Habsburgs on the Rio Grande: The Rise and Fall of the Second Mexican Empire

by Raymond Jonas

The story of how nineteenth-century European rulers conspired with Mexican conservatives in an outlandish plan to contain the rising US colossus by establishing Old World empire on its doorstep.

The outbreak of the US Civil War provided an unexpected opportunity for political conservatives across continents. On one side were European monarchs. Mere decades after its founding, the United States had become a threat to European hegemony; instability in the United States could be exploited to lay a rival low. Meanwhile, Mexican antidemocrats needed a powerful backer to fend off the republicanism of Benito Juárez. When these two groups found each other, the Second Mexican Empire was born.

Raymond Jonas argues that the Second Mexican Empire, often dismissed as a historical sideshow, is critical to appreciating the globally destabilizing effect of growing US power in the nineteenth century. In 1862, at the behest of Mexican reactionaries and with the initial support of Spain and Britain, Napoleon III of France sent troops into Mexico and installed Austrian archduke Ferdinand Maximilian as an imperial ruler who could resist democracy in North America. But what was supposed to be an easy victory proved a disaster. The French army was routed at the Battle of Puebla, and for the next four years, republican guerrillas bled the would-be empire. When the US Civil War ended, African American troops were dispatched to Mexico to hasten the French withdrawal.

Based on research in five languages and in archives across the globe, Habsburgs on the Rio Grande fundamentally revises narratives of global history. Far more than a footnote, the Second Mexican Empire was at the center of world-historic great-power struggles—a point of inflection in a contest for supremacy that set the terms of twentieth-century rivalry.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Latin American History, Audiobook, American, France, World History

370 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 16, 2024

Reviews

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a history of that absurd bit of opera bouffe, the second Mexican empire, best known because of the execution of the soi disant 'emperor' Maximilian. Of course the second Mexican empire was not opera bouffe for the Mexican people 1,000,000+ of whom died in this vainglorious and stupid episode. Professor Jonas has given this sordid episode of European colonial hubris the history it has long dieservered. That he is the author of 'The Battle of Adwa: Africa Victory in the Age of Empire' should tell you that this is not going to be another account of the 'tragic' Maximillian and Carlotta.

This is the story of how European governments, egged on by Mexican conservatives, attempted to take advantage of the American civil war to challenge the rising power of the USA. It is only by looking at the whole sorry incident from within the political stresses of the times that the 'Mexican Empire' (though it was never Mexican nor an empire) can be understood.

Do not look here for an account of Maximillian's risible court, though Professor Jonas is remarkably restrained when he deals with him. Personally I find Maximillian vastly annoying. He is the prototypical 'younger' royal brother (seriously if you want to understand Prince Harry you would do well to read the life story of Maximillian). He was superfluous and was expected, like the numerous other Archdukes, to live a life of meaningless formality (in return for heaps of unearned income) as adjuncts to his reigning brother. Maxmillian thought he was destined for something greater, that he would be a better ruler then his brother Francis Joseph. His one serious job as Viceroy over the empire's Italian territories was a disaster. Maximillian believed his own propaganda and the cheers of unreliable crowds. He wanted to be loved and had no desire to deal with the choices a sovereign has to make, Maximillian didn't even want to think about those decisions.

The result was he landed in Mexico at the invitation of Mexican reactionaries and proclaimed a 'liberal empire'. The result was he lost the support of the conservatives and never won that of the liberals. They already had a leader in president Juarez. He sacrificed the support of the Mexican church because he wouldn't overturn the confiscation of church properties by Juarez. He had many years in Europe to consult with the Pope and exiled Mexican clerics about what their attitude might be, but he didn't (see my footnote *1 below). In fact he didn't do anything about discovering the truth about his empire. When the moment came to 'sign on the dotted line' as emperor of Mexico he was surprised that having spent over four years allowing Napoleon III to treat him as an 'emperor' and drawing up a complex court ceremonial and designing and ordering livery for his servants in the Mexican empire that he could not back out without making a foot of himself.

