Happy Saturday everyone. Recently on the show, we talked about Princess Charlotte of Belgium, also known as Carlotta of Mexico. Previous host Sarah and Bablina did an episode on her husband Maximilian back on November four eleven. That older episode doesn't really talk much about Charlotte, and our new episode doesn't spend nearly as much time on why Maximilian was sent to Mexico or what happened after he got there. So for folks who would like those parts of the story, we are sharing this classic episode today. Enjoy. Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Sarah and we talk about royalty a lot on the podcast. It's really one of my favorite subjects to cover, and consequently, because we talked about it so often, some subgenres have developed. One of them royal imposts. You know, we've talked about guys like Lambert Simnels and Falsdamitri Yeah, another self proclaimed monarchs like Emperor Norton and the King of Beaver Island James Strang Yeah, or just sad royal childhoods like Queen Victoria Queen Elizabeth. There seemed to be a lot of those, and almost every other Royalty episode is a sad royal childhood. But one of my favorite of these royal subgenres, though, is the puppet ruler. You know, somebody who is important or maybe really charismatic, or just well connected, maybe just well born and kind of weak and easy to control, who is ultimately propped up by a more powerful outside force, who's really controlling things. And we're going to talk about a famous puppet ruler today, Ferdinand Maximilian, Archduke of Austria by birth, Emperor of Mexico by invitation, and he'll really surprise you. He's naive but goodhearted. He truly believes the people of Mexico want him, an Austrian prince to rule them, though he's deliberately misled in that respect, and will look at that a little bit more later. He takes this opportunity to rule with fatal dedication. Yeah, I think he really will surprise you guys as a as a not so good example of a puppet ruler when it all comes down to it. But we're also going to talk about the antithesis of royalty today. Mexico's national hero Benito Juarez, who was a self made man who rose to the presidency, you know, got his own education, and successfully defended his country from an allied European invasion. You know, pretty serious stuff. But that these two men, a Halfsburg prince and the orphaned son of Zapatec Indians should ever be in conflict together in Mexico is just pretty bizarre when you think about it. But that they had remarkably similar plans for what they wanted to do with Mexico, plans for the people of Mexico, is just downright strange. So we're going to talk about both of them. We're going to talk about many, many countries and many rulers in this episode. It really has something for everyone, it does. So at first, we're going to start out with Maximilian Ferdinand. Maximilian Joseph was born in Vienna July six thirty two, and his full title was Prince Imperial and Archduke of Austria, Prince Royal of Hungary and Bohemia. That sounds pretty fancy, like a lot of power, but those were really just his younger son titles. Maximilian's older brother, you see, was the future Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria Hungary. So the younger Maximilian, who was intelligent, needed some sort of occupation in life, and so those were the titles that he got. At twenty two, he became Rear Admiral of the Austrian Navy and worked to modernize it, And at twenty five he took up the position of Governor General of the Lombardo Venetian Kingdom, which was under Austrian control at the time, and he also got married. He married the beautiful, full and charming seventeen year old Princess Charlotte of Belgium, who was the daughter of King Leopold. The first we mentioned him in our Victorian Albert episode. He's kind of young Victoria's male mentor her uncle Um. But Maximilian might have been really too bent on modernization. When it came to his job in Italy, his brother considered his policies they're just too liberal and ended up removing him from power. So when Maximilian lost the job, he decided to take a little time off go on a trip, and he journeyed all the way to Brazil, which really kicked off a new world fascination kind of an obsession, even with Maximilian so speaking of the New World. At the same time Maximilian was governing in Italy and traveling to Brazil, Mexico was in the middle of a civil war. La Reforma a liberal movement with the goal of curbing the power of the aristocracy and the Church. The movement's eventual leader was a man named Benito Juarez, a Zapateech Indian who had been born in eighteen o six. He didn't seem like a likely candidate for the eventual president of Mexico. He was orphaned at the age of three, and he didn't even speak Spanish until he left his hometown and studied in Wahaca. He was smart, though, and while at first his intelligence made him a likely candidate for the priesthood, he was soon studying law. His first public office was on the municipal council, and he became a member of both the state and national legislatures, judge, and eventually governor of Wahaca, making