Subject to Change
I talk to the world's best historians and let them tell the stories. And the stories are wonderful! (And occasionally I change the subject and talk about films, philosophy or whatever!).
Subject to Change
The Last Emperor of Mexico - part 1
Karl Marx called it 'one of the most monstrous enterprises in the annals of international history'. This seems unfair to the young Hapsburg royals who travel to Mexico in 1864 to become its emperor and empress. Highly liberal by the standards of the day and with the best of intentions they will face a terrible struggle to rule and (ultimately) to try to survive.
Edward Shawcross has written one of the best books I have read in years. It is simply a fantastic page turner. And Edward is also a hugely entertaining speaker as you will find out as you listen to the podcast.
This episode is part 1 and takes us up to the point the young couple arrive in Mexico. Enjoy!
Hello and welcome to Subject to Change with me, russell Hogg. My guest today is historian Edward Shawcross, and he's the author of the Last Emperor of Mexico, which was one of the most highly praised books of last year, and deservedly so, as it was one of the most jaw-dropping and certainly one of the most enjoyable books I've read in years. Anyway, welcome, ed, to the podcast.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much, Russell. What a wonderful introduction Pleasure to be here.
Speaker 2:So let's start with a really surreal event, and that's the arrival in Mexico of the younger brother of the emperor of the well, I suppose by now rather feeble Austro-Hungarian empire. And so he arrives in Mexico, and it's May 29th 1864, and Maximilian and his wife Carlotta, they step ashore in Veracruz. And they haven't come as tourists, they've come as emperor and empress of Mexico. And once they get to Mexico City, they're greeted, you know, with wild enthusiasm and days and days of celebration. So I guess my first question is how on earth has it come to this? How have some fairly minor European royals with no obvious connections to Mexico, how have they ended up as its rulers?
Speaker 1:Fantastic question and I should try and keep the answer fairly brief because it can spiral, but there's two things really that are central to it, which I'll explain to you, and they're both centered on Mexico itself. So the first is that Mexico, in fact, unlike most other Latin American countries, becomes independent as a monarchy. There's a first emperor of Mexico, independent Mexico. His name is Alguzcan de Itavide. He's actually a Spanish royalist. He's fighting for Spain against the insurrectionists who want Mexico to have independence. But in 1821, he switches sides you see which way the wind is blowing and he manages to unite the various forces fighting against Spain behind him with a plan which is deceptively simple that Mexico should be independent, but independent as a monarchy. And who will rule that monarchy? It will be one of the members of the royal family of Spain. In fact, he asked Ferdinand VII, the Spanish king, but if not him, then one of his relatives. Now Ferdinand VII rejects this out of hand and he says no way, I want the reconquest of what had been New Spain and becomes Mexico, one of the richest parts of the Spanish empire. So Itabide is presented with a problem he's declared independence as a monarchy, but he doesn't have a monarch. His solution to that is simple. He has himself crowned emperor, becomes the first emperor of Mexico, but his reign is dizzingly short. He's only in power for nine months before he's swept from power, forced into exile. He actually comes back in 1824, expecting to be welcomed as a hero. He's not. He's arrested and, within three weeks, shot as a traitor.
Speaker 1:So Mexico begins its life as an independent monarchy, but very quickly becomes a republic. Now, this republic's independent history is very unhappy. There's a series of revolts, riots, rebellions, violence much more important than the ballot box. There's a series of presidents, interim presidents, presidents not recognised by other presidents, and it's a Sisyphean task to try and remember who they all are. To use an anachronism, it's something of a failed state. Now, that is not too different to the history of a lot of Latin American republics, unfortunately, given the legacy of Spanish colonialism and weak institutions and emergent democracies. But what? The second thing that separates Mexico and marks it out as different from many other Latin American republics is its proximity to the United States of America Latin.
Speaker 1:American republics is its proximity to the United States of America.
Speaker 1:A later president is often attributed this quote.
Speaker 1:He says poor Mexico, so far from God, so close to the United States, and nowhere would this have been more apparent in its history than in 1846. You've had decades of political instability and what happens in 1846 is the United States of America declares war on its southern neighbor and this is a nakedly aggressive expansionist drive and the US sends an expeditionary force down to Veracruz, that very port that you mentioned, where Maximilian Carlotta will arrive about 20 years later. This force fights its way up the route of the Conquistadores up into Mexico City, occupies Mexico City, and the stars and stripes are unfurled across the magnificent central square of Mexico, the National Palace where the President's Theatre is occupied, and, of course, the Catholic Cathedral looming on the other side of the square, with these Protestant forces marching through and playing Yankee Doodle. So you can imagine the affront to which I always think is slightly, I suppose now it's it's more associated with the sort of children's tune, isn't it? It's, it seems a sort of infantile tune to have as your, as a sort of imperialist conquering troops.
Speaker 2:But but anyway, maybe that's just my perception I had a friend once, uh, a german jew, who, uh, she'd escaped in the kinder transport, and she always said to me oh russell, the, the Germans had all the best songs, and so she would sing German marching songs as she holidayed.