You could say that it was a tragedy for him and his wife Charlotte (why is she always referred to as 'Carlotta'? it wasn't name she was ever addressed as, outside the 'court' of Mexico) but honestly Maximillian was allowed to bow out with far greater dignity and respect then any of the million+ Mexicans who died horribly in the attempt to put him on this bogus throne.

I have read reviews on GR complaining that Maximillian isn't the centre of this book. But Maximillian was even the centre of the Mexican empire. He was a cipher the real driving force was Napoleon III and although he used Maximillian never has a dupe been so willing to be used.

This is a fine history of sordid adventure which does credit to no one, except the Mexican people who were used, and endlessly abused, by others. If Maximillian didn't deserve to be executed he deserved the fate of men like Slobodan Milošević but then maybe Milošević really deserved the fate of Maxmillian. Neither man's end truly compensated for the horror they unleashed on so many.






*1 He might usefully have spoken to his brother, the Austrian emperor, or his officials, about working with pope Pius IX who had led various sympathetic governments in France, Austria and Naples a merry dance when they obligingly restored him to the papal throne after the revolutions of 1848. See 'The Pope Who Would Be King: The Exile of Pius IX and the Emergence of Modern Europe'
by David I. Kertzer.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a decent book about the politics behind the European intervention in Mexico in the 1860s that led to the short-term 2nd Empire in Mexico. It discusses the motivations behind the Europeans and the betrayal of Emperor Maximillian by Napoleon III of France. It also explains the motivations of the officers serving the Emperor. It is not a battle history, but a political history. I did not find much new in the book until the very end. The author discusses the building of a monument to the deposed emperor by Porfirio Diaz to gang Austro-Hungarian recognition of the country.

It is a good book if you have read nothing else about this episode in history. If that is the case, I recommend it.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Habsburgs in the second half of the 19th century until their finale in 1918 is fascinating. Franz Joseph came to power in 1848 (at 18 years old) and ruled the Austrian Empire until his death in 1916; it was so long that on his Empire's borders, he saw Italy and Germany unify into proper countries and the Ottoman Empire collapse. And although he reigned a very long time, murderous deaths surrounded him: his only son Rudolph died via suicide pact in 1889, his cousin-wife Elisabeth (the immortally famous Sisi) was assassinated in 1898, and the assassination of his nephew (Franz Ferdinand, heir apparent after Rudolph) sparked World War 1.

But the earliest tragedy in Franz Joseph's life was the assassination of his brother, Maximilian, in Mexico, which this book details. Though the incident is almost 150 years old, it's little understood or discussed in American and European history. In Mexico they remember this period through Cinco de Mayo, but if asked about who Emperor Maximilian I was, most wouldn't know. It was a relatively short period in the long struggle for Mexican independence and the circumstances were strange: the dominant colonial countries in Europe, backed by Napoleon III and French soldiers with an Austrian prince at the helm, conquered a post-US-Mexico War and post-Mexican Civil War weakened Mexico, which established the Second Mexican Empire.

While Raymond Jonas does a fine job explaining the backstory and individuals involved, it lags behind in describing the story as a unified hole. Its narrative is punctuated by—and relies too much on—excerpts/quotes from others at the expense of the author's own voice/narration. The characters are too loosely fleshed out, most of whom feel like afterthoughts or "we need another perspective" characters that don't fit. Whether this is because of a diminished historical record or lack of proper sources, it feels empty overall. Nonetheless, as most stories of empires and conquests go, the action set pieces and royal intrigue nicely compel the story forward. Despite the flaws, it's an enjoyable bit of semi-lost history for anyone interested in the Habsburgs, Napoleon III, or 19th century Mexican history (especially for those, like myself, who were interested in why Puebla and May 5th are so important).

