I've been reading around on this site for a long time now and considered doing various timelines myself, but I've only just gotten around to getting on with it
So here's hoping you guys enjoy! 
-
The Expedition of a Thousand
For many years the Italians had struggled, against both foreign threats and those within their own claimed borders, to establish a unified Italian state. By 1860 what had previously been the dream of a few hopeful patriots seemed poised to become a reality. All of the rich and plentiful north lay under the dominion of Victor Emmanuel II, King of Sardinia-Piedmont, who was slowing becoming himself the father of the nation which he seemed destined to rule in its entirety. Indeed the only remaining obstacles to the achievement of this dream were the Papal States and the Kingdom of the Two-Sicilies, two ancient and noble realms which had since decayed and stood ripe for the taking. It was to this objective that led the famed general Garibaldi to sail to Sicily with one thousand men, to stand against the entire Neapolitan army and to finally achieve the unification of Italy.
Upon landing Garibaldi met with great success, defeating a Bourbon army almost twice the size of his forces in the Battle of Calatafimi, which gave him room to breathe as well as inspiring a general revolt that allowed him to lay siege to the city of Palermo, defended by some 16,000 Neapolitans. However, they were poorly led by both their corrupt officers and the weak Ferdinando Lanza. Had a stay cannon shot from the ships which were bombarding the city not killed Garibaldi, the flimsy defences would most likely have fallen to his expert hand. As it was, he was killed on the 29th May during a Bourbon attack which was repelled. Despite the failure of the first attack, when news reached Lanza of his enemy’s death and further bolstered by the arrival of Neapolitan reinforcements, he ordered another attack on the Garibaldian lines, which was held back in many places by the redshirts who fought all the harder for the loss of their beloved leader, but which broke through the demoralized rebels, many of whom were without arms or powder. Although the fight for the city was a brutal one, in the end the Neapolitans regained control, forcing out the surviving rebels and redshirts, who retreated to Alcamo, where much of the populace mobilized to withstand a siege. On the 13th June the Neapolitans laid siege to the well-prepared rebel positions, which repulsed the initial efforts of the Bourbons to force an entrance into the town, leading Lanza to reduce them with artillery bombardment over several days, followed by a final attack which broke through and defeated the last major force of the expedition. Although guerrilla activities in the area continued to be carried out by survivors of the expedition and subsequent revolts, all was quiet in the major cities where the people had been cowed into submission, with many of the monarchy’s opponents removed all together, either perishing in the expedition, entering into captivity or exile, or suffering execution for treason. For the time being, at least, the Kingdom of the Two-Sicilies was to survive.
The Immediate Aftermath of the Expedition of a Thousand
In the Kingdom of the Two-Sicilies, the effects of the expedition were immediate and far reaching, for the King was shocked by how close the second city of his realm had come to falling into the hands of mere bandits. In the wake of the failed revolts hundred were executed across western Sicily for their treason, which served to drive many republicans and opponents of the King into exile or hiding, crippling the opposition, not only in Sicily, but the entire Kingdom. The secret societies which had been formed all over Italy were now ruthlessly suppressed by Francis II, who created a new section of government officials for the detection and capture of all those who sought to oppose or in any way damage the Crown. These two events led to a significant decrease in anti-Bourbon activities within the Kingdom. On top of this, the independence-minded Sicilians, in the west at least, were subdued by the bloody fate of the rebellion, which left much of Palermo in ruins, an event carved into the collective memory of an entire generation there. Furthermore, the King resolved that a serious reorganisation of his army was needed and he began heavily investing in more modern arms and equipment, whilst on the grand political stage, it was decided that Naples must end its isolationism and find allies if it is to survive in the modern world. As such, overtures were swiftly made to almost all the nations of Europe, most especially the Papal States, Austrians and French.
In the Papal States, the effects of the expedition mirrored those in the Kingdom of the Two-Sicilies, to an extent, for the Pope also created a division specifically to deal with internal opposition to his temporal authority, which many intellectuals who had supported the expedition, either directly or simply morally, fled abroad to more friendly nations. The Pope made overtures to the French and Austrians, but both refused to an alliance with the Pontiff, leaving him to create a new alliance between the throne of St Peter and the Bourbons to the south. The Pope also ordered the strengthening of the Papal army, with the raising of various new military units and the expansion of those that already existed, with a general call to arms being issued to Catholics across the world. The Holy Father was set upon establishing the Papal Army as a force to be reckoned with.
