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Would Max even grant Confederate fugitives asylum? By the way, what was Maximilian’s stance on slavery?
Not sure of Max in particular, but Mexico had abolished slavery by this point if I'm remembering properly.

Now I honestly going to be that much of an effect on Europe for a couple decades, France will probably still lose the Franco-Prussian war, which will have some interesting ramifications for Maxico. I do predict stronger ties with Austria, maybe higher immigration between the two.
Central and South America are going to be interesting, I wonder what the Empire of Brazil will be up to.
 
Sarthaka when he gets tired of people saying the Second Mexican Empire can't survive:

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If Maximilian gets his hands on Jose Limantour he's all set. "El Mago de los Numeros" managed to balance the country's budget during his time
 
Would Max even grant Confederate fugitives asylum? By the way, what was Maximilian’s stance on slavery?
Not sure of Max in particular, but Mexico had abolished slavery by this point if I'm remembering properly.

Now I honestly going to be that much of an effect on Europe for a couple decades, France will probably still lose the Franco-Prussian war, which will have some interesting ramifications for Maxico. I do predict stronger ties with Austria, maybe higher immigration between the two.
Central and South America are going to be interesting, I wonder what the Empire of Brazil will be up to.
He did allow Confederates to migrate to Mexico on the condition that they were not allowed to bring slaves with them. Around 6000 migrated otl despite the war. If there is stability I can see around ~50,000 or so Confederates immigrating. Mexico would probably absorb the immigrants who went to Brazil otl due to being closer.
Sarthaka when he gets tired of people saying the Second Mexican Empire can't survive:

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Well someone had to do it.
You can never have enough Second Mexican Empire timelines. Great work, consider me subscribed!
Indeed they are a rarity.
This looks great! Watched and can’t wait for the next instalment.
Thanks!
If Maximilian gets his hands on Jose Limantour he's all set. "El Mago de los Numeros" managed to balance the country's budget during his time
Well in the future. The man's barely 10 in 1864.
 
If Maximilian gets his hands on Jose Limantour he's all set. "El Mago de los Numeros" managed to balance the country's budget during his time
If Maximilian can stabilize Mexico and balance its budget, he will have done two genuine miracles.
He did allow Confederates to migrate to Mexico on the condition that they were not allowed to bring slaves with them. Around 6000 migrated otl despite the war. If there is stability I can see around ~50,000 or so Confederates immigrating. Mexico would probably absorb the immigrants who went to Brazil otl due to being closer.
I wonder if having a more stable and prosperous Mexico will have any effects on TTL's Southern states. Is it possible that TTL's Great Migration has some blacks migrating into Mexico instead of going north?
 
If Maximilian can stabilize Mexico and balance its budget, he will have done two genuine miracles.

I wonder if having a more stable and prosperous Mexico will have any effects on TTL's Southern states. Is it possible that TTL's Great Migration has some blacks migrating into Mexico instead of going north?
It would be easier for most blacks to go north but a few may try to go to Mexico.
Another Sarthaka timeline, another immediate watch. Let’s see how this ride goes.
Thanks!
 

Windows95

Banned
Okay, what the heck? So many timelines Sartharka, just, how do you do all this? I really want to know, am very curious in how types the words in a timely manner and leave each update with a lot of content and then do the same for the multiple timelines you have.

I would just want to know the power you have.
 
Lol, after seeing the thread discussing this topic, I'm not surprised you started a timeline about it! I'm interested to see where this goes...
 

Gabingston

Kicked
I wonder if Mexico will get more immigration ITTL, since they have more ties to Europe and a Constitutional Monarchy could be more stable than OTL's Mexico. Seeing mass Italian immigration to Mexico would be interesting (and would produce some delicious food).
 