[History Today]

In 1863 Napoleon III received a letter from an adviser outlining a terrifying future. The population of the United States was 32 million; by 1963, the adviser warned, with a suspiciously exact figure, it would reach 512 million. Washington would need more land, annexing Mexico and then Latin America. In 100 years the US ‘would be capable of trying to enslave the universe’. The adviser then congratulated Napoleon on the ‘boldest’ idea of ‘modern times’: stopping US global hegemony.

The French emperor’s plan was indeed bold. With the US consumed by civil war, Napoleon invaded Mexico. In 1862 he sent 30,000 troops to overthrow the democratic republic and replace it with a French-backed monarchy. The Second Mexican Empire, as this regime is known, would act as a barrier to US expansion.

As Raymond Jonas brilliantly demonstrates in Habsburgs on the Rio Grande, it was not only French resources that were mobilised; it was a transnational effort drawing on manpower from across Europe, the Americas, even North Africa. As one Quebecois volunteer noted, among the troops were ‘German noblemen, English merchants, Polish and Hungarian refugees – every kind of hero in search of his novel’.

Yet despite the power behind it, the Empire proved ephemeral. In Jonas’ view, this was in part because it was ‘founded on a lie’ – that the people of Mexico would welcome a European monarch. This lie originated with members of the Mexican Conservative Party who wished to overturn secular reforms introduced by the Liberals in the 1850s. Conservatives appealed to Europe for help, describing an oppressed silent Catholic majority that would readily welcome a European royal as ruler. For Napoleon, this was the opportunity he had been waiting for. All he needed was a monarch.

Read the rest of the review at HistoryToday.com.

Edward Shawcross is the author of The Last Emperor of Mexico: A Disaster in the New World (Faber, 2022).

[Bryson Boddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of an opinion piece than a history but it gets the job done. Mexico definitely had the most interesting history of any North American country