In the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont, the effects were less obvious but perhaps more profound. Victor Emmanuel II had hoped that Garibaldi would be successful and deliver Sicily to him, but now the King shied away from the idea of incorporating the south into his planned Kingdom of Italy, and although Cavour attempted to stir up republican unrest in the south, he failed and the two southern states were, for the time being at least, let well alone. Meanwhile, Venice became the focus of Sardinian attention, becoming their greatest desire.
In the end, both southern Italian states drew closer together, with a variety of treaties being drawn up between them, resulting in an alliance and blossoming trade, allowing industry to expand and also leading shortly to the construction of a railway between the two capitals. Both agreed to exchange advancements and innovations in every field, especially the military, as both sought to expand their forces to protect themselves from external threats. Rome and Naples were thus drawn together, but the rift between north and south was deepened, as Pius and Francis blamed the Sardinians for the expedition and feared their increasing power. Banditry, an eternal problem in Italy, most especially the south, began to decrease at this time, as the Papal and Bourbon governments sought to crush all opposition to their rule and do away with the rebels who occasionally took up arms in an attempt to unite Italy. The rebels, however, were few and disorganised without the unifying force of Garibaldi, and no serious threats arose, troops quickly putting down the rebellions and gaining experience, as well as being employed to hunt down the bandits plaguing the south.
Peacetime in Italy
For a time, Italy was at peace. The revolutionaries, so dangerous before, were reduced to a mere annoyance, whilst the Sardinians were unwilling to march south and unable to march east against the powerful Austrians. Because of this, Italy prospered, especially in the south, where trade rapidly expanded between the Naples and Rome. Industry grew quickly, especially in the Kingdom of the Two-Sicilies, which was by far the richest of all the Italian States. With its immense wealth, the Kingdom was able to bolster its army, obtain the latest arms and equipment and increase the number of artillery pieces it had, as well as construct new ships for the navy, including a small number of ironclads, and lay miles of new railway lines. The King, as time wore on, became more obsessed with the state of his military, desperately fearing the loss of his throne, either to revolutionaries in the same vein as Garibaldi or to the Sardinians. Bordering on paranoia, this fear led Francis to refuse all attempts to reform the government and to reject all offers of an alliance from Victor Emmanuel.
The Sardinians, meanwhile, sought to bring themselves closer to France, in an attempt to prepare themselves for a war with Austria. Some vague suggestions at carving up the Papal States between Naples and Turin were made, but were immediately rejected by Francis who was a devout Catholic and who had come to dislike the Sardinian King for the threat he posed. Whilst these diplomatic manoeuvres were made, The Sardinians attempted to provoke war with Austria as they had done in 1859, by deploying troops along the border. However, the Austrians refused to declare war, remembering the previous outcome for them, meaning that the Sardinians were unable to get their war, too weak to defeat Austria alone and only assured of French support if the Austrians started the war.
The Mexican Civil War
During these years, Mexico was consumed by civil war, as the republicans battled against the government of Emperor Maximillian. The events leading to the civil war began after the Mexican President suspended the payment of interest on his county’s foreign debts. This led to the French, Austrian and British fleets seizing various parts of the coast in late 1861 and early 1862, in an attempt to force the Mexicans to continue the payments. However, Napoleon III had grander plans and landed an entire army under General Lorencez on the 5th March 1862, as control of Mexico would give France access to all of Latin America. In April, when the Austrians and British realised the intentions of the French, they withdrew their forces.