Chapter 2: Marching Till The End
Chapter 2: Marching Till The End



Excerpt: The Mexican Civil War the 1860s: A Military, Political & Diplomatic History

‘……As 1864 waned and 1865 came, Mexico was in a state of flux as four new leaders claimed to be the President of the Mexican Republic. This was a godsend for the Imperials in Mexico and a massive wrench in the plan for the Republican Cause. As news of the fragmentation of the Republican Leaders reached Washington DC, American actors in the Mexican Civil War were forced to pause. The French intervention in Mexico constituted an ideological and geopolitical challenge to the United States of America and the theory of the Monroe Doctrine. After decades of what seemed to be shadowboxing in the long run, American politicians had finally been confronted by what they had long feared most: An European Power invading a New World Republic and bringing with it what they saw to be a Puppet Monarchy. Northerners in the American Republic believed that the Mexican Civil War and the Secession of the Southern States were so closely linked that they were nearly the very same conflict in and of itself. After all, Confederate politicians had cheered the French troops in Mexico in hopes of gaining recognition from the French Empire. Ulysses S. Grant, one of the American Civil War’s greatest generals believed the Mexican Civil War and the French involvement in it to be tantamount to a declaration of war between France and America. This view was certainly shared by many in the American government and military.


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Abraham Lincoln
President of the USA

During the initial European involvement in 1861, when British and Spanish soldiers marched into Mexico alongside the French to regain Mexican debt, on the insistence of Britain, an offer to intervene in Mexico had been given to the American government as well. Lincoln, on receiving the offer, determined that European powers using military force to regain debts defaulted in a New World Republic did not violate the Monroe Doctrine. On Lincoln’s answer, American Secretary of State Seward proclaimed that America would not accept the invitation, not because it violated Mexican sovereignty because Seward stated that America would take independent actions later on after the Southern Rebellion was suppressed. [1]

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Margarita Maza
Former First Lady of Mexico

But these plans of the United States of America was unravelling at the get go, as Juarez died and his successors squabbled with one another over the title President and Imperial Mexico made slow by steady gains. When Juarez was alive, the American government could easily prop him up as the legitimate Head of State of Mexico, but with four Republican pretenders running around in Mexico, the legitimism of the Mexican Republic was shattered, and American diplomacy in the area reflected this. In Washington DC, Margarita Maza, the wife of the late Benito Juarez tried to secure further American funding and aid for the Mexican Republicans, in the memory of her late husband, but it was fundamentally becoming harder and harder for the former First Lady of Mexico to gain monetary aid when the American government did not know where and to whom that aid was going to be going. Lincoln himself believed that the death of Juarez was an utter disaster for the application of the Monroe Doctrine in Mexico and this sentiment was shared by the American Cabinet and the American Congress. Who would they now support?

The more belligerent of American leaders advocated for immediate war with Mexico after the Confederates were defeated after which they could install a proper figurehead President for the Mexicans. General Grant was an advocate of this plan, but President Lincoln remained hesitant. He believed that intervening in Mexico through direct military intervention was only going to unite the Mexican people - who were never really supportive of the Americans after the Mexican-American War - over to the Imperial side. As the American Civil War started to wind down, he had to take care of politicking as well, and he believed personally that any opposition party that would form against him after the Civil War would take up use of a hypothetical 2nd Mexican-American War with ample impunity. In a letter admonishing Seward for his high tone belligerency regarding Mexico, Lincoln wrote: -

“The political opposition soon to be formed will take up the question of our governmental relationship with Maximilian, and assume the assertion or anti-assertion of the Monroe Doctrine as their great political principle; carrying it eloquently before the people, who have undoubtedly kept the doctrine close and warm at heart; will they not gain a hold upon public favor not easily shaken off?” [2]

A relief came in the form of news that France and Imperial Mexico had seen a frosting of relationship, as Maximiliano I became more dependent on his locally raised Imperial Mexican Army rather than the French Army and rumors arose that Napoleon III was even thinking about withdrawing from Mexico over the issue, for he didn’t wish for a wayward vassal. This relief was offset by the fact that Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria was now publically contemplating intervening in Mexico to ‘aid Maximilian, the son of Austria & Mexico’. [3] In the end, Lincoln decided that until the Civil War was fully finished, America would have nothing to do with the Mexican Civil War. It was a classic move of kicking the proverbial can down the road, as even the giant policy makers of America at the time were caught off-guard on their future course of action in Mexico.