Speaker 1:It's sort of yeah, sort of Russian or German marching songs that are associated with militarism, not Yankee Doodle, but in 1847, as the US troops are marching through, it very much seems to be a militarist, imperialist conquest. And these US troops? It's the first time US troops ever occupy a foreign capital, certainly not the last time. And the only way Mexico is able to get them out is by signing an incredibly unequal treaty, probably one of the most unequal treaties in history, in fact, certainly in modern history. They have to give up half of their national territory in return for US troops to leave. So this is places like California, but also parts of Arizona, of course, the state of New Mexico, places that come on to be incredibly rich and prosperous in the 20th century, but in the 19th century this is a trauma and humiliation that in many ways is the sort of final nail in the coffin of the Mexican Republic, or at least in any hope of Mexican politics, sort of working itself out peaceably and consolidating itself in the way that you would hope. So what happens in the 1950s? And apologies, I said this was going to be a long answer. No, no, take as long as you like. So we've got monarchy independence. We've got national trauma and humiliation with the US-Mexican War 1846-48.
Speaker 1:In the 1850s, rather than rallying behind you know sort of common purpose and trying to rebuild the nation, mexican politics becomes incredibly polarised between two loose political parties, helpfully named Liberals and Conservatives, which to some extent to explain their views, liberals argue that the reason why Mexico has been humiliated in the way that it has is because it's too backwards, it's too colonial, it's not modern enough and they want to drag it kicking and screaming into the mid-19th century. And the way they're going to do that, primarily, is by breaking the power of the Catholic Church, which not only has enormous spiritual hold over the Mexican population, but also is the largest landowner, has huge economic power. So what they do is they break up the land holdings of the Catholic Church, which are held in mortmain, ie they can never be bought and sold. They're in perpetuity to the Catholic Church. Now you won't be surprised to learn that conservatives don't think that Mexico needs to be dragged kicking and screaming into the mid-19th century. They argue that the single thing binding Mexico together is the Catholic religion and the Catholic Church, and therefore the liberals' attack on the property of the church is an impious, atheistic assault on the one thing that is holding the nation together, and this very quickly stops being a war of words and becomes an actual civil conflict in which these two sides fight brutally and viciously for control of the capital, mexico City.
Speaker 1:Now, to cut a long story short, the Conservatives lose A man called Benito Juarez, an indigenous Mexican who rises from rural poverty to become president of the nation, triumphs over his adversaries, marches into Mexico City in 1861. And really there our story should end, but it doesn't, because what happens is there's monarchists within the Conservative Party, some already in Paris, others who flee in exile after this defeat, become refugees, and what they argue is to make Mexico great again. To coin a phrase, is we need to go back to the original plan of independence which, if you've been paying attention, you'll remember, was for Mexico to be a monarchy. And, of course, on their own, they're not powerful enough to do this. They've just lost the Civil War. Right, if they had been able to do it, they would have done it, but they managed to get the ear of one of the most powerful men in the world, and this is a man called Napoleon III, who is going to be central to our story.
Speaker 2:Now hang on Napoleon III. That's a name that I vaguely remember from history.
Speaker 1:Napoleon I Is he some kind of his uncle is, uh, is is kind of a big deal. People may have heard of him. Absolutely right, yeah, so he is. He is a nephew of napoleon um, the first that the more famous napoleon um, napoleon's brother louis, is it's. It's his son, uh, who comes to power in france. And what he I mean? He's an endlessly fascinating character. We might talk about him more, but why he isn? He's not only important because he enables these Mexican monarchies to create the scheme that they've been dreaming of, but also the example that he set. So he comes to power in 1848. He had various failed attempts to take over. He becomes a successor to the Bonaparte's dream. His brother dies. Napoleon's actual son, napoleon II, also dies in the early 1830s. Napoleon's actual son, napoleon II, also dies in the early 1830s, and Napoleon III is sort of the last person left standing, as it were, of the next generation.
Speaker 1:Two coup d'etats which fail miserably and are disastrous and literally farcical. In 1848, he comes to power, but not through a coup d'etat. He's actually elected because in 1848, revolution sweeps across Europe, emanating from Paris, as of course it always does. Revolution sweeps across Europe emanating from Paris, as of course it always does. The French monarchy is chased off and goes into exile in England as usual. And Louis-Napoleon arrives in Paris and stands in the national elections. He's the first ever democratically elected president of France universal male suffrage. He wins by a landslide.
Speaker 1:But there's a problem. The Second Republic, the name of the regime that he is going to head, its constitution prohibits him standing for a second term. Now, if you know anything about Bonaparte's history, you'll know that there's a very easy way around this, and that is, of course, coup d'etat. Third time, lucky for Napoleon III, he launches a coup d'etat against his own government. He's got the army on board this time, which is of course massively helpful, and that is a success, insofar as he's able to retain his hold on power. And when does he become? The coup d'etat is the 2nd of December 1851. And then, in 1852, exactly one year later, he proclaims himself emperor of the French, the French Second Empire, recreating his uncle's empire. Now, what he's done there is on the ashes of a republic, he's found in a monarchy, an empire. So empire here it doesn't refer to the overseas French empire, it refers to a political state. So France is an empire in that sense. And he becomes emperor of the.