The French intervention progressed rather haphazardly, with the first major action, the Battle of Puebla on 5th May, ending in defeat for the French, forcing them to retreat. However, with the arrival of French reinforcements, the Mexicans were halted and the way to Puebla forced open. On 30th April 1863, the famous action of Captain Danjou occurred when 3,000 Mexicans attacked his small patrol, forcing them to take cover in a nearby inn. After an inspiring attempt to hold out, the remaining legionaries sallied out in a bayonet charge, leaving only three survivors. Although strategically insignificant, it proved a morale booster for the French in Mexico and because an important part of the Foreign Legion’s history. This was followed by the French defeat of the Mexican relief attempt and their capture of Puebla on the 17th May, scaring the President into fleeing the capital with the country’s finances, allowing the French to enter Mexico City on 7th June. On 10th July, the founding of the Mexican Empire was announced and the crown offered to Archduke Maximillian, whose ancestors had once been the Viceroys of Mexico. It was during this first phase of the French intervention in Mexico that the Pope had resolved to intervene in Mexico in support of the conservative Catholic elements of the country. To this end, Louis de Becdelièvre, who had been sacked following disagreements with Papal commander Lamoricière, was again commissioned to raise a unit for intervention in Mexico, to which end he founded the Papal Zouaves in 1863, which was comprised of some 600 men of various nationalities by 1864, when it embarked for the New World. Although the Pope promised to send more troops as soon as was possible, distractions such as the January Uprising and the Austro-Prussian War prevented him from making good on this. Naples did not send any troops to support the Emperor, despite the Pope’s encouragement, as the King was consumed with concern for his country’s own ability to defend itself, although some financial aid was given.
In 1864 the French advances got off to a good start, with the capture of Guadalajara in January and Zacatecas in February, but they then failed in their attempts to take Mazatlán in March. However, French successes continued with the capture of Acapulco on 3rd June and Durango on 3rd July and the defeat of various other republican forces. Maximillian had accepted the crown on 10th April, with the signing of the Treaty of Miramar, and landed in Mexico in late May, followed shortly by the arrival of the Papal Zouaves the next month, who arrived on the 14th June. The year ended with the capture of Mazatlán in November.
Although the French successes at first continued in 1865, with the fall of Oaxaca to them on 9th February and Guaymas on 19th March, things took a rather worrying turn when a 300-strong detachment of Belgians was surrounded in Tacámbaro, attacked by ten times their number. Their commander, Major Tydgat, attempted to hold out, but they were on the verge of surrender when a force of some 100 Papal Zouaves attacked the republicans. Both the Belgians and the republicans thought that it was a much larger force, resulting in the retreat of the republicans into better position for fending off a relief effort and their temporary cessation of attacks on the Belgians, who were themselves inspired to resist by the presence of what they thought to be a large relief force. In the confusion the Zouaves were able to reach the Belgians and bolster their defences. For the next day, the Mexicans failed to attack the Imperial forces as they searched for a larger Imperial army in the area, convinced that the Zouaves must have been only a vanguard of a relief force. However, on the 13th they renewed their attacks, which were barely held off. On the following day a major battle took place as a French relief arrived, having marched desperately to reached the beleaguered Belgian and Papal troops, which ended in a narrow Imperial victory as the republicans were compelled to retire. In October of this year, the Emperor issued the Black Decree, sentencing any captured Mexicans to death. In 1865, the USA also began to have significant impact upon the conflict, when 50,000 troops were moved to their border with Mexico and pressure put on the French to withdraw.
In 1866 the French disagreement with the USA escalated when Napoleon III refused to withdraw, influenced by correspondence from the Pope which praised his intervention and the presence of the Pontiff’s own soldiers in Mexico. Having been warned that the Zouaves would not abandon the Mexican Emperor in the event of a French withdrawal, Napoleon decided that he was unable to leave the Zouaves and Mexican Emperor after all that had been achieved. Although Lincoln was unwilling to directly intervene against the French so soon after the bloody American Civil War, the US Navy was employed in a blockade of Mexico, stopping any further French forces from landing, although occasionally a French convoy would force entry into the country, with the two nations often coming to the brink of all-out war over the crisis.
Meanwhile, the French and Imperial forces continued to expand their grip over the country in 1866, taking Oaxaca in February, Chihuahua in April and Monterry and Minatitlan in July, forcing the republican forces further from the Mexican heartland and slowly establishing the Emperor’s control over the country. Although they suffered some reverses, most seriously in the aftermath of the Battle of Miahuatlán in October. In a series of skilful engagements, the republican commander, Diaz, held off the Imperial forces, while his cavalry flanked them, inflicting a terrible defeat on the Imperial and French forces. Having captured more supplies and better arms, Diaz was able to advance on Oaxaca, laying siege to the city until he was forced to retire later the same month, after clashing with the French relief force during the Battle of La Carbonera. In the battle, Diaz was once again on the defensive, although his ranks were swollen by an influx of recruits after his last success. One Imperial and two French columns advanced against him, and although he held back two, badly mauling one French column, the remaining French column was able to break through his lines and force a republican retreat. The same year, Emperor Maximillian made the Belgian Volunteers a permanent unit of the Imperial Mexican Army, much to the delight of his wife, Carlota, who was the daughter of Leopold I, King of the Belgians until his death in 1865, as were the Hungarian Volunteers.