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Refugio Tanori in 1889

A direct American intervention would have likely been the last hope for the Mexican Republicans, as the vastly expanded Imperial Mexican Army decided that 1865 was going to be the year in which they ended the war entirely. Under the command of Refugio Tanori, a skilled young commander in the Imperial Mexican Army, a force of 8,000 pro-Maximilian Mexican troops and 2,000 Franco-Austrian-Belgian troops invaded Durango, directly pitting themselves against the forces of General Jesus Ortega, who floundered at the sudden attack from the south. Ortega conducted a harsh scorched earth policy as he regrouped further in the north in a bid to regain military superiority in the region. His efforts to disrupt Imperial advances from the south was being disturbed by the fact that Tejada’s own militias attacked Ortega’s northern flanks in a bid to destroy a pretender to the Mexican presidency. Ortega gave battle to General Tanori at the Battle of Durango Nazar, which Ortega won, however he was unable to make use of his victory other than retreating to a sounder defensive parameter. Despite the military victory at the battle, Ortega had still lost most of Durango to the Imperials. Tanori for his part, recognized that he would not be able to advance further without creating a proper link between his small army and Mexico City, for he required the logistical support. His first course of action was to stamp down on the pro-Republican guerilla activities going on in the recently captured areas, and the perpetual bandits that called Northern Mexico home. These bandits looted indiscriminately, whether their victims be Republican or Imperial, they paid no mind, as only gold and money was on their heads for them.

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The Belgian Legion in Mexico

Tanori requested the support of the newly arrived Belgian Legion, which was a group of 1500 Belgian volunteers sent by the Belgian Government; the new Empress of Mexico was Belgian after all. These Volunteers were at the time being criminally underused as a garrison in San Luis Potosi. Under the command of Colonel Carlos Oronoz, the Belgian Legion was asked to conduct cordon and search missions to reduce and exterminate banditry and pro-Republican guerillas in the mountains of Durango. The success of the Belgian Legions, which arrived in Durango on the 21st of March, 1865, was mixed. They did successfully manage to clamp down on guerilla activity – for a heavy price as 112 Belgian casualties are recorded in the fighting – but Banditry continued unabated as the bandits of Northern Mexico were used to dodging angry armies who were in pursuit of them. Meanwhile Ortega hadn’t forgotten about Tejada’s stab in the back against him during Tanori’s offensive and instead to cement his position as President of Mexico, he turned his attention to the north. This was a fatal mistake in hindsight. Without hindsight, it was a fair decision on part of Ortega, for the logistics of the Imperial Mexicans and the French in the region had reached their limit and they had stopped in order to regroup. It would take weeks and even months for them to regain a proper base of logistical support. With this in mind, Ortega attacked Tejada’s controlled territory in the north and managed to beat back Tejada’s troops all the way to Desierto. What followed was basically a Republican version of a feudal war of succession and feudal disputes.

Tejada found himself attacked not only by Ortega from the south, but also from Iglesias in the Northwest and soon, Ortega & Iglesias had punched Tejada’s forces all the way from their tentative borders all the way towards Monclova, capturing vast amounts of territory and resource rich areas in the process. Tejada gave up the territories in the rump Nuevo Leon and instead moved with the rest of his forces through Cantu and Los Herrera into Tamaulipas, which was controlled by General Manuel Doblado. Tejada’s sudden abandonment of the remnants of non-Imperial Nuevo Leon and sudden attack towards Tamaulipas took Doblado, who was gingerly gathering his forces in a coordinated defense against the southern Imperialist forces, by absolute surprise, as Doblado had nothing but the bare minimum defenses against the Nuevo Leonese border. His capital at Ciudad Victoria fell to the forces under the command of Tejada, and seeing no other option to secure at least a modicum of a power base behind him, Doblado left towards Tampico, which was controlled by the Imperial government and defected to the Imperial government. General Tomas Mejia who was in command in the region, and the one who had commanded the Franco-Mexican forces in Monterrey in 1864 took Doblado’s letter of defection and using the autonomy present to him as a General of the Empire, raised Doblado to Lieutenant General. As the remnants of Tejada’s Nuevo Leon fell and was divided between Iglesias and Ortega, the two started to feud over the territory themselves and were involved in running fighting with one another. But with Ortega and Iglesias fighting with one another over the division of lands in Nuevo Leon and over the Presidency and being Juarez’s Successor, Tanori saw an opportunity that was simply too great to miss. A native of Sinaloa, Tanori believed that he could capture most of Sinaloa which was being neglected by Ortega in favor of Northern Durango and Nuevo Leon. This would essentially cut off Ortega and Iglesias from Baja California and their base of power in the region, whilst also significantly reducing the two Republican leaders and their capability to wage war. The only problem was that the logistical ability of Mexico City to supply such an invasion was insignificant as the underdeveloped roads of Northern Mexico were ill-equipped to handle such large transfers of war materials. Tanori was taking a risk, but he had been reinforced by Porfirio Diaz and his experienced troops, and the two commanders commenced the May Offensive as Tanori invaded Sinaloa and Diaz conducted a feint attack into Northern Durango.