Speaker 2:French? Why do people like to be called emperor rather than king? Is there some constitutional distinction here, or has it just got a certain flavour to it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is. So it's a title above king, emperor, and there's a real inflation of emperors. They're just sort of suffering with terrible inflation now. In the late 18th, early 19th century there was an inflation of the word emperor, so previously, of course you had the Roman emperors and then the holy roman emperors, and so that was the sort of the only emperor that that you had in in sort of western europe. But of course napoleon crowns himself emperor of the french.
Speaker 1:Then, um, it's this sort of leads, as I say, to this inflation where other other european powers want to get in in the act. So you begin to get emperors of austria. Um, of course, later you'll have the Kaiser, the German emperor, and also of course the Tsar. The word Tsar directly comes from Caesar, as in fact is Kaiser. So you get this inflation of emperors and it's a title above king, and the Queen Victoria is incredibly upset that she's a mere queen, and that's why Disraeli sort of has to invent the title Empress of India, so that she's she's not at dinner parties with her various nephews and cousins or whatever it is that she's she's, she's sort of not undone by rank and it's a it's, it's an indication of the ambition of Mexico in its independence declaration, but also its power and its wealth that it enjoyed under Spanish colonialism, that Ita Bide thinks that he can proclaim an empire that is on par with these great European monarchies.
Speaker 2:So what kind of man was Napoleon III? Is he like his predecessor? What sort of character is he?
Speaker 1:He's an absolutely extraordinary character. He's obsessed by the Bonapartist dynasty legacy. He thinks it's his destiny to fulfill the role that he has done to recreate his uncle's empire. He's very different to his uncle though. Um, he's. He's not a military genius by any stretch of the imagination, and that will be key in his downfall, which we'll come on to later. Um, he's also he.
Speaker 1:He's unlike most other european monarchs because although he's born into the Imperial Royal Family in 1808, obviously with his uncle's defeat at Waterloo, being a Bonaparte in France is not of strong look. So his family is forced into exile and he grows up actually in Switzerland. After that he speaks French with a Swiss-German accent, which if you've ever tried to speak French in France with any kind of accent, which, if you've ever tried to speak French in France with any kind of accent, you'll know they don't look kindly upon. And in fact, when he becomes president he's ridiculed for this, for his slightly strange foreign accent. And he's a terrible public speaker. And he actually loves revolution and intrigue and conspiracy from an early age, because what he does as a young man is he goes to italy and he's a sort of. He becomes, um in, romantically involved and indeed, you know, seriously politically involved with italian nationalism, which is a rising force, and nationalism in the 19th century. It's it. It changes towards the end and becomes a much more what we would call right-wing, uh ideology. But in its inception it's a very radical democratic left-wing idea, because of course you're getting rid of of um of you know, for example, the austrian empire which rules much of northern italy and replacing it with a democratic state elected by the people right. So nationalism has a has a sort of much, much more radical origins than we might think.
Speaker 1:In the 21st century, um louis napoleon gets involved with their secret societies and in the early 1830s in fact joins a revolution which attempts to overthrow papal authority, austrian authority in Italy and create an Italian nation state. And so he's happiest in sort of taverns smoking cigarettes and, you know, in these sort of smoke filled rooms, back channels, secret diplomacy. So he's a man of incredible ambition. He's a man who has sort of cut his teeth, as it were, in conspiracy. Of course he had two failed coup d'etats to try and take over the French state. So he's a man who I assume you would say, is economical with the truth and very much the ends justify the means, as it were. So whatever his goal is, he will happily accomplish it by any means possible. You know sort of ideas of honor et cetera. He's not unaware of them, but he would be willing to go outside the normal kind of channels of European statecraft to achieve his goals, which is what draws him to the Mexican conspiracy.
Speaker 2:But he's also he's quite a progressive ruler, is he?
Speaker 1:Oh, he's a man full of contradictions, and we'll see this with the Mexican. You know his intervention in Mexico. So you would think a man who's destroyed democracy in France, proclaimed himself emperor of the French and is harking back to the Bonapartist past would be, you know, a sort of an autocrat and a reactionary. He's not. Actually, he writes a pamphlet called Napoleonic Ideas, and if you're, you know, you know much about the history of Napoleon. I there's not. You won't recognise. You know much, very much of the Napoleon that he paints. But the Napoleon that he paints in his Napoleonic Ideas is a man, man who is essentially a Democrat, who wanted peace. I mean, listeners might be surprised to know that Napoleon the first ultimate aim was peace in Europe. But that's what Napoleon III thinks, or at least writes. And you're right, absolutely right.