him a notable public figure in the state. But he got into trouble by being so notable, because when the Conservative Party of Mexico returned to power in the elections of eighteen fifty three, Whereas was exiled into the United States and he lived in New Orleans in really almost semi poverty. I've seen it described for two years before his party took back control and he was appointed Minister of Justice and Public Instruction for the new administration. The new reform government started to make some really really big changes in Mexico, and these changes were of course supported by Uarez as A as a minister. And just to give you a sense of what was going on, um, the government abolished the special courts for the clergy and the military. It broke up landed estates in this attempt to sort of create a middle class from scratch in Mexico, and it forced the church to sell its property, though don't think of it quite like Henry the Eighth style, because they didn't actually start confiscating property. And then it also increased the educational opportunities available to the poor, something that Whereas especially was really interested in and you can understand why from his own background. And most importantly, the government created a new constitution in eighteen fifty seven, so basically they were in the process of transforming Mexico into a modern nation. State. But in eighteen fifty eight the conservatives revolted and Uarez was forced to withdraw from Vera Cruz, where he created his own government in exile, and that began a three year long War of the Reform, which started before Ajuarez could finally return to power in eighteen sixty one, where he was voted president. He inherits a lot of problems though, after three years of war, Mexico is deep in debt. So on July seventeenth, eighteen sixty one, President Juarez supports a movement passed by the Mexican Congress and suspends payment of all foreign debts for two years. So this is not okay with the European countries who are owed money from Mexico. But what are they going to do about it? Well, some Mexican conservatives were living in exile abroad, and one of them, Jose Manuel Hidalgo e as now Rezar, suggests to Empress Eugenie, the Spanish wife of the French Emperor Napoleon the Third, that perhaps Juarez could be driven from power by a new European backed monarchy. Sounds like a bold plan, doesn't it It is? It's one also that would be a win win for Mexican conservatives and France, since for one thing, Juarez would be gone. Also France would get her money back and both would get control of the new monarch. Yeah, so they both have something they can get out of it. And as a further incentive though, for Napoleon the Third, installing his own ruler, his own puppet ruler in Mexico would potentially prevent the country from falling under US control, which was something that France was very uncomfortable with. So on October thirty one, eight sixty one, France, Britain, and Spain, three of the big countries that had money due to them, agreed to stage a joint attack on Mexico to recoup their debts. There's another player, though, that is really kind of more notable for being out of the game than in it. And I just think this is so interesting. But since the eighteen twenties, the US had tried to prevent European influence in the America's with the Monroe Doctrine um just for folks who don't know, basically a policy that viewed any European efforts to colonize the Americas as a sign of aggression. To the United States itself. So normally Napoleon the Third wouldn't have wanted to test the Monroe Doctrine and by extension, test the United States. But since the American Civil War had really just started, Napoleon figured correctly that the US had bigger problems to deal with than a French invasion of Mexico. Still, Napoleon the Third knew better than to attempt to install someone related to him. Instead, he offers the crown to the available eligible Habsburg Prince Maximilian, So it gives Maximilian something to think about here, something to consider. Then, on January eighth, eighteen sixty two, more than ten thousand Allied troops arrived in Vera Cruz. Though the British and Spanish soon pull out of the scheme, Yeah, you can't imagine that they would be very keen on the idea of a French controlled ruler being installed in Mexico. Yeah, and Nouarez isn't happy about it either. He makes his opposition to this European scheme quite clear. He declares that any foreigner who makes an armed invasion without the declaration of war will be put to death, as will any Mexican who assists a foreign invasion. That's an important law or proclamation to remember actually for this episode, So just keep it in the back here, keep it in mind. There are some really difficult early battles for the French though, with this invasion. On May five, eighteen sixty two, the French are trounced at Puebla, which is a victory still marked today by Sinca to Mayo. Next time you go out for Sinca to Mayo, you can tell all your friends that you know it is not Mexican Independence Day. You know the story behind it. Yeah, that's what people mean when