HISTORY OF MEXICO: The Black Decree Part II
- Natalie Taylor
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Archduke Maximilian, the younger brother of Franz Joseph, the emperor of Austria, came to Mexico in 1864 to become the emperor. His hapless three-year reign is a master-class in what not to do.
In the first place, he naively believed the claims that he was “adored” by the Mexican people and that they were excited about having a foreign ruler foisted on them. This misinformation was fed by those who wanted to bring him to Mexico—conservatives who hoped to restore the monarchy and who played the role of toadies to the hilt. They flattered him and brought him “mountains” of letters supposedly from Mexican citizens expressing the desire for him to come and save the nation as their ruler. The letters were either fake or obtained through coercion.
Napoleon III, Emperor of France, was very much behind the plot to bring Maximilian to rule Mexico as part of his own expansionist plans. Establishing a kingdom in America would have been a true feather in Napoleon’s cap. These two forces, Napoleon, and the conservatives of Mexico, worked tirelessly to bring about their plan. Maximilian fell for the ruse, and in 1864, he and his wife Charlotte arrived at the port of Veracruz, filled with enthusiasm and ready to rule their new empire. He was 32 and she was 24 years old.
Maximilian’s gravest error was accepting the crown in a nation that had fought and won independence from a foreign power. The majority of Mexicans were glad to be rid of Spanish rule after almost 300 years of subjugation and ready for a democracy. They were not thrilled about having the rule of another foreign power. This second empire was doomed from the start.
Although Maximilian was brought in by the conservatives, he immediately upset them by endorsing progressive ideals. He quickly earned the rejection of everyone: the conservatives saw him as a traitor, and the liberals, who had always considered him an invader, continued to feel the same. He desperately tried to gain the love of his Mexican subjects by learning Spanish, attempting to win the sympathy of the indigenous communities