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Military Situation in Mexico at the end of May 1865.
(Ignore America)

Diaz was stopped and checked by General Ortega who retreated back south and managed to stall Diaz’s advance into Durango, but the feint managed to work as Ortega was unable to properly reinforce Sinaloa against the Imperial forces in the region. Most of Sinaloa fell to Tanori’s invasion, and effectively split Ortega’s forces throughout Mexico in what became an uncoordinated mess. As May 1865 ended, the military situation for the Republicans had turned extremely dire. The disunity and infighting among the Mexican Republicans after Diaz’s death was effectively checkmate for Imperial Mexico….’



Excerpt: Maximiliano & Carlotta: The Couple That Defined Mexico

‘…..As the Imperial and French troops moved north to secure the Northern anti-Monarchist holdouts against Maximilian’s rule, Maximiliano turned his attention to the Clergy once again. Arguably, the disaffection of the Clergy in Mexico had been the mover that had brought Maximiliano from Austria to Mexico, however said Clergy was already disaffected with Maximiliano I due to the fact that the new Emperor of Mexico had retained much of the Liberal laws regarding the Clergy in Mexico. All that was different was that Catholicism became the State Religion, but even that was more akin to first among equals in religion rather than a true state religion of old. The Empress Carlotta also took a rather dim view of the Mexican Clergy, largely due to the fact that the Clergy in Europe and the Clergy in Mexico were vastly two different things, and the Imperial Couple regarded the Mexican Clergy as “stuck in the Middle Ages”. The Imperial couple had been warned in Rome in 1863 by Jose Maria Gutierrrez de Estrada that the Mexican Clergy was very different than in Europe, but the two had clearly underestimated the difference, and were started to become irate over it.


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Juan Bautista de Ormaechea
Labastida's replacement as Archbishop of Mexico

Carlotta and Maximiliano shared the opinion that the clerics were spoiled, extremely overly entitled, corrupt and idiotic people. They hardly had any knowledge about Christian Theology (“I can debate more about the Bible than these fools!” – Maximiliano to Miramon in 1867) and they hardly cared for the common Mexican people except for fermenting public reaction by overtaxing the normal tithing. Maximiliano had thus decided to keep the Liberal Reforms that Juarez had passed after the Reform War, nationalizing Clergy lands, and allowing for toleration of other religions, a decision that finally made the arch-reactionary Archbishop of Mexico Labastida break with Maximiliano. Maximiliano I would have probably allowed the Archbishop to stay in place despite their break in relations, however Carlotta was far more vengeful than her husband, and knowing that Labastida now presented a threat to her husband’s reign after the break, she worked to remove Labastida away from a position of power. She would later write to Rome and have the Pope himself intervene. Pope Pius IX would later write back, removing Labastida as Archbishop of Mexico and replacing him with the more moderate Bishop of Tulacingo, Juan Bautista de Ormaechea. Ormaechea was not supportive of wholesale land nationalization of the Mexican Clergy but he recognized that the embezzled land needed to be returned back to a central authority and later convinced Maximiliano I to nationalize all lands that had been embezzled by the Clergy in Mexico, whilst the Clergy was allowed to keep the lands that they had owned from before 1800. It was in effect, a perfect compromise for the Liberals and Conservatives in Mexico at the time, regarding the Clergy. Of course Pius IX hadn’t been made aware of the fact that the Imperial Couple intended to keep most of the Liberal reforms in place, because if he had been informed, then it was highly unlikely that the Vatican would have replaced Labastida. All that Carlotta told Pius IX was that Labastida was simply becoming a hindrance on the development and consolidation of Imperial Mexico. This does show the undercurrent of sneakiness that Carlotta would later become known for, during the court intrigues of the Mexican Empire.