they're like, that's not what Sanco to Miles about. It's not now you know what you're drinking Margarita's for victory at Puebla. So reports of that defeat though, get back to Paris and really kick off mass disapproval of Napoleon the Thirds Project, I mean that they were going to war over these debts and trying to install a king. Another big defeat happens April eighteen sixty three at the Battle of Cameron, where only three of Captain Jean Danjeese's legionnaires survive and Donjeue's own wooden hand. This is just like a weird, kind of freaky side note. N Jeu's own wooden hand is recovered from the scene of the battle and turned into the symbol of the foreign legion. Because the French soldiers had fought so bravely even though they were really overwhelmed, it sounds like maybe things aren't going to work out for the French. But by May thirty one, eighteen sixty three, they do get the upper hand and Uarez and his army have to flee to the city of Sound Luis Potosi, which is in the north of Mexico, and basically just continue a series of retreats all the way to El Paso del Norte, which is later renamed the dad Arras. He and his followers, called Republicans or Huaristas, continued to fight, but then back at the capital, a new conservative government is established and a formal invite goes out to Maximilian. He accepts under two conditions. One is that the French will protect him, and the other is that he has the approval of the majority of the Mexican people. So poor Maximilian, he's misled in both of these respects. Really, only a small percentage of the Royalists want the Austrian prince to rule, and Napoleon is already beginning to regret his decision just a few months after offering the crown, but before Maximilian actually moved, Napoleon writes to a friend, quote, I realized that I have gotten myself into a tight corner. But the affair has to be liquidated. So yeah, that's disconcer arting for sure. But still Maximilian is really upbeat about his new role. He in Charlotte, who changes her name to Carlotta, arrive in Mexico May eighteen sixty four, and he's they're fully believing that he does have the support of the Mexican people, not just this little group of royalists. But both of them take their new job pretty seriously to Carlotta learned Spanish and began studying Mexican history and art and culture, and is reported to have developed a pretty deep love and respect for it too, while Maximilian, surprise surprise, started by upholding most of warez Is reform, so he again doesn't seem like he's acting like a puppet ruler at all. He sees himself as a protector of Mexico's indigenous people. And unfortunately for Maximilian, that line of thinking, his real sense of responsibility towards Mexico and his desire to do the right thing for his people didn't help him out much at all. He made no friends with his policies. The Conservatives were disappointed that they had basically imported for in Ouarez, and the Church was angry that he refused to restore their lands and instead upheld Wharez as reforms. And though Maximilian's policies were markedly similar to those of Warez, the liberals hated him for having toppled their legitimate government land. He's just random Austrian dude, right. So to add to this, Maximilian basically had to personally finance his own government. France took all the customs revenue to pay back that pre war debt, so everything came from Maximilian's own inheritance, which really makes it seem that France wasn't going into this in good faith. I mean, and now Napoleon had Napoleon the third had multiple motives, But if his primary motive was to get the money back at the expense of the government he had set up, you have to wonder, but his intentions really were all along. And meanwhile, it's not like the fightings over either. Maximilian has to get further help from his brother in Austria and his father in law in Belgium, and the US, even though the Civil War is ongoing, is still a factor. Lincoln didn't openly complain about the violation of the Monroe doctrine because there was too much fear on his part of creating an alliance between the French and the Confederates. And meanwhile, Maximilian refused the services of Confederate troops who had moved into Mexico for fear he'd anger Lincoln to the point of war. Lincoln support, however, was already with Juarez. The two wrote to each other, and the US provided him with some assistance even during the Civil War. After the war ended, more than fifty thousand U S soldiers approached the border and transferred arms and weapons to the Wuarristas. By June twenty, eighteen sixty five, even the idealistic Maximilian could see the writing on the wall. He could see what was about to happen here, he wrote, quote, it must be said openly that our military situation is very bad. The American Civil War has ended and threat of war with the United States looms, so Napoleon the Third sees the riding on the wall too though. On January eighteen sixty six, he informs Maximilian that he's going to withdraw French troops from Mexico, and he doesn't even wait for a reply before he publicly announces that