[Stan Prager · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every serious student of the American Civil War knows that its central cause was human chattel slavery. Southern slave economies, deeply destructive to their own natural environments, lusted after new lands for transplanting their “peculiar institution,” especially the vast western territories of the Mexican Cession and the Gadsden Purchase, spoils of war and treaty. When Lincoln’s election on a “Free Soil” platform foreclosed that prospect, the plantation elite led the charge to secession, pledging to establish a “proud slave Republic.” Thus, most histories of the antebellum tensions that would lead to separation begin in the aftermath of the Mexican War (1846-48). But after Fort Sumter, references to Mexico are reduced to occasional footnotes on the periphery of the struggle for Union.
Meanwhile, the Republic of Mexico—which had been stripped of more than fifty percent of its territory by its rapacious northern neighbor—was plunged into economic and political chaos so severe that less than fifteen years after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the war, it fell victim to foreign invaders who would impose the “Second Mexican Empire” upon it. So it was that north of the Rio Grande, as hundreds of thousands garbed in blue or gray lost their lives to muskets or measles, and with Washington far too preoccupied to enforce the Monroe Doctrine, French imperialists sent an Austrian emperor to rule over all of Mexico. How it happened and what was to follow makes for a fascinating story via the talented pen of Raymond Jonas in his brilliant addition to the historiography, Habsburgs on the Rio Grande: The Rise and Fall of the Second Mexican Empire [2024].
In my decades of Civil War studies, only rarely have I paused to consider the conflict’s significance abroad, other than an awareness of the looming threat of European recognition of the Confederacy—Lincoln’s greatest fear. There was, of course, always a certain incongruity to the favor shown by Britain and France—who had each abolished slavery—to the breakaway CSA that championed human bondage. A large part of it was economic, of course, given the hunger for southern cotton. But another was driven by a real anxiety of what a United States that had nearly doubled its size with the spoils of Mexican soil could mean for a future balance of power in the Americas and elsewhere. As such, a house divided reassured them.
The first longer look I took was courtesy of Sven Beckert’s Empire of Cotton [2014], which demonstrated the global impact of British demand for cotton, endangered overnight by a now tenuous supply chain from the American south, its most important vendor. The result was especially ruinous for India, where colonial exploitation through wide scale cotton cultivation condemned its population to poverty and famine. A decade later, in American Civil Wars [2024], Alan Taylor widened the lens, revealing how growing concerns for an emboldened United States—with its Union restored—sparked new fears overseas of an emerging American Empire, and much closer to home: fueling Canadian nationalism in a race to create a union of their own before its constituent parts could fall prey to what looked to be an unquenchable thirst for territorial expansion by its aggressive neighbor. And further south, a weakened, essentially bankrupt Mexico offered Europe an opportunity to check American power and gain another foothold on the continent.
It was Taylor’s book that inspired me to read Habsburgs on the Rio Grande, and I was not disappointed. Jonas, professor of history at the University of Washington, starts off by sketching out the pitiful status of the Second Republic following the Texas Revolution, the Mexican Cession, and the Gadsden Purchase. A rump state of sorts, although its remaining territory was still sizeable, the war and its aftermath left deep socio-economic scars that set it politically adrift with an uncertain future further burdened by crippling debt. Mexico was not only maimed; it was deeply disfigured.
Years ago, I recall reading a remark by a supercilious pundit who wondered aloud what the west might look like today absent the forces of manifest destiny. He pointed to the economic and political turmoil that marked contemporary Mexico, and imagined a similar negative outcome for what is now the western United States. Of course—much like passing judgment on twenty-first century sub-Saharan Africa without taking into account the devastating impact of European colonialism—conditions in modern Mexico are in a large part the legacy of American imperialism. Moreover, we can only guess at what the Mexican federation would be like in 2025 if its borders still contained Texas, California, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and those parts of Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wyoming that had been stripped from it by the war and other means. This point, minimized or even overlooked elsewhere, cannot be stressed too much.
Fallout from the Mexican-American War only exacerbated ongoing political instability. Within a few years, a coup put autocrat Santa Anna back at the helm, but he was then overthrown in Benito Juárez’s liberal revolution that saw widespread reforms to modernize the economy as well as separate church from state, which threatened both the power of large landowners and the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church. This led to a conservative revolt and civil war. Meanwhile, the handful of European powers that held the notes attached to Mexico’s crushing indebtedness—distrustful of one another but yet aligned for mutual benefit—sensed an opening to collect what was due as well as well as set up shop in America’s backyard while Lincoln was too busy eying the movements of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia to do anything about it.
This opportunity was handed to them on a silver platter when conservatives—defeated on the battlefield—reached out to France’s Napoleon III to request a monarch to rule over Mexico. What started out as an alliance of European nations given to intervention quickly fell apart over squabbling and a lack of will, but France stayed in the game. The French Army, at first stymied at the Battle of Puebla—a victory for Mexico still celebrated on “Cinco de Mayo”—later overwhelmed the forces of the Republic, sent Juárez’s government into internal exile, and placed the Austrian Habsburg Archduke Maximilian I on the throne as emperor of the newly established Second Mexican Empire.
This turns out to be an exciting tale Jonas recounts in a well-written narrative matched with an engaging style equally suitable to a popular or scholarly audience that serves as a welcome remedy to the all-too-common plague of book-length history presented as either dull or dumbed down. He’s at his very best with his detailed portrait of the hapless Maximilian: naive, idealistic, uncertain, self-absorbed, vacillating, easily influenced, and politically inept—in short, utterly unqualified to rule anywhere, but especially unsuitable for the chaotic powder keg that was 1860s Mexico. Furthermore, the Maximilian who emerges in these pages does not appear to have had a solid grip on the dangerous realities he was to encounter. Biographers have observed that Thomas Jefferson was capable of holding two opposing ideas in his head at the same time. The same perhaps could have been said of Maximilian, although unlike the shrewd Jefferson, he seemed entirely unaware of the contradictions.
For those intrigued by the intersecting lives of key figures in history, Maximilian’s family tree is worthy of attention. He was the younger brother of Habsburg Emperor Franz Joseph I, ruler of Austro-Hungary until his death during the First World War. And he was married to the beautiful if mentally unstable Carlota, who was sister to none other than Belgium’s King Leopold II, later infamous for the horrific atrocities inflicted upon the inhabitants of the Congo Free State, his own personal fiefdom. Maximilian’s liberal ideals were not welcome at the court of Franz Joseph, but his pedigree— Habsburgs had once ruled the Viceroyalty of New Spain—lent him a legitimacy that suited both Mexican conservatives and European imperialists, each who pressed him to take on the dubious honor of becoming Emperor of Mexico. True to his characteristic indecisiveness, and ever vulnerable to persuasion, he at first declined but later accepted the role.
His reign was doomed from the start, not least because the new emperor never really understood his mission. Despite decades of political unrest and the schemes of conservative monarchists, Mexicans were mostly united in jealously guarding the hard-fought independence won from Spain in 1821. Yet, Maximilian—a foreign ruler imposed by the French—expected nothing less than a joyous welcome as liberator by an adoring population. There was also an immediate conflict with his conservative patrons in Mexico, whose goal was to undue Juárez’s reforms by restoring the church and its large landholdings, and returning power to the wealthy elite. But Maximilian was a liberal who declared himself a champion of the indigenous and sought to further reform—the exact opposite brand of sovereign that reactionary collaborationists had hoped to import to do their will.
Spoiler alert: it did not end well. Maximilian and Carlota flailed about, playing at the frippery of royalty while deceived by their handlers—and their own imaginations—that they enjoyed a popular support conspicuous in its absence. Meanwhile to their north, the Union prevailed and shortly began to offer aid to the exiled Republic. Eventually France cut its losses and withdrew, but Maximilian—in a ludicrous underscore to his penchant for indulging his own illusions—remained behind, still confident that he was a welcome, beloved figure. That fantasy came to a predictable end in front of a firing squad, although it is likely the credulous Maximilian went to his death as dumbfounded as he had lived his life.
There’s far more to report about the events chronicled in this marvelous book, but no review could appropriately do that justice. All that I can add is that if you are interested in significant if relatively unfamiliar episodes of history that seldom receive their due, this volume deserves your attention as well as a permanent home on your bookshelves. You will not regret it.