Speaker 1:He is progressive. He's one of the fairly few examples of what we would today call dictators who actually liberalize their regime. So he comes to power. It's very repressive, there's censorship, there's very little parliamentary democracy. By the end of his regime 1870, he creates something called the Liberal Empire, which is actually more democratic than Britain. You know, it's a very simple way of putting it. It's universal male suffrage. Ministers are responsible to parliament, there's pretty much freedom of the press, etc. It's one of the most democratic regimes in the world. So by the sort of standard of mid-19th century he's incredibly progressive in some areas and very much a liberal, but at the same time a Bonapartist who's got all of these sort of ties to the Bonapartist past and glory and the need to have a grand foreign policy.
Speaker 2:I kind of interrupted you, but I think you're going to come on to say, well, what's Napoleon's interest in Mexico? But I think you're going to come on to say, well, what's?
Speaker 1:Napoleon's interest in Mexico, right. So in speaking of that grand foreign policy, if people have heard of Napoleon III, it's often through the famous Marx quote the first time is tragedy, the second time is farce. So, of course, the uncle being the tragedy, the nephew being somehow farcical In the 1850s, there's very little farcical about his regime whatsoever. He manages to end France's isolation after the Vienna Settlement in 1815 by allying with the British in the Crimean War, which is a victory it's a hard one and difficult victory, but it's still a victory defeating the Russians In 1859, he goes to war with Austria and personally leads the army in Italy and defeats Franz Joseph, who personally leads his army. And so you know, more laurels to the French army. He's involved, he's involved, he involves France in the Second Opium War.
Speaker 1:It's under Napoleon III that the occupation of Saigon in what becomes French Indochina begins. So he's, he's, he's been victorious. And of course, the colonization and conquest of Algeria continues. So, in his own words, french arms have been victorious in Europe, north Africa and Asia, which leaves just one area to you know if you're playing risk, then you'll be familiar with this to which French arms can be victorious, and that's the Americas. So there is always this idea of Bonaparte's glory and the glory of France. That's kind of you, central to, of course, to Bonaparte's regime. But any mid-19th century regime really has that kind of national glory at heart. But what draws him to Mexico is that it's going to be glory and empire on the cheap, because he's got these Mexican conservatives and monarchists who come to him and the.
Speaker 1:The plan, as they sell it, is an incredibly attractive one. In return for a few thousand troops, french troops, who will overthrow the tyranny that is Benito Juarez. He may purport to be a liberal and a democrat, but in fact he is a small radical minority that's oppressing the vast majority of Catholic Mexico by attacking the church. French army will turn up, proclaim Maximilian, who will come on to emperor of Mexico, and you know, hundreds of thousands of Mexicans will flock to the, to the, to the flag, and it will be incredibly simple. In return, you have a compliant client state.
Speaker 1:You're going to get, you're going to get transit rights there's all talk about. You know, can you, how, can you get access to the Pacific? And Mexico is not a bad place to do that. And French business will exploit the incredible mineral wealth of Mexico which the tales of Alexander von Humboldt and El Dorado missed have never really gone out of the consciousness of Europeans. So you're going to get all of the benefits to the metropolis, to the mother country of colonialism, at a fraction of the cost. If you think about what's going on in Algeria, about 80,000 to 100,000 French troops are tied down in Algeria and have been for the best part of 20 odd years. It's incredibly expensive and it's brutal colonial warfare and for very little gain to the French economy, right. So this seems to be a much better way of going about it.
Speaker 2:So the Mexicans have turned up, and presumably their problem is who's going to take the job? Right, and so is it Napoleon who goes out and finds the candidate for them. How does it work?
Speaker 1:Right. So we're presenting once again with a relatively simple plan. Mexico becomes a monarchy, but of course you need a monarch, and it's actually Napoleon III's wife, eugenie, who is a kind of driving force in moving people onto the candidacy of Maximilian and the reason why Maximilian is a good choice in we should talk about. We've spoken for a long time. We've not mentioned the actual emperor of Mexico, but there is so much kind of going on in this story before we get there. So Ferdinand Maximilian as you said right at the beginning, russell, he is a Habsburg and Habsburgs although the Austrian Empire is certainly a declining power, the luster of the Habsburg name is something that still shines and stands out across Europe. The Habsburgs can trace power right back to the 13th century unbroken. You think of the various changes in the house of royal family in England and then Britain. That's quite something. And so, although he is the younger brother of Franz Joseph, he becomes emperor in 1848, a momentous year. He still is someone who is you know, he's well known at what we today would call a celebrity, and now he's. Maximilian is very different to his brother, his brother Franz Joseph very conservative, autocratic, very rigid as well. So he's a very boring person to have sitting next to you at a dinner party. Maximilian would be a fantastic person to sit next to at a dinner party because he's gregarious, he's much more liberal, he's outgoing, he's interested in science, he's interested in art, in literature, he pens his own poetry. The only problem you might have at the dinner party is, unless you're incredibly posh, he probably wouldn't talk to you because he's also an outrageous snot. But we'll put that to one side. Because of these qualities and his personal qualities as much as his ideas, he is someone who is a dangerous rival to Franz Joseph's power. There's court circles in Vienna who much prefer Maximilian.