intention. So when Carlotta figures out what's going on and realizes that Frances pulling out, she heads off to Europe to try to rally support around her husband. She begs Napoleon the Third to reconsider. She asks Pope Pious the ninth to help, and when it becomes clear that no one can really do anything for Maximilian, she has a mental breakdown and she suffers from the effects of that for the rest of her life. So Maximilian, meanwhile, he still believes that he has the support of the Mexicans and he won't abdicate since he feels like he'll be abandoning them if he does so. So his backers make him Supreme Commander of the Imperial Army, and on February five, eighteen sixty seven, he leaves Mexico City for Krataro, where he's met by his general's Miramon and Mahia. They await waras as advancing army. There, Carrataro falls May eighteen sixty seven and Maximilian is arrested. His living conditions are harsh, there's no caught, and there are these ironic reading choices like the history of King Charles the first of England, which I'd have to say it would be depressing to read about a king who had lost his throne and his head while you were in prison, indeed. And then on June Maximilian and his generals go to trial where they're charged under the old ware As degree of eighteen sixty two, that one that we mentioned to you guys earlier and asked you to remember, that's coming into play now. And so their court martialed and condemned to death, and on June nineteenth they're executed by firing squad outside of Carrataro. Miramon and Mahia are shot in the Backish traders and Maximilian as shot head on, and Maximilian goes down pretty memorably. His supposed last words are Viva Mexico, Viva Independencia so whare is This decision to execute Maximilian is really pretty unpopular abroad. Men like Victor Hugo and Giuseppe Garibaldi, who is another former podcast subject, had even petitioned Ware's to spare the Archduke's life. But because Waas wanted to set an example for would be invaders coming into his country, and because so many Mexicans had died in the war, Wuarez decided not to spare Maximilian. Obviously, by July one, the news of the death had gotten back to Paris, right as Napoleon the Third was about to open the prize giving ceremony of the Paris World's Fair, So really bad timing for him, and as detailed accounts started coming out, some Pool's anger at Napoleon the Third is really rekindled. You know, why did he get into this in the first place, and especially because Maximilian is a pretty sympathetic figure. One of the people who is disturbed at France's involvement in this whole thing is Eduard Manet, who decides to go against his own dislike of painting what he hadn't seen. You know, he believes artists should paint from life. He decides to go against that principle and recreate the execution of Maximilian because of course he had not been there himself. But he doesn't go about it like the heroic historic picture kind of style. He uses really detailed news reports and they're all of these very strange You can you can look them up actually on MoMA's website because they had an exhibit of some of Manet's paintings of this, you can check out these little cut and pace postcards. People are really into making of the time taking pictures of um just soul jurorsey in this case the wall where Maximilian was executed, and then pasting on heads, like pasting on Maximilian's real head or Mehia's real head. And uh so Mane had all of this kind of stuff to look at, and he did a series of paintings that, due to their controversial subject matter, were never exhibited in Paris during his lifetime. But we want to give you sort of enclosure on our other subjects we've covered in this podcast, to especially Warez, because his later history really surprised me. I knew him as a Mexican national hero, and I figured since he was an older man at this time. He probably had sort of a heroic end of life. But even though he was re elected President of Mexico, political mistakes late in his career made him really extremely unpopular at his death. Yeah, he died in eighteen seventy two and didn't become the celebrated hero that he is today until the twentieth century, when it became clear that as reforms had helped to modernize the country. Carlotta or Charlotte lived until and she never really recovered from her paranoia and mental illness. She spent the rest of her life in castles in Belgium and in Italy, and Maximilian's older brother Franz Joseph framed as emperor until nineteen sixteen. Thank you so much for joining us today for this Saturday classic. If you have heard any kind of email address or maybe a Facebook you are l during the course of the episode, that might be obsolete. It might be doubly obsolete because we have changed our email address again. You can now reach us at History Podcast at I heart radio dot com, and we're all over social media at missed in History, and you can subscribe to our show on Apple podcasts, Google podcast The i heart Radio app, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcast from i heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H