These actions of compromise mollified the powerful Clerical Party for some time, however the more hardline reactionary monarchists in Mexico were rather unnerved by this action on part of their new sovereign. They believed that only the catholic faith could ordain Kings and Emperors, as it had done for Charlemagne millennia ago. Despite this fact however, Maximilian’s reconciliatory approach to matters that had been rather large sticking points in the 1850s earned him the support of most moderates throughout the Mexican country, which was extremely important as the Mexican nation was still not fully under Monarchist rule.


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The Austrian Volunteers

But as Maximiliano I and Carlotta worked against the Clergy’s stifling presence in Mexican politics at the time, France was starting to have double thoughts regarding Mexico. Maximiliano I had already overturned many of France’s decisions and laws in Mexico, including the Napoleonic Ecclesial Laws, which were stifling to all Liberals in Mexico. Furthermore, led by Achille Fould, the French opposition were lambasting against the French intervention, and this had led to a slight upswing in French Republicanism back in France, worrying Napoleon III greatly. Prussia was on the rise and as tensions rose between Berlin and Vienna regarding the final German settlement, Napoleon III knew that he needed the cream of the French military which was still in Mexico to be back in France. The decision to fully raise an indigenous Mexican military on part of Maximiliano I had alienated Napoleon III as well, who wanted to keep Maximiliano I under his own thumb. Five French regiments were recalled in early 1865 despite successes in the North, much to the frustration of Maximiliano and Carlotta, however Franz Joseph was not going to let France cut his brother dry in Mexico. The Austrian Imperial Ministry of War called out for volunteers in the Austrian Army to join up for ‘expedition into Mexico’ and 7,000 Austrian Volunteers (mostly made up of Slovenes, Croats and Italians – Maximilian as Head of the Austrian Navy before had endeared himself to these nationalities of the Austrian Empire) were dispatched to Mexico to make up for the sudden French withdrawal of regiments. With key successes being reported in Northern Mexico, Miramon finally managed to persuade key Prussian and British arms dealers to send weapons and armament to Mexico. Napoleon III had made a fatal mistake in his abrupt withdrawal of five experienced regiments, as French influence waned – in ostensibly French puppet state – whilst Austrian, Prussian and British influence grew.

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Juan N. Cortina

Maximiliano I himself was more focused on building his base of support within Mexico. To do this, he rationalized that he would have to work to uplift the economically poor Mexico. Under his reign, Mexico established the National Bank of Mexico as the first banking cooperation in Mexico, whilst a new railway line was being constructed between Mexico and Veracruz by French companies, defended by French troops across the construction sites against any guerilla activity. Whilst the railroad itself would not pay dividends until much later, the establishment of the bank certainly allowed for a greater access of commodity and commerce in Mexico City, which allowed for a greater inflow of money into the city. Like any good monarch, Maximiliano I knew that a key facet to earning the people’s mind was money. It was certainly this new flow of money that allowed Maximiliano I to win back the support of Juan N. Cortina, who has been misnamed by history as the Rio Grande Robin Hood (because this man didn’t distribute his wealth to the poor, far from it).