Speaker 1:So Franz Joseph does what you do with any troublesome younger brother he puts him far from power and indeed far from Vienna, channels his energies into the Austrian Navy and he becomes commander in chief of the Austrian Navy, which sounds important. But you have to remember that the Austrian Navy was something of a joke in the mid-19th century. So it's a little. I don't know. I'm trying to work out if Austria even has a coastline Right. I mean very small. So it does. At this time it's Trieste, which is now in Italy but was then part of the Austrian Empire as the big port. But it's a little bit like if Prince William put Prince Harry in charge of the British Space Agency. You know you're not going to achieve much in that role.
Speaker 1:Actually, maximilian does. He modernises the Navy and turns it into an effective fighting force and he proves himself to be a very competent administrator and he loves the role. But he considers himself destined for greater things, as pretty much everyone in our story does. And what adds steel to his ambition? He's a dreamer, he's a dilettante, I suppose we would say he's obsessed by his ambition. He's a dreamer, he's a dilettante, I suppose we would say he's obsessed by his lineage. He's his wife.
Speaker 1:So enter Carlotta, princess Charlotte. She's the daughter of a Belgian king. Maximilian meets her on a diplomatic mission various pointless diplomatic missions. He's put on by his brother, one of which is to the court of Belgium. He's dreading it because Belgium is a country that was created in 1831, which is one year before Maximilian was born and of course, like most of Europe, it used to be ruled by Habsburg. So, as I said, he's an outrageous snob. When he gets there, he's very contentious of Belgium and the Belgian people. He describes horrific balls and dinner parties and soirees where, you know. He says the elite of society are talking to their tailors and their cobblers. You've got all of these kind of horrifically bourgeois people who Maximilian has to speak to. That is pretty shocking. It is, isn't it? It is.
Speaker 1:But one thing does catch his eye, and that's the Empress. Sorry, she's not an Empress yet, of course, princess Charlotte, she's only 16 when they meet. She is ferociously ambitious and intelligent. Her favourite subjects are religion and classics and she's incredibly studious. She chastises herself for not being sufficiently keen on her studies, not learning enough, and she's read huge amounts, but she's seen very little. Maximilian has travelled. He's been around the Mediterranean, and so she's sort of swept off her feet by Maximilian, who's tall and charming and fairly good-looking, as Queen Victoria says. She says there's a notable exception which, if listeners know the Hapsburg history you won't be surprised is the mouth and chin, but Maximilian manages to grow a very distinguished beard which sort of covers this, and Queen Victoria does the time-ordered thing of saying, well, he's got a lovely personality, so it's sort of brushed over.
Speaker 2:Carlotta. She's not just ferociously ambitious and intelligent, she's also fantastically good looking, isn't she?
Speaker 1:She is.
Speaker 1:She's known to be one of the, you know, the sort of great beauties of mid-19th century royalty, and you know, it's very striking and you know, this is a sort of early age of photography and you can see, especially there's a wonderful picture of them after they're just married where they both look so young but also, you know, very, very handsome. How old are they? When they marry? She's only 17. When they get married, maximilian is 25.
Speaker 1:And it's, you know, the Times has reports from foreign correspondents at the wedding and there's reports that 60,000 people turn up to the public party where the couple appears. So you know, it's that sort of real mix of monarchy and celebrity. It gives you an indication of how important these individuals were in the national consciousness of their respective countries. You know, not a million miles away from sort of Platinum Jubilee style stuff that we're all familiar with, at least in the UK. And she also brings advantage.
Speaker 1:So, although a Belgian king Leopold, I is not much to be reckoned with, he has actually modernized Belgium under a constitutional government and weathered the European revolutions of 1848 much better. And he is married into the French royal family. So there is luster on that side. And what he does is he insists that, as a condition of the marriage, maximilian must be given an important position, and so Franz Joseph appoints him governor of Lombardy-Venetia, which is the richest part of the Austrian empire, one of the richest parts of Lombardy, venetia, which is the richest part of the Austrian Empire, one of the richest parts, but it's in Italy. So again, a little bit like the Navy it's. I suppose you know, again, if we're doing William and Harry, it might be if William were to put Prince Harry in charge of Northern Ireland. It's a tricky job, right, and there's lots of competing nationalisms, ideas, and it's one in which you're likely, you're sort of set up to fail in a way, which is what happens to Maximilian His brother ends up firing him in 1859. And he's humiliated and left underemployed.
Speaker 2:I mean his brother is worse than that, because when he does try to govern according to his own ideas, his brother basically imposes his own. You know with well, I can't remember, but I don't think it worked out too well.
Speaker 1:No, it doesn't. So there's again, and you see the distinct differences in their approaches here. But of course, as the subordinate younger brother and governor, maximilian has to answer to Vienna, franz Joseph's solution to the sort of rising liberalism and nationalism in Lombardy-Venetia is close the universities, crack down harder, torture, arrest, execute the dissidents. Maximilian, his approach is the opposite. He's always very lenient. We'll see this later. He thinks that you need to essentially work with the people in northern Italy, you need to create institutions where there will be representation to some extent. I mean, we shouldn't go too far. He's not a radical Democrat, but he's got a very different and much more moderately liberal and lenient approach and he's really upset by what he's essentially ordered to do by his brother in terms of cracking down on dissidents.