Happy Saturday everyone. Recently on the show, we talked about Princess Charlotte of Belgium, also known as Carlotta of Mexico. Previous host Sarah and Bablina did an episode on her husband Maximilian back on November four eleven. That older episode doesn't really talk much about Charlotte, and our new episode doesn't spend nearly as much time on why Maximilian was sent to Mexico or what happened after he got there. So for folks who would like those parts of the story, we are sharing this classic episode today. Enjoy. Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Sarah and we talk about royalty a lot on the podcast. It's really one of my favorite subjects to cover, and consequently, because we talked about it so often, some subgenres have developed. One of them royal imposts. You know, we've talked about guys like Lambert Simnels and Falsdamitri Yeah, another self proclaimed monarchs like Emperor Norton and the King of Beaver Island James Strang Yeah, or just sad royal childhoods like Queen Victoria Queen Elizabeth. There seemed to be a lot of those, and almost every other Royalty episode is a sad royal childhood. But one of my favorite of these royal subgenres, though, is the puppet ruler. You know, somebody who is important or maybe really charismatic, or just well connected, maybe just well born and kind of weak and easy to control, who is ultimately propped up by a more powerful outside force, who's really controlling things. And we're going to talk about a famous puppet ruler today, Ferdinand Maximilian, Archduke of Austria by birth, Emperor of Mexico by invitation, and he'll really surprise you. He's naive but goodhearted. He truly believes the people of Mexico want him, an Austrian prince to rule them, though he's deliberately misled in that respect, and will look at that a little bit more later. He takes this opportunity to rule with fatal dedication. Yeah, I think he really will surprise you guys as a as a not so good example of a puppet ruler when it all comes down to it. But we're also going to talk about the antithesis of royalty today. Mexico's national hero Benito Juarez, who was a self made man who rose to the presidency, you know, got his own education, and successfully defended his country from an allied European invasion. You know, pretty serious stuff. But that these two men, a Halfsburg prince and the orphaned son of Zapatec Indians should ever be in conflict together in Mexico is just pretty bizarre when you think about it. But that they had remarkably similar plans for what they wanted to do with Mexico, plans for the people of Mexico, is just downright strange. So we're going to talk about both of them. We're going to talk about many, many countries and many rulers in this episode. It really has something for everyone, it does. So at first, we're going to start out with Maximilian Ferdinand. Maximilian Joseph was born in Vienna July six thirty two, and his full title was Prince Imperial and Archduke of Austria, Prince Royal of Hungary and Bohemia. That sounds pretty fancy, like a lot of power, but those were really just his younger son titles. Maximilian's older brother, you see, was the future Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria Hungary. So the younger Maximilian, who was intelligent, needed some sort of occupation in life, and so those were the titles that he got. At twenty two, he became Rear Admiral of the Austrian Navy and worked to modernize it, And at twenty five he took up the position of Governor General of the Lombardo Venetian Kingdom, which was under Austrian control at the time, and he also got married. He married the beautiful, full and charming seventeen year old Princess Charlotte of Belgium, who was the daughter of King Leopold. The first we mentioned him in our Victorian Albert episode. He's kind of young Victoria's male mentor her uncle Um. But Maximilian might have been really too bent on modernization. When it came to his job in Italy, his brother considered his policies they're just too liberal and ended up removing him from power. So when Maximilian lost the job, he decided to take a little time off go on a trip, and he journeyed all the way to Brazil, which really kicked off a new world fascination kind of an obsession, even with Maximilian so speaking of the New World. At the same time Maximilian was governing in Italy and traveling to Brazil, Mexico was in the middle of a civil war. La Reforma a liberal movement with the goal of curbing the power of the aristocracy and the Church. The movement's eventual leader was a man named Benito Juarez, a Zapateech Indian who had been born in eighteen o six. He didn't seem like a likely candidate for the eventual president of Mexico. He was orphaned at the age of three, and he didn't even speak Spanish until he left his hometown and studied in Wahaca. He was smart, though, and while at first his intelligence made him a likely candidate for the priesthood, he was soon studying law. His first public office was on the municipal council, and he became a member of both the state and national legislatures, judge, and eventually governor of Wahaca, making