In early 1867, Imperial forces conquered north-eastern Mexico, allowing American Volunteers to begin to flow into the Empire. These volunteers were almost entirely Irish and the majority were veterans of the American Civil War. By march there were so many of them that the Emperor decided to create an entirely Irish unit, the Saint Patrick’s Battalion, named after its predecessor that had existed in the Mexican-American War. The same year, Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria consented to his second son, then only two years old, becoming heir to the Mexican throne. Although some Mexicans had hoped for one of the descendants of the earlier Emperors to become heirs and eventually Emperors themselves, the Imperial couple even adopting some of the grandsons of the last Mexican Emperor, there was no real dissatisfaction of the choice. By the end of the year, the succession was secured and the republican forces all but defeated.
By 1868, the republicans had been forced into guerrilla warfare, having all but lost the Civil War. Although the fighting continued, by 1870 their resistance had come to an end, with the Catholic Mexican population becoming used to the rule of their European Emperor, who introduced many new advancements to Mexico, beginning the process of modernising the country. The war also had the effect of providing a large number of veteran troops to various governments in France, most especially the Papal States, which gained the hardened Papal Zouaves. Louis de Becdelièvre had been killed in the war, dying during the Battle of La Carbone in 1866, but his men became the elite of the Papal Army, the 500-strong unit which returned to Rome in early 1869 being increased to 1,500 men by the end of the year. Over the course of the war, they had suffered some 240 men killed and many more wounded. When the Papal Zouaves departed Mexico, they were accompanied by some 200 men of the Saint Patrick’s Battalion of Mexico, who joined the Pope’s own Saint Patrick’s Regiment.
The Mexican Civil War was an important moment in American history, it was the first time the Monroe Doctrine had been outright opposed by a European power, whilst also establishing a French protectorate on the North American continent. It also virtually cut Mexico’s trade with the USA, leading her to seek even closer ties with France and the rest of Europe.
The January Uprising
Beginning in 1863, the January Uprising was a widespread rebellion against Russian control of a large part of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Breaking out in Poland in January, uprisings followed in February in Lithuania, the Baltic, Belarus and the Ukraine. A provisional government was formed and an appeal made to the rest of Europe, resulting in an influx of support, the Pope even ordering prayers to be said for the success of the Catholic Poles against the Orthodox Russians. The war escalated when Prussia gave the Russians use of its railways in defeating the uprising, uniting all the nations of the old Commonwealth together. At first the uprising was limited mostly to the nobility and war was first waged over the support of the peasants. Although the provisional government began to offer them the land they worked on, many were bought off by the Russians, who impartially redistributed land in Poland to the peasants.
Throughout the Uprising, the rebels were often outnumbered ten to one and they constantly struggled with being poorly armed. Despite determinedly opposing the Russians, the Poles were slowly defeated and with the capture of much of their leadership in 1864, their resistance began to collapse. Despite the presence of many able and enthusiastic French and Papal commanders among the Polish forces (the Papal officers being present outside the authority of the Pope, having been allowed to temporarily leave the Papal army to support their fellow Catholics and gain experience), it was a doomed venture as political infighting undermined them and they crumbled under the might of the Russian army, tens of thousands being deported to Siberia in the aftermath.
During the course of the Uprising a variety of regular and irregular units were formed to fight the Russians, but the Zouaves of Death stand out in particular. Created by the Frenchman François Rochebrune in 1863, it acquitted itself admirably over the course of the conflict, often throwing itself into the thick of the fighting and repeatedly taking high casualties as their oath forbade them from retreat or surrender. At the end of the war, a portion of the survivors went on, at the invitation of the Pontiff, to become the core of a new Polish battalion of Zouaves, bolstered by other Poles who were fleeing the aftermath of the Uprising. With the establishment of this new battalion of Zouaves, the Papal Zouaves were turned into a regiment in early 1865, with plans for the creation of another battalion to bring them up to full strength.