Speaker 2:So we've got Maximilian, who's now lost his job, we've got Carlotta, who is both ferociously intelligent and, as you say, ferociously ambitious, and you've got Napoleon and Princess Eugenie looking for somebody to fill a role. So I guess the stars are starting they're starting to align absolutely.
Speaker 1:And so what Maximilian does is he channels his energies into this magnificent castle neo, neo-gothic I mean. I say magnificent, but it's sort of it's extraordinary, it's a kind of neo-Gothic fairy tale that he draws on the Habsburg past, on some Norman influences in Sicily, and it's fantastic. You can visit it. It's called Miramar, which is because it's also influenced by his great love of Spain and Carlotta. So you think, and he nearly bankrupts in building it and it's this sort of barren rock overlooking the Adriatic, just out Trieste. So it's, he's turned and he's got magnificent tropical gardens and he's turned this barren rock into a bucolic paradise with a neo-Gothic fairy tale castle. So you can see, he's a bending the world to his imagination.
Speaker 1:Now you think that if you built this magnificent sort of paradise, your partner would be appreciative. But Carlotta says that what stretches ahead of them is just staring out to sea until old age, you know, to boredom, until they die, essentially, and that Maximilian will just be a glorified janitor, sort of tending to the gardens, doing up the toilets, because he loves, you know, in series, he absolutely loves design, interior decoration and landscape gardening, so he can get very involved in those things. But for Carlotta. A Habsburg and someone like Maximilian shouldn't be involving himself in those trivial matters. He's got a greater destiny. So when the offer comes in from the Mexican conservatives, backed by Napoleon III, to become emperor of Mexico, this is the suitably grand destiny, providential mission that both Maximilian and Carlotta feel that they should have in life.
Speaker 2:So, maximilian, I mean, he's no fool, is he? So when the offer comes in, he's a bit hesitant because he knows it's not straightforward. So what? What are the conditions he puts on taking on the job?
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. It's important to stress here that this monarchy is still entirely imaginary and it's being offered not by diplomats or people representing the people of Mexico, but by a faction defeated in civil war, admittedly by one of the most powerful men in the world, napoleon III. So Maximilian is excited by the idea. I mean, you also have to remember that it was under the Habsburgs that Mexico was conquered and colonized by the Spanish in the 16th century. So for a man obsessed with his past, his Habsburg past, charles V is the Habsburg emperor and king of Spain under which it comes conquered.
Speaker 1:This is absolutely fantastic. I mean, it's almost a fantasy. In fact, you might argue that it always remained a fantasy. But, as you say, he's not, he's not, he's not an idiot. Um, and so he places two conditions, which is very simple one it must be supported not just by france but by britain, the most powerful maritime power in the world at the time, and also it must be he must be called by the people of Mexico. As we said, he's a moderate liberal and therefore he's expecting, essentially, for there to be a vote in Mexico which will confirm that he is the preferred choice of the Mexican people and that they wish to be governed by a monarchy.
Speaker 2:And presumably the reason he needs France and Britain to be supporting him militarily is that he's aware that, sitting north of Mexico and we've had the Treaty of Guadalupe and everything that came from that, you know. He knows that America is not going to like this right, right, absolutely so.
Speaker 1:That's the key in 1861.
Speaker 1:As one civil war ends in North America, another begins, and that's the US Civil War.
Speaker 1:And that's the reason why there's a geopolitical space in which to carve out a monarchy. But even though the United States of America is tearing itself apart in this conflict between Union and Confederacy, the Monroe Doctrine, formulated in 1823 by President James Monroe, essentially declares that there should be no European interference in the republics, as they have now become, of Latin America, and therefore a monarchy set up by French troops with a Habsburg on the throne is the very nightmare that the Monroe Doctrine is designed to prevent. So there is US hostility to the scheme, and it should also be pointed out that nobody thinks that US expansion at Mexico's expense is going to finish anyway. So the reason why some people in Mexico come to support this is because they see a monarchy guaranteed by European powers with a Habsburg prince as a much safer guarantee of Mexico's future as an independent nation state, which it normally will be. It will be a constitutional monarchy ruled by Mexicans with a Habsburg at the top.
Speaker 1:Monarchy ruled by Mexicans with a Habsburg at the top A much better guarantee to the future than the tumultuous and unstable republic which has seen it first lose Texas and then, of course, half of its national territory in 1848. So having the guarantee of Britain, maximilian thinks, will be a surefire way to prevent the US either trying to kick him out before he can establish his regime or subsequently the US doing what they've done since independence, which is just take more and more and more land across North America.
Speaker 2:And the great thing is is that the British do come into line. They're right behind the scheme. At least that's what Napoleon tells Maximilian.
Speaker 1:Yes. So, as we said, napoleon III, happiest in smokefield rooms and, uh, duplicitous conspiratorial diplomacy, and in. So for him this must be. You know, he must be in sort of so many plates spinning, he must be enjoying this immensely, he, he, he goes to britain with this scheme, uh, which is that, instead of um going.
