Maximilian and Carlota: Europe's Last Empire in Mexico - Hardcover

McAllen, M. M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1595341838 ISBN 13: 9781595341839

Publisher: Trinity University Press, 2014

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

M. M. McAllen writes about the history of the Southwest and Mexico. Her other books include I Would Rather Sleep in Texas: A History of the Lower Rio Grande Valley and the People of the Santa Anita Land Grant, depicting the blending cultures against the backdrop of the Mexican-American War, the Civil War, and border upheavals; and A Brave Boy and a Good Soldier: John C. C. Hill and the Texas Expedition to Mier, which tells the 1842 biography of thirteen-year-old Texan John C. C. Hill, captured in battle and adopted by Antonio López de Santa Anna.

McAllen regularly provides information for television documentaries filmed by BBC, PBS, and local and public stations in Texas, and she has written numerous articles for magazines and journals. She lives in San Antonio, TX.

Reviews

In Mexico’s turbulent political history, the brief existence of a monarchy in the 1860s stands out for its strangeness and pathos. A foreign policy adventure of France’s Napoleon III, the regime was a complete failure, ending with the 1867 execution of the “emperor,” Ferdinand Maximilian. A character more at peace building palaces or collecting insects, Maximilian might not have been cut out for the job, but the job—occupying a vast country and defeating the republican forces of Benito Juarez—was virtually a mission impossible. Yet Maximilian dutifully carried out his role, as did his consort Carlota, a Belgian princess. Narrating the military and political forces that impinged on their court, McAllen culminates their routines and travels with their reactions to the regime’s moment of truth, Napoléon’s decision to withdraw the French army. Carlota undertook a futile mission to Paris to reverse the verdict, while Maximilian, after some vacillation, chose not to abandon his supporters. With rich texture and apposite detail, McAllen ably recounts the events of Maximilian’s short and disastrous reign. --Gilbert Taylor

Edition details

• Publisher: Trinity University Press
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1595341838
• ISBN 13: 9781595341839
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 480