His mother was Princess Sophie of Bavaria, a member of the House of Wittelsbach. Maximilian was thus a member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, a female-line cadet branch of the House of Habsburg. His father was Archduke Franz Karl, the second surviving son of Emperor Francis I, during whose reign he was born. The first name honored his godfather and paternal uncle, Emperor Ferdinand I, and the second honored his maternal grandfather, Maximilian I Joseph, King of Bavaria. He was baptized the following day as Ferdinand Maximilian Josef Maria. Maximilian was born on 6 July 1832 in the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, capital of the Austrian Empire. The Empire collapsed without French aid, and Maximilian was captured and executed by the restored Republican government in 1867. French armies began to withdraw from Mexico in 1866 in part due to the Austro-Prussian War. With the end of the American Civil War in 1865, the United States began providing more explicit aid to Juárez's forces. Maximilian and his French allies never completely defeated the Mexican Republic Republican forces led by Juárez continued to be active during Maximilian's rule. The United States, however, continued to recognize Juárez as the legal president of Mexico and saw the French invasion as a violation of the Monroe Doctrine, but was unable to intervene due to its ongoing civil war. The Empire managed to gain the diplomatic recognition of several European powers, including Russia, Austria, and Prussia.
With a pledge of French military support and at the formal invitation of a group of the Mexican Conservative Party (monarchists hostile to the Liberal Party administration of President Benito Juárez), Maximilian accepted the crown of Mexico on 10 April 1864. Seeking to legitimate French intervention, Emperor Napoleon III invited Maximilian to establish a new (pro-French) Mexican monarchy, which had been proposed numerous times in the past by Mexican monarchists. He had a distinguished career as commander-in-chief of the Imperial Austrian Navy.įrance, together with Spain and the United Kingdom, had invaded Mexico in the winter of 1861 to pressure the Mexican government into settling its debts with the three powers after Mexico had announced a suspension on debt repayment the Spanish and British both withdrew the following year after negotiating agreements with the Mexican government and realising the true intention of the French, who sought to conquer the country. A member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, Maximilian was the younger brother of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. Maximilian I (German: Ferdinand Maximilian Josef Maria von Habsburg-Lothringen, Spanish: Fernando Maximiliano José María de Habsburgo-Lorena 6 July 1832 – 19 June 1867) was an Austrian archduke who reigned as the only Emperor of the Second Mexican Empire from 10 April 1864 until his execution on 19 June 1867.
0 kommentar(er)