I reviewed Empire of Cotton: A Global History, by Sven Beckert here: https://regarp.com/2016/01/02/review-...

I reviewed American Civil Wars: A Continental History, 1850-1873, by Alan Taylor here: https://regarp.com/2024/08/18/review-...


Review of: Habsburgs on the Rio Grande: The Rise and Fall of the Second Mexican Empire, by Raymond Jonas https://regarp.com/2025/08/03/review-...

[Louis Giancola · Rating 3 out of 5]

In 1864 while the US was still engaged in the Civil War, a European prince, Maximilian, landed in Veracruz, Mexico, an declared himself Emperor of Mexico. The whole endeavor was supported and defended by the Napoleon III and thousands of French troops. This bold undertaking is usually described as a footnote in Mexican history that lasted for three years. Jonas sheds light on the internal politics of Mexico and the European powers’ concern about the expansionist policies of the US that gave rise to this endeavor. Of course, at the center of the story is Maximilian, a Hapsburg prince, brother to Emperor Franz Joseph, who aspired to greatness. Jonas suggests that Maximilian’s wife Charlottes, bright and ambitious person, strongly motivated her husband to accept the invitation of Mexican conservatives to accept the position of Emperor. Jonas leads us to believe that Maximilian was smarting at playing second fiddle to his older brother and was naively susceptible to the flattery of those who were urging him to accept the position. He asserted that he would only accept if the Mexican people wanted him but relied on flimsy evidence to confirm their support. Of course, the adventure, which drew thousands of European military volunteers to fight against the forces of the deposed government of the Republic ended in a disaster for Maximilian who was executed in 1867, for those who supported him, and for Mexico.
The importance of this book is that it illustrates the forces at play in this period that led to this calamity. Within Mexico there were divisions based on birthright ( Criollos vs Spanish) and ideology (monarchists vs republicans). There were also strong religious forces at play in Mexico. The Republic had seized the extensive property of the Catholic Church and made enemies of the Pope and Catholic leaders in Mexico.In Europe there was the concern about US imperialism and the survival of monarchist rule.
There is one other side story of note. According to the author Maximilian aspired to lift up the indigenous people, 50% of Mexico’s population, whose customs had been undermined by the Republic. He positioned his empire in the context of the pre-Columbian empires of Mexico. The author presents some evidence t