Speaker 1:So we should just say, by the way, that benito juarez in mexico has suspended mexico's foreign debt payment because the government's bankrupt. And that is the pretext for European intervention right In the mid-19th century. If you don't pay your debts, the British Navy will turn up. So Britain is already, with France and Spain, who are also owed money, going to send a military expedition. Napoleon III says, hmm, okay, we could have a one-off debt collection and get the Mexican government to start those payments, but it's hostile to Europe. We've seen that Benito Juarez is no friend of European monarchies. Would it not be a much better long-term solution, instead of this debt collection mission, to turn it into regime change or turn Mexico into a monarchy? And of course, maximilian has made that a precondition of his acceptance that Britain will back the scheme.
Speaker 1:Napoleon III expects that Palmerston, who's prime minister at this time, will get behind it and that Britain would leap at the opportunity to be involved in this regime change, palmerston, he doesn't leap at the opportunity. Now it's not quite as clear cut as Britain saying no. Because Palmerston is no lover of the United States of America, is entirely aware that the continuing expansion across North America is to the diminishment of British power and a threat to Canada and would be very happy to see Mexico established as a monarchy. But he says it's going to cost, you know, 20 millions and millions of pounds I suppose billions in today's money and you'd need to send 20 or 30,000 British troops. And he says there's no way we're going to do that.
Speaker 1:But if France wants to do it and act in our interest and we don't have to provide any support, so much the better. But he makes it very clear to Napoleon III that while it might be desirable, in an outcome Britain will in no way shape or form be involved and certainly will not guarantee it in the way that Maximilian wants. So when Napoleon III gets Palmerston's response, it's of course not the response that he's looking for. So what he does is the French emperor writes to Maximilian and says good news, britain's entirely on board, which is a much better response from Napoleon III's point of view, but unfortunately it's not the actual response of the British government.
Speaker 2:So Maximilian, at this stage, says OK, I'm up for this, and at that stage the French invasion takes place. Is that the order of events?
Speaker 1:Right, yeah. So Maximilian sort of conditionally accepts the offer in January of 1862. That happens to be the precise month where French troops, with the Spanish and British troops, land in Mexico. Now there's incredibly complex and tedious diplomacy, but the long and the short of it is that the Spanish and British eventually withdraw and leave the French troops on their own as soon as they realise that the French plan is much more ambitious than the orders that they have.
Speaker 1:The French army is small there. There's only about 6,000 men by April 1862, when the French army begins to march into the vastness of Mexico, again up the same route that the US took and Anacortes, the original conquistador, took from Veracruz to Mexico City. So, 6,000 men, it's not many, and it gives you an indication of how easy Napoleon III thinks this is going to be. But just to put it in context, the US expeditionary force that fought its way up exactly the same route was only about twice the size. So although it seems small, it's not a ridiculously small number. And of course, napoleon III thinks he's going to have something that the US didn't have, which is Mexican allies who are supposedly going to flock to the banner of the French flag. Now, unsurprisingly, most Mexicans do not flock to the French flag but to the Mexican flag, where they already have a constitutional president who's just been victorious in civil war and is in fact confirmed as president in that year, previously 1861.
Speaker 1:The French are confident, though, because they believe as they believe, you know, probably for most of their history that they have the greatest army in the world, and not without some, you know, basis for that, as we mentioned, because they have defeated the russians in the crimea and they have defeated the austrians in italy, um. And so they march before the second city of mexico, puebla, which is the gateway to mexico city, key, key, key point on the route, and the French commander-in-chief is, as I say, incredibly confident. He deploys the French army, his 6,000 men in battle formation, and launches a head-on assault, after a rather ineffectual artillery bombardment and expecting the city to capitulate at the first sign of the French cold steel. But wave after wave of the French army is cut down by the heroic resistance of the Mexican army that is defending Puebla for all that it's worth, and eventually the commander-in-chief of the French army is forced to sound a retreat. So the French army flees the battlefield and there's a very long and arduous journey back to a fairly distant town in order to regroup.
Speaker 1:And so this is a momentous moment in Mexican history but also world history. It goes down as Cinco de Mayo. But the reason why it's not just momentous in Mexican history, but I would say, world history, is the defeat of a European army outside of Europe in this period of time is incredibly rare. So it's a testament to the heroism and organization and discipline of the Mexican forces that are able to defeat the French. And of course, again, that's where our story should end, right, because the whole point of this plan was that it was going to be easy and that the French would turn up, be welcomed as liberators and they'd be in Mexico City by the summer of 1862 at least.
Speaker 1:But of course you've got a Bonapartist in charge of France. So, rather than accepting that this plan is not going to work, he says the honour of Napoleon III, says the honour of France is engaged, and he sends reinforcements, 30,000 men by the end of 1862. But the commander-in-chief is, by the way, the commander-in-chief who was defeated outside Puebla is sacked. So we're on to our now actually our third commander-in-chief of the French forces in Mexico, a man called Fauré. He is absolutely determined not to be humiliated in the same way and it launches a very slow, methodical siege which eventually takes Puebla. But not until a year after that first defeat, so not until the summer of 1863, the French troops eventually make it to Mexico City.