him a notable public figure in the state. But he got into trouble by being so notable, because when the Conservative Party of Mexico returned to power in the elections of eighteen fifty three, Whereas was exiled into the United States and he lived in New Orleans in really almost semi poverty. I've seen it described for two years before his party took back control and he was appointed Minister of Justice and Public Instruction for the new administration. The new reform government started to make some really really big changes in Mexico, and these changes were of course supported by Uarez as A as a minister. And just to give you a sense of what was going on, um, the government abolished the special courts for the clergy and the military. It broke up landed estates in this attempt to sort of create a middle class from scratch in Mexico, and it forced the church to sell its property, though don't think of it quite like Henry the Eighth style, because they didn't actually start confiscating property. And then it also increased the educational opportunities available to the poor, something that Whereas especially was really interested in and you can understand why from his own background. And most importantly, the government created a new constitution in eighteen fifty seven, so basically they were in the process of transforming Mexico into a modern nation. State. But in eighteen fifty eight the conservatives revolted and Uarez was forced to withdraw from Vera Cruz, where he created his own government in exile, and that began a three year long War of the Reform, which started before Ajuarez could finally return to power in eighteen sixty one, where he was voted president. He inherits a lot of problems though, after three years of war, Mexico is deep in debt. So on July seventeenth, eighteen sixty one, President Juarez supports a movement passed by the Mexican Congress and suspends payment of all foreign debts for two years. So this is not okay with the European countries who are owed money from Mexico. But what are they going to do about it? Well, some Mexican conservatives were living in exile abroad, and one of them, Jose Manuel Hidalgo e as now Rezar, suggests to Empress Eugenie, the Spanish wife of the French Emperor Napoleon the Third, that perhaps Juarez could be driven from power by a new European backed monarchy. Sounds like a bold plan, doesn't it It is? It's one also that would be a win win for Mexican conservatives and France, since for one thing, Juarez would be gone. Also France would get her money back and both would get control of the new monarch. Yeah, so they both have something they can get out of it. And as a further incentive though, for Napoleon the Third, installing his own ruler, his own puppet ruler in Mexico would potentially prevent the country from falling under US control, which was something that France was very uncomfortable with. So on October thirty one, eight sixty one, France, Britain, and Spain, three of the big countries that had money due to them, agreed to stage a joint attack on Mexico to recoup their debts. There's another player, though, that is really kind of more notable for being out of the game than in it. And I just think this is so interesting. But since the eighteen twenties, the US had tried to prevent European influence in the America's with the Monroe Doctrine um just for folks who don't know, basically a policy that viewed any European efforts to colonize the Americas as a sign of aggression. To the United States itself. So normally Napoleon the Third wouldn't have wanted to test the Monroe Doctrine and by extension, test the United States. But since the American Civil War had really just started, Napoleon figured correctly that the US had bigger problems to deal with than a French invasion of Mexico. Still, Napoleon the Third knew better than to attempt to install someone related to him. Instead, he offers the crown to the available eligible Habsburg Prince Maximilian, So it gives Maximilian something to think about here, something to consider. Then, on January eighth, eighteen sixty two, more than ten thousand Allied troops arrived in Vera Cruz. Though the British and Spanish soon pull out of the scheme, Yeah, you can't imagine that they would be very keen on the idea of a French controlled ruler being installed in Mexico. Yeah, and Nouarez isn't happy about it either. He makes his opposition to this European scheme quite clear. He declares that any foreigner who makes an armed invasion without the declaration of war will be put to death, as will any Mexican who assists a foreign invasion. That's an important law or proclamation to remember actually for this episode, So just keep it in the back here, keep it in mind. There are some really difficult early battles for the French though, with this invasion. On May five, eighteen sixty two, the French are trounced at Puebla, which is a victory still marked today by Sinca to Mayo. Next time you go out for Sinca to Mayo, you can tell all your friends that you know it is not Mexican Independence Day. You know the story behind it. Yeah, that's what people mean