[Scott Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intriguing look into an aspect of history many Americans do not consider when it comes to Mexico. While America will celebrate Cinco De Mayo as an excuse for discounted Mexican food, the story of that battle, and in particular, the whole interaction between the French, the Austrians and the Mexicans is a story far more complex and intriguing. With French territorial ambitions in the New World, France stepped in to invade Mexico and install Maximilian, an heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne as Emperor. However, the oppressive actions of the European military, a gross lack of understanding of the Mexican population by Maximilian and the rise of Mexican insurgents led to a brutal overthrow, the execution of Maximilian and major political ramification across both North America and Europe.

This work offers a readable history of what occurred during that time and why it would come to matter in history. There not so much heroes and villains, but those that made better decisions than others. Something that those wanting to understand the history of Mexico, and even Europe, might do well to read at least once.

[Gil The Bright · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointed that Emperor Maximilians life and fate is given what can honestly only be described as a marginal role. His personality, motivations, and the Habsburg reaction—particularly the missed opportunity to explore Franz Joseph’s tragic life—are overshadowed and squandered by excruciatingly detailed descriptions of Napoleonic forces versus the Republicans. It feels as though the author couldn’t decide whether to write a political analysis or a military history, indulging in battles rather than exploring the empire’s formation and the tragedy of the Emperor. However, one aspect I do appreciate is its neutral stance, avoiding the common American bias in favor of republics. Informative, but far from memorable.

[Stuart Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-written account of the ill-fated Mexican Empire, financed by Napoleon III and led by Austria-Hungary's naive idealist Archduke Maximilian and his ambitious wife, Charlotte. Jonas argues that apprehension about U.S. territorial ambitions and the spread of democracy contributed to the European monarchies' (Spain, France and England) willingness to take on this dubious imperial gamble with France, in the end, paying the highest price in men and material. Charlotte paid for it by a descent into madness and Maximilian paid with his life in front of a Mexican firing squad.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always knew that the French were in Mexico in the 1860s and that they supported the Emperor Maximillian, but I knew none of the details. This very readable volume explains why the French were there, why they chose Maximillian to be the emperor, why he chose to go, why the French left, and why he chose to stay. In the end it was a very sad story of a very naïve man who chose to ignore reality and the resources at hand. One would think that a person raised in the courts of Europe would better understand politics, but one often sees what they want to see.

[Becky Shepkowski Shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slow and confusing start leads to an interesting tale of a very short lived empire. I found it hard to believe (and yet totally believable) that the monarchy spent such time detailing costumes for their court but very little time on thinking about how to actually run anything. I guess historical empires were just as vain and poorly run as modern times. I found the story compelling and, though perhaps a little too detailed, something I definitely wanted to pick up each evening.

[Daniel Farabaugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a dense but engaging account of the failed attempt to conquer Mexico by France with a Habsburgs ruler. The author does a very good job of developing the people involved and the issues at play. At times the narrative of events gets a little lost in the background.

[Kevin Veronneau · Rating 4 out of 5]

So much I didn't know... a little dry but an important and interesting story of the way the USA was regarded at the time and how post US Civil War Europe was afraid of the expansionist push of 'La Ladrona Republica' must read for history buffs.

[Toddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I stopped early. Might be a 4 star. It satisfied my interest in that time and place since I didn’t know anything about it. I may go back and read more sometime. Really liked the writing style, not at all dry.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a real clown show, the second Mexican empire.

[James Lovett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Illuminating history of a episode that should get more attention. Despite some slow sections, well researched and very relevant for today.