-
The Expedition of a Thousand
For many years the Italians had struggled, against both foreign threats and those within their own claimed borders, to establish a unified Italian state. By 1860 what had previously been the dream of a few hopeful patriots seemed poised to become a reality. All of the rich and plentiful north lay under the dominion of Victor Emmanuel II, King of Sardinia-Piedmont, who was slowing becoming himself the father of the nation which he seemed destined to rule in its entirety. Indeed the only remaining obstacles to the achievement of this dream were the Papal States and the Kingdom of the Two-Sicilies, two ancient and noble realms which had since decayed and stood ripe for the taking. It was to this objective that led the famed general Garibaldi to sail to Sicily with one thousand men, to stand against the entire Neapolitan army and to finally achieve the unification of Italy.
Upon landing Garibaldi met with great success, defeating a Bourbon army almost twice the size of his forces in the Battle of Calatafimi, which gave him room to breathe as well as inspiring a general revolt that allowed him to lay siege to the city of Palermo, defended by some 16,000 Neapolitans. However, they were poorly led by both their corrupt officers and the weak Ferdinando Lanza. Had a stay cannon shot from the ships which were bombarding the city not killed Garibaldi, the flimsy defences would most likely have fallen to his expert hand. As it was, he was killed on the 29th May during a Bourbon attack which was repelled. Despite the failure of the first attack, when news reached Lanza of his enemy’s death and further bolstered by the arrival of Neapolitan reinforcements, he ordered another attack on the Garibaldian lines, which was held back in many places by the redshirts who fought all the harder for the loss of their beloved leader, but which broke through the demoralized rebels, many of whom were without arms or powder. Although the fight for the city was a brutal one, in the end the Neapolitans regained control, forcing out the surviving rebels and redshirts, who retreated to Alcamo, where much of the populace mobilized to withstand a siege. On the 13th June the Neapolitans laid siege to the well-prepared rebel positions, which repulsed the initial efforts of the Bourbons to force an entrance into the town, leading Lanza to reduce them with artillery bombardment over several days, followed by a final attack which broke through and defeated the last major force of the expedition. Although guerrilla activities in the area continued to be carried out by survivors of the expedition and subsequent revolts, all was quiet in the major cities where the people had been cowed into submission, with many of the monarchy’s opponents removed all together, either perishing in the expedition, entering into captivity or exile, or suffering execution for treason. For the time being, at least, the Kingdom of the Two-Sicilies was to survive.
The Immediate Aftermath of the Expedition of a Thousand
In the Kingdom of the Two-Sicilies, the effects of the expedition were immediate and far reaching, for the King was shocked by how close the second city of his realm had come to falling into the hands of mere bandits. In the wake of the failed revolts hundred were executed across western Sicily for their treason, which served to drive many republicans and opponents of the King into exile or hiding, crippling the opposition, not only in Sicily, but the entire Kingdom. The secret societies which had been formed all over Italy were now ruthlessly suppressed by Francis II, who created a new section of government officials for the detection and capture of all those who sought to oppose or in any way damage the Crown. These two events led to a significant decrease in anti-Bourbon activities within the Kingdom. On top of this, the independence-minded Sicilians, in the west at least, were subdued by the bloody fate of the rebellion, which left much of Palermo in ruins, an event carved into the collective memory of an entire generation there. Furthermore, the King resolved that a serious reorganisation of his army was needed and he began heavily investing in more modern arms and equipment, whilst on the grand political stage, it was decided that Naples must end its isolationism and find allies if it is to survive in the modern world. As such, overtures were swiftly made to almost all the nations of Europe, most especially the Papal States, Austrians and French.
In the Papal States, the effects of the expedition mirrored those in the Kingdom of the Two-Sicilies, to an extent, for the Pope also created a division specifically to deal with internal opposition to his temporal authority, which many intellectuals who had supported the expedition, either directly or simply morally, fled abroad to more friendly nations. The Pope made overtures to the French and Austrians, but both refused to an alliance with the Pontiff, leaving him to create a new alliance between the throne of St Peter and the Bourbons to the south. The Pope also ordered the strengthening of the Papal army, with the raising of various new military units and the expansion of those that already existed, with a general call to arms being issued to Catholics across the world. The Holy Father was set upon establishing the Papal Army as a force to be reckoned with.