when they're like, that's not what Sanco to Miles about. It's not now you know what you're drinking Margarita's for victory at Puebla. So reports of that defeat though, get back to Paris and really kick off mass disapproval of Napoleon the Thirds Project, I mean that they were going to war over these debts and trying to install a king. Another big defeat happens April eighteen sixty three at the Battle of Cameron, where only three of Captain Jean Danjeese's legionnaires survive and Donjeue's own wooden hand. This is just like a weird, kind of freaky side note. N Jeu's own wooden hand is recovered from the scene of the battle and turned into the symbol of the foreign legion. Because the French soldiers had fought so bravely even though they were really overwhelmed, it sounds like maybe things aren't going to work out for the French. But by May thirty one, eighteen sixty three, they do get the upper hand and Uarez and his army have to flee to the city of Sound Luis Potosi, which is in the north of Mexico, and basically just continue a series of retreats all the way to El Paso del Norte, which is later renamed the dad Arras. He and his followers, called Republicans or Huaristas, continued to fight, but then back at the capital, a new conservative government is established and a formal invite goes out to Maximilian. He accepts under two conditions. One is that the French will protect him, and the other is that he has the approval of the majority of the Mexican people. So poor Maximilian, he's misled in both of these respects. Really, only a small percentage of the Royalists want the Austrian prince to rule, and Napoleon is already beginning to regret his decision just a few months after offering the crown, but before Maximilian actually moved, Napoleon writes to a friend, quote, I realized that I have gotten myself into a tight corner. But the affair has to be liquidated. So yeah, that's disconcer arting for sure. But still Maximilian is really upbeat about his new role. He in Charlotte, who changes her name to Carlotta, arrive in Mexico May eighteen sixty four, and he's they're fully believing that he does have the support of the Mexican people, not just this little group of royalists. But both of them take their new job pretty seriously to Carlotta learned Spanish and began studying Mexican history and art and culture, and is reported to have developed a pretty deep love and respect for it too, while Maximilian, surprise surprise, started by upholding most of warez Is reform, so he again doesn't seem like he's acting like a puppet ruler at all. He sees himself as a protector of Mexico's indigenous people. And unfortunately for Maximilian, that line of thinking, his real sense of responsibility towards Mexico and his desire to do the right thing for his people didn't help him out much at all. He made no friends with his policies. The Conservatives were disappointed that they had basically imported for in Ouarez, and the Church was angry that he refused to restore their lands and instead upheld Wharez as reforms. And though Maximilian's policies were markedly similar to those of Warez, the liberals hated him for having toppled their legitimate government land. He's just random Austrian dude, right. So to add to this, Maximilian basically had to personally finance his own government. France took all the customs revenue to pay back that pre war debt, so everything came from Maximilian's own inheritance, which really makes it seem that France wasn't going into this in good faith. I mean, and now Napoleon had Napoleon the third had multiple motives, But if his primary motive was to get the money back at the expense of the government he had set up, you have to wonder, but his intentions really were all along. And meanwhile, it's not like the fightings over either. Maximilian has to get further help from his brother in Austria and his father in law in Belgium, and the US, even though the Civil War is ongoing, is still a factor. Lincoln didn't openly complain about the violation of the Monroe doctrine because there was too much fear on his part of creating an alliance between the French and the Confederates. And meanwhile, Maximilian refused the services of Confederate troops who had moved into Mexico for fear he'd anger Lincoln to the point of war. Lincoln support, however, was already with Juarez. The two wrote to each other, and the US provided him with some assistance even during the Civil War. After the war ended, more than fifty thousand U S soldiers approached the border and transferred arms and weapons to the Wuarristas. By June twenty, eighteen sixty five, even the idealistic Maximilian could see the writing on the wall. He could see what was about to happen here, he wrote, quote, it must be said openly that our military situation is very bad. The American Civil War has ended and threat of war with the United States looms, so Napoleon the Third sees the riding on the wall too though. On January eighteen sixty six, he informs Maximilian that he's going to withdraw French troops from Mexico, and he doesn't even wait for a reply before he publicly announces that