emperor removed them because Maximilian was too liberal. They then accepted the crown offered by a group of Mexicanconservatives, who were in search of a European prince to occupy the throne of the Second Mexican Empire in order to gain military support from France and the Catholic Church. Maximilian accepted on thecondition that Mexicans agreed, to which conservatives responded by showing him signatures of a plebiscite organized in Mexico City, arguing that those were most of the citizens. Maximilian forgot to takenotice that only forty years prior, Agustin I, first emperor of Mexico, had been overthrown and executed.

In 1860, the French Intervention of Mexico began to take place, supported by Napoleon III.Maximilian and Charlotte arrived at the port of Veracruz on the Novara ship on May 28, 1864, but soon discovered a Mexico badly wounded by war and deeply divided into republicans and conservatives.The imperial couple was crown at the Metropolitan Cathedral on the 10th of April 1864 and chose Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City as their new home.
During his reign, Maximilian attempted to sociallyand economically develop the country, based on European tradition, following the strategy of the Hapsburg, his family, one of Europe’s oldest dynasties.

The first orders of the Second MexicanEmpire tried to give the interventionist government a tint of legality. Maximilian proposed to formation of a Superior Government Committee to carry out executive powers, formed by the Assembly of...