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Jo Shelby, the first of many Confederate Immigrants to Mexico

All of this politicking and economic and social work had left the heavily pregnant Carlotta extremely frail by the end of March, and Maximiliano I, worried about the health of his wife and future child, temporarily released Carlotta from her work in the government and she stayed in Chapultepec Castle for the rest of her pregnancy attended by several members of the Mexican elite at the time, visiting her and showering her with praise. Maximiliano I for his part, departed his life from his native mistress (whose name is unknown to us), and decided to stay by the side of his wife when not working, to ease her through the pregnancy. And certainly Maximiliano I had a lot of work to do. With the defeat of the Confederate States of America in April 1865, a group of Confederate leaders wishing to flee America approached Maximiliano I with an offer. Confederates would immigrate to Mexico into an immigration hub or neo-colony named ‘New Virginia’ anywhere near Mexico City, allowing their families to settle down peacefully without having to suffer through America’s Reconstruction of the South. This group of Confederate Leaders was led by Commodore Mathew Maury and Explorer William Anderson. Maximiliano I had some doubts about the plan, though he was eager for American and European immigrants to boost the capital of the nation. He had just recently sent a telegram to Lincoln (in an unofficial capacity, for America still didn’t recognize the Empire), asking about Lincoln’s safety after the attempted assassination of President Lincoln on the 14th of April, 1865. [4] Lincoln hadn’t replied, even if he had, he could not for the USA did not recognize the Empire of Mexico, but in an unofficial capacity, his secretary had replied with a customary letter of gratitude for the courtesy. It wasn’t much, but it was a start. Maximiliano I didn’t know how much he could rankle America by allowing the Confederates to immigrate into Mexico. Most reluctantly he allowed the Confederates to immigrate, on the condition that they bring no slaves into Mexico, for slavery was outlawed in Mexico – of that issue Maximiliano I was firm – and on the condition that Confederate Generals who immigrated to Mexico joined the Imperial Mexican Army to stamp out the northern resistance. Though Maximiliano I found the Confederates to be morally extremely backwards, even he could not deny that their generals had proper military experience that could be useful for the nascent Imperial Mexican Army. A coldly pragmatic view, but for a man in the situation of Maximilian, something that was necessary. Joseph O. Shelby and Edmund Kirby Smith, both of whom fled into Mexico with the remnants of their troops became the first Confederate emigres of the 2nd Mexican Empire. Later on, Maximiliano revoked his wish for the Confederates to be a part of his military, for he decided he didn’t wish to gain the ire of the northern American giant more than he had already had, but allowed them to settle down peacefully in what became known as the New Virginia quarter of Mexico City, which is till this day, still filled with descendants of Confederate immigrants.

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Prince of Tenochtitlan, Prince Francisco Maximiliano Carlos de Habsburgo-Lorena in 1900

Finally, during the ending days of May, 1865, Carlotta’s water broke, and she went into labor at Chapultepec Castle. Unexpectedly she gave birth to twins. A girl named Augustina Maria Carlotta Isabel was born first. Four minutes later a boy named Francisco Maximiliano Carlos (named after his uncle) was born as well. Due to Mexico’s male preference succession system at the time, Prince Francisco immediately became Heir to the Imperial Throne of Mexico whilst Princess Augustina became second in line to the Imperial throne. Maximilian was delighted at the birth of his children. In honor of his children, he created the title Prince of Tenochtitlan for Prince Francisco, which became akin to the title Prince of Wales in Britain. He also created the title Princess Imperial for Princess Augustina which became akin to the title of Princess Royal in Britain. The birth of the twins was regarded as a miracle for the Imperial couple, and certainly furthered the legitimacy of the Imperial family within Mexico. Throughout Mexico, church bells rang out 29 times to denote the fact that the Imperial Twins as they became called were born on the 29th of May, 1865. Thus started the Imperial House of Habsburg-Mexico……’



Footnotes:-

[1] – True Fact.

[2] – Soured from Monroe Doctrine: Empire and Nation in 19th Century America. True quote

[3] – True quote by Franz Joseph to the Austrian House of Lords in 1865

[4] – Heh, small drop

Information from Monroe Doctrine: Empire and Nation in 19th Century America &
Maximilian& Carlotta: Europe’s Last Empire in Mexico
 
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