intention. So when Carlotta figures out what's going on and realizes that Frances pulling out, she heads off to Europe to try to rally support around her husband. She begs Napoleon the Third to reconsider. She asks Pope Pious the ninth to help, and when it becomes clear that no one can really do anything for Maximilian, she has a mental breakdown and she suffers from the effects of that for the rest of her life. So Maximilian, meanwhile, he still believes that he has the support of the Mexicans and he won't abdicate since he feels like he'll be abandoning them if he does so. So his backers make him Supreme Commander of the Imperial Army, and on February five, eighteen sixty seven, he leaves Mexico City for Krataro, where he's met by his general's Miramon and Mahia. They await waras as advancing army. There, Carrataro falls May eighteen sixty seven and Maximilian is arrested. His living conditions are harsh, there's no caught, and there are these ironic reading choices like the history of King Charles the first of England, which I'd have to say it would be depressing to read about a king who had lost his throne and his head while you were in prison, indeed. And then on June Maximilian and his generals go to trial where they're charged under the old ware As degree of eighteen sixty two, that one that we mentioned to you guys earlier and asked you to remember, that's coming into play now. And so their court martialed and condemned to death, and on June nineteenth they're executed by firing squad outside of Carrataro. Miramon and Mahia are shot in the Backish traders and Maximilian as shot head on, and Maximilian goes down pretty memorably. His supposed last words are Viva Mexico, Viva Independencia so whare is This decision to execute Maximilian is really pretty unpopular abroad. Men like Victor Hugo and Giuseppe Garibaldi, who is another former podcast subject, had even petitioned Ware's to spare the Archduke's life. But because Waas wanted to set an example for would be invaders coming into his country, and because so many Mexicans had died in the war, Wuarez decided not to spare Maximilian. Obviously, by July one, the news of the death had gotten back to Paris, right as Napoleon the Third was about to open the prize giving ceremony of the Paris World's Fair, So really bad timing for him, and as detailed accounts started coming out, some Pool's anger at Napoleon the Third is really rekindled. You know, why did he get into this in the first place, and especially because Maximilian is a pretty sympathetic figure. One of the people who is disturbed at France's involvement in this whole thing is Eduard Manet, who decides to go against his own dislike of painting what he hadn't seen. You know, he believes artists should paint from life. He decides to go against that principle and recreate the execution of Maximilian because of course he had not been there himself. But he doesn't go about it like the heroic historic picture kind of style. He uses really detailed news reports and they're all of these very strange You can you can look them up actually on MoMA's website because they had an exhibit of some of Manet's paintings of this, you can check out these little cut and pace postcards. People are really into making of the time taking pictures of um just soul jurorsey in this case the wall where Maximilian was executed, and then pasting on heads, like pasting on Maximilian's real head or Mehia's real head. And uh so Mane had all of this kind of stuff to look at, and he did a series of paintings that, due to their controversial subject matter, were never exhibited in Paris during his lifetime. But we want to give you sort of enclosure on our other subjects we've covered in this podcast, to especially Warez, because his later history really surprised me. I knew him as a Mexican national hero, and I figured since he was an older man at this time. He probably had sort of a heroic end of life. But even though he was re elected President of Mexico, political mistakes late in his career made him really extremely unpopular at his death. Yeah, he died in eighteen seventy two and didn't become the celebrated hero that he is today until the twentieth century, when it became clear that as reforms had helped to modernize the country. Carlotta or Charlotte lived until and she never really recovered from her paranoia and mental illness. She spent the rest of her life in castles in Belgium and in Italy, and Maximilian's older brother Franz Joseph framed as emperor until nineteen sixteen. Thank you so much for joining us today for this Saturday classic. If you have heard any kind of email address or maybe a Facebook you are l during the course of the episode, that might be obsolete. It might be doubly obsolete because we have changed our email address again. You can now reach us at History Podcast at I heart radio dot com, and we're all over social media at missed in History, and you can subscribe to our show on Apple podcasts, Google podcast The i heart Radio app, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcast from i heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H