In the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont, the effects were less obvious but perhaps more profound. Victor Emmanuel II had hoped that Garibaldi would be successful and deliver Sicily to him, but now the King shied away from the idea of incorporating the south into his planned Kingdom of Italy, and although Cavour attempted to stir up republican unrest in the south, he failed and the two southern states were, for the time being at least, let well alone. Meanwhile, Venice became the focus of Sardinian attention, becoming their greatest desire.
In the end, both southern Italian states drew closer together, with a variety of treaties being drawn up between them, resulting in an alliance and blossoming trade, allowing industry to expand and also leading shortly to the construction of a railway between the two capitals. Both agreed to exchange advancements and innovations in every field, especially the military, as both sought to expand their forces to protect themselves from external threats. Rome and Naples were thus drawn together, but the rift between north and south was deepened, as Pius and Francis blamed the Sardinians for the expedition and feared their increasing power. Banditry, an eternal problem in Italy, most especially the south, began to decrease at this time, as the Papal and Bourbon governments sought to crush all opposition to their rule and do away with the rebels who occasionally took up arms in an attempt to unite Italy. The rebels, however, were few and disorganised without the unifying force of Garibaldi, and no serious threats arose, troops quickly putting down the rebellions and gaining experience, as well as being employed to hunt down the bandits plaguing the south.
Peacetime in Italy
For a time, Italy was at peace. The revolutionaries, so dangerous before, were reduced to a mere annoyance, whilst the Sardinians were unwilling to march south and unable to march east against the powerful Austrians. Because of this, Italy prospered, especially in the south, where trade rapidly expanded between the Naples and Rome. Industry grew quickly, especially in the Kingdom of the Two-Sicilies, which was by far the richest of all the Italian States. With its immense wealth, the Kingdom was able to bolster its army, obtain the latest arms and equipment and increase the number of artillery pieces it had, as well as construct new ships for the navy, including a small number of ironclads, and lay miles of new railway lines. The King, as time wore on, became more obsessed with the state of his military, desperately fearing the loss of his throne, either to revolutionaries in the same vein as Garibaldi or to the Sardinians. Bordering on paranoia, this fear led Francis to refuse all attempts to reform the government and to reject all offers of an alliance from Victor Emmanuel.
The Sardinians, meanwhile, sought to bring themselves closer to France, in an attempt to prepare themselves for a war with Austria. Some vague suggestions at carving up the Papal States between Naples and Turin were made, but were immediately rejected by Francis who was a devout Catholic and who had come to dislike the Sardinian King for the threat he posed. Whilst these diplomatic manoeuvres were made, The Sardinians attempted to provoke war with Austria as they had done in 1859, by deploying troops along the border. However, the Austrians refused to declare war, remembering the previous outcome for them, meaning that the Sardinians were unable to get their war, too weak to defeat Austria alone and only assured of French support if the Austrians started the war.
The Mexican Civil War
During these years, Mexico was consumed by civil war, as the republicans battled against the government of Emperor Maximillian. The events leading to the civil war began after the Mexican President suspended the payment of interest on his county’s foreign debts. This led to the French, Austrian and British fleets seizing various parts of the coast in late 1861 and early 1862, in an attempt to force the Mexicans to continue the payments. However, Napoleon III had grander plans and landed an entire army under General Lorencez on the 5th March 1862, as control of Mexico would give France access to all of Latin America. In April, when the Austrians and British realised the intentions of the French, they withdrew their forces.