Speaker 2:And of course that time delay is going to become quite critical later in the story because the events of the American Civil War and the timing of the end of the American Civil War we'll come back to that later. So the French succeed, I mean they are victorious, they march into Mexico City.
Speaker 1:No, so, yeah, they are, but with the crucial caveat that Benito Juarez is not defeated. So the French take the capital, because Benito Juarez, his force, he put all of the forces in Pueblo to defend it from the French and about 20,000 Mexicans surrender. They're out of ammunition and supplies, they've been under siege for months and months and months and therefore it's impossible to defend Mexico City. They simply don't have enough troops. But Benito Juarez doesn't surrender, he merely retreats.
Speaker 1:Mexico is, of course, huge. It's about, I think, four I can never remember it's four or five times the size of France. It's enormous. And so Benito Juarez merely retreats northwards, towards, you know, to the US border, and there's a lot of Mexico to get through before he gets there. And therefore the French are victorious and they are able to engineer a political theatre where they create an assembly of what they call notables, essentially the elite of Mexican society, which proclaims a monarchy and calls for Maximilian to come. So they have orchestrated the outcome that they wanted, but they haven't defeated Benito Juarez, who is still, for many Mexicans, constitutional president.
Speaker 2:I mean, he knows by this stage that the British aren't going to support him, and yet by this time he's fallen in love with the plan. So he accepts the invitation, doesn't he? He and Carlotta set sail I think they set sail in sort of the flagship of the Austrian Navy and they land in Veracruz, which is where we started the podcast it seems like a long time ago now.
Speaker 1:Sorry about that, apologies.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of no, no, this is great. I'm sorry to be, but it's such a good story, anyway, maximilian. Great, I'm sorry to be, but it's such a good story, anyway, maximilian. And so he lands in Veracruz and there's sort of some dogs howling in the street but, you know, there's some tumbleweed blowing down. There's really nothing there, but I think, as he marches in towards Mexico City, the French have engineered celebrations and so on, and it is quite a triumphant arrival, isn't it?
Speaker 1:It is. So the initial departure, the disembarkment rather, at Veracruz, is disastrous. And it's as you say, when they actually arrive, on the 28th of May, it's not until the 29th that they set foot on Mexican soil for the first time. And this is because the welcoming committee has got the wrong day for their arrival and therefore there is no one there to greet them and there's no sort of organic spontaneous eruption of enthusiasm, because Veracruz used to be the seat of Benito Juarez's government during the civil war. So it's actually a traditionally a liberal stronghold in Mexico and so the people look on with cold indifference as a foreign army imposes a foreign ruler. But these things change Partially. This is because the welcoming committee gets to act together and it's carefully choreographed and stage managed. But also there is popular support for the empire and for Maximilian in Mexico. It's not the case that he is without support. He has the support of the Conservative Party, which is a significant, you know, political movement in Mexico. Also, remember, benito Juarez abandoned the capital, so when he enters into Mexico City, certainly at elite level, the people remaining in Mexico City are either not that interested in politics they don't care too much or they support Maximilian because diehard Juaresters have left the government, with Benito Juarez Juaresters being the name given to Benito Juarez's supporters, and so there is a magnificent reception in Mexico City and Macos, millenio and Carlota are driven through the grand boulevards of the capital, and it's an absolutely magnificent city today, mexico City and would have been then and in fact then would have been unrivaled except for, you know, a few of the great European capitals. I mean, remember that Washington has only just been built and Mexico City has been the center of Spanish power in North America and beyond for hundreds of years, with the magnificent architecture, cathedrals, churches and this great grand square which I think today is still the third largest public square anywhere in the world. So it lends itself to this imperial procession. It's said that the balcony is lining the routes until they get to the magnificent cathedral at the center of Mexico City. They're selling for sort of $500 for a space on the balcony. So you can, you know, you can sort of wave and cheer and look at the imperial couplers. They're driven through and it seems as though there is genuine and popular enthusiasm.
Speaker 1:In fact, so, carlotta, she's so distressed by the, the, by the welcome at Veracruz, uh, that she nearly cries. Um, she, she very rarely cries. Maximilian cries a lot, actually, I should say he he cried when he accepted the crown, uh, the when he left Europe. Um, there's plenty of other moments where he cries, carlotta doesn't. She's actually because Maximilian is kind of overwhelmed by the reality of what he's accepted. Carlotta is enthused and energetic, not at Veracruz, but when she gets to Mexico City she changes her mind and she writes to Eugenie, the French Empress, napoleon III's wife, that the empire is possible and there is popular support, and it re-energises her. So it seems to be quite an auspicious beginning.
Speaker 2:This is editor Russell here. At that point I am going to split the podcast because it's running very long even by my standards, and so I'll split it here. And I think it's a really good place because Maximilian and Carlotta are at perhaps a high point, and I hope you'll join me in part two to see what happens next. See you there, thank you.