The Second Mexican Empire under Maximilian I.
"Napoleon's clandestine program of conquest—the so-called Grand Design for the Americas—depended on his intervening in the American war while establishing a foothold in Mexico. He intended to block both Union and Confederate expansion southward by constructing a North American balance of power based on a 'hyphenated confederation' similar to that in Germany. The confederation would consist of the North, the South, the West, and Mexico, each having equal power. The plan would thus break up the United States, leaving Mexico under French control to eventually incorporate Texas and perhaps the former colony of Louisiana. It was an ambitious and provocative plan, but neither the Confederacy nor the Union could have been surprised. In Richmond, Benjamin had long suspected the emperor of wanting Texas in order to contain southern expansion. From Belgium the year before, Ambrose D. Mann had warned of Napoleon's threat, and again in early 1863 he expressed concern that the emperor's territorial aims would cause 'general uneasiness in the minds of our citizens'; his chief goal was 'the restoration of Mexico as it was prior to the independence of Texas.'"
- Jones, Howard (2010) Blue and Gray Diplomacy: A History of Union and Confederate Foreign Relations. University of North Carolina Press, p. 294
"In the fall of 1864, Maximilian sent his aide. Count Ollivier Resseguier, on a secret mission to Guatemala to explore the possibility of drawing Central America into the Mexican Empire. The energetic French minister, Cabarrus, advised the aide it would be necessary, first of all, for Mexico to conclude a frontier convention to soften the distrust of Guatemalans over their boundary dispute with Mexico. After this gesture of good will, but not before, Maximilian’s agents could plot out with the French further enticement of Guatemala. The Frenchman believed Carrera might be able to unite and annex all Central America to the Mexican Empire."
- Hanna, Alfred Jackson and Hanna, Kathryn Abbey (1971) Napoleon III and Mexico: American Triumph over Monarchy. University of North Carolina Press, pp. 188-89
"And sometimes their schemes shaded off into pure fantasy, as when Maximilian, precariously ruling in Mexico City, toyed with a plan—it was born in Paris and it was the finest flower of the seed sown in the prison cell at Ham—to extend the Mexican Empire over Nicaragua, and Panama, and all Central America. And when these regions had been consolidated there was to be an alliance with the Emperor of Brazil and a conquest of Colombia, Venezuela, Guiana, Ecuador and Peru. He drew a map, and coloured in the full eventual limits of his power."
- Dawson, Daniel (1935) The Mexican Adventure. G. Bell & Sons Ltd., p. 381
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