The French intervention progressed rather haphazardly, with the first major action, the Battle of Puebla on 5th May, ending in defeat for the French, forcing them to retreat. However, with the arrival of French reinforcements, the Mexicans were halted and the way to Puebla forced open. On 30th April 1863, the famous action of Captain Danjou occurred when 3,000 Mexicans attacked his small patrol, forcing them to take cover in a nearby inn. After an inspiring attempt to hold out, the remaining legionaries sallied out in a bayonet charge, leaving only three survivors. Although strategically insignificant, it proved a morale booster for the French in Mexico and because an important part of the Foreign Legion’s history. This was followed by the French defeat of the Mexican relief attempt and their capture of Puebla on the 17th May, scaring the President into fleeing the capital with the country’s finances, allowing the French to enter Mexico City on 7th June. On 10th July, the founding of the Mexican Empire was announced and the crown offered to Archduke Maximillian, whose ancestors had once been the Viceroys of Mexico. It was during this first phase of the French intervention in Mexico that the Pope had resolved to intervene in Mexico in support of the conservative Catholic elements of the country. To this end, Louis de Becdelièvre, who had been sacked following disagreements with Papal commander Lamoricière, was again commissioned to raise a unit for intervention in Mexico, to which end he founded the Papal Zouaves in 1863, which was comprised of some 600 men of various nationalities by 1864, when it embarked for the New World. Although the Pope promised to send more troops as soon as was possible, distractions such as the January Uprising and the Austro-Prussian War prevented him from making good on this. Naples did not send any troops to support the Emperor, despite the Pope’s encouragement, as the King was consumed with concern for his country’s own ability to defend itself, although some financial aid was given.
In 1864 the French advances got off to a good start, with the capture of Guadalajara in January and Zacatecas in February, but they then failed in their attempts to take Mazatlán in March. However, French successes continued with the capture of Acapulco on 3rd June and Durango on 3rd July and the defeat of various other republican forces. Maximillian had accepted the crown on 10th April, with the signing of the Treaty of Miramar, and landed in Mexico in late May, followed shortly by the arrival of the Papal Zouaves the next month, who arrived on the 14th June. The year ended with the capture of Mazatlán in November.
Although the French successes at first continued in 1865, with the fall of Oaxaca to them on 9th February and Guaymas on 19th March, things took a rather worrying turn when a 300-strong detachment of Belgians was surrounded in Tacámbaro, attacked by ten times their number. Their commander, Major Tydgat, attempted to hold out, but they were on the verge of surrender when a force of some 100 Papal Zouaves attacked the republicans. Both the Belgians and the republicans thought that it was a much larger force, resulting in the retreat of the republicans into better position for fending off a relief effort and their temporary cessation of attacks on the Belgians, who were themselves inspired to resist by the presence of what they thought to be a large relief force. In the confusion the Zouaves were able to reach the Belgians and bolster their defences. For the next day, the Mexicans failed to attack the Imperial forces as they searched for a larger Imperial army in the area, convinced that the Zouaves must have been only a vanguard of a relief force. However, on the 13th they renewed their attacks, which were barely held off. On the following day a major battle took place as a French relief arrived, having marched desperately to reached the beleaguered Belgian and Papal troops, which ended in a narrow Imperial victory as the republicans were compelled to retire. In October of this year, the Emperor issued the Black Decree, sentencing any captured Mexicans to death. In 1865, the USA also began to have significant impact upon the conflict, when 50,000 troops were moved to their border with Mexico and pressure put on the French to withdraw.
In 1866 the French disagreement with the USA escalated when Napoleon III refused to withdraw, influenced by correspondence from the Pope which praised his intervention and the presence of the Pontiff’s own soldiers in Mexico. Having been warned that the Zouaves would not abandon the Mexican Emperor in the event of a French withdrawal, Napoleon decided that he was unable to leave the Zouaves and Mexican Emperor after all that had been achieved. Although Lincoln was unwilling to directly intervene against the French so soon after the bloody American Civil War, the US Navy was employed in a blockade of Mexico, stopping any further French forces from landing, although occasionally a French convoy would force entry into the country, with the two nations often coming to the brink of all-out war over the crisis.
Meanwhile, the French and Imperial forces continued to expand their grip over the country in 1866, taking Oaxaca in February, Chihuahua in April and Monterry and Minatitlan in July, forcing the republican forces further from the Mexican heartland and slowly establishing the Emperor’s control over the country. Although they suffered some reverses, most seriously in the aftermath of the Battle of Miahuatlán in October. In a series of skilful engagements, the republican commander, Diaz, held off the Imperial forces, while his cavalry flanked them, inflicting a terrible defeat on the Imperial and French forces. Having captured more supplies and better arms, Diaz was able to advance on Oaxaca, laying siege to the city until he was forced to retire later the same month, after clashing with the French relief force during the Battle of La Carbonera. In the battle, Diaz was once again on the defensive, although his ranks were swollen by an influx of recruits after his last success. One Imperial and two French columns advanced against him, and although he held back two, badly mauling one French column, the remaining French column was able to break through his lines and force a republican retreat. The same year, Emperor Maximillian made the Belgian Volunteers a permanent unit of the Imperial Mexican Army, much to the delight of his wife, Carlota, who was the daughter of Leopold I, King of the Belgians until his death in 1865, as were the Hungarian Volunteers.
In early 1867, Imperial forces conquered north-eastern Mexico, allowing American Volunteers to begin to flow into the Empire. These volunteers were almost entirely Irish and the majority were veterans of the American Civil War. By march there were so many of them that the Emperor decided to create an entirely Irish unit, the Saint Patrick’s Battalion, named after its predecessor that had existed in the Mexican-American War. The same year, Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria consented to his second son, then only two years old, becoming heir to the Mexican throne. Although some Mexicans had hoped for one of the descendants of the earlier Emperors to become heirs and eventually Emperors themselves, the Imperial couple even adopting some of the grandsons of the last Mexican Emperor, there was no real dissatisfaction of the choice. By the end of the year, the succession was secured and the republican forces all but defeated.
By 1868, the republicans had been forced into guerrilla warfare, having all but lost the Civil War. Although the fighting continued, by 1870 their resistance had come to an end, with the Catholic Mexican population becoming used to the rule of their European Emperor, who introduced many new advancements to Mexico, beginning the process of modernising the country. The war also had the effect of providing a large number of veteran troops to various governments in France, most especially the Papal States, which gained the hardened Papal Zouaves. Louis de Becdelièvre had been killed in the war, dying during the Battle of La Carbone in 1866, but his men became the elite of the Papal Army, the 500-strong unit which returned to Rome in early 1869 being increased to 1,500 men by the end of the year. Over the course of the war, they had suffered some 240 men killed and many more wounded. When the Papal Zouaves departed Mexico, they were accompanied by some 200 men of the Saint Patrick’s Battalion of Mexico, who joined the Pope’s own Saint Patrick’s Regiment.
The Mexican Civil War was an important moment in American history, it was the first time the Monroe Doctrine had been outright opposed by a European power, whilst also establishing a French protectorate on the North American continent. It also virtually cut Mexico’s trade with the USA, leading her to seek even closer ties with France and the rest of Europe.
The January Uprising
Beginning in 1863, the January Uprising was a widespread rebellion against Russian control of a large part of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Breaking out in Poland in January, uprisings followed in February in Lithuania, the Baltic, Belarus and the Ukraine. A provisional government was formed and an appeal made to the rest of Europe, resulting in an influx of support, the Pope even ordering prayers to be said for the success of the Catholic Poles against the Orthodox Russians. The war escalated when Prussia gave the Russians use of its railways in defeating the uprising, uniting all the nations of the old Commonwealth together. At first the uprising was limited mostly to the nobility and war was first waged over the support of the peasants. Although the provisional government began to offer them the land they worked on, many were bought off by the Russians, who impartially redistributed land in Poland to the peasants.
Throughout the Uprising, the rebels were often outnumbered ten to one and they constantly struggled with being poorly armed. Despite determinedly opposing the Russians, the Poles were slowly defeated and with the capture of much of their leadership in 1864, their resistance began to collapse. Despite the presence of many able and enthusiastic French and Papal commanders among the Polish forces (the Papal officers being present outside the authority of the Pope, having been allowed to temporarily leave the Papal army to support their fellow Catholics and gain experience), it was a doomed venture as political infighting undermined them and they crumbled under the might of the Russian army, tens of thousands being deported to Siberia in the aftermath.
During the course of the Uprising a variety of regular and irregular units were formed to fight the Russians, but the Zouaves of Death stand out in particular. Created by the Frenchman François Rochebrune in 1863, it acquitted itself admirably over the course of the conflict, often throwing itself into the thick of the fighting and repeatedly taking high casualties as their oath forbade them from retreat or surrender. At the end of the war, a portion of the survivors went on, at the invitation of the Pontiff, to become the core of a new Polish battalion of Zouaves, bolstered by other Poles who were fleeing the aftermath of the Uprising. With the establishment of this new battalion of Zouaves, the Papal Zouaves were turned into a regiment in early 1865, with plans for the creation of another battalion to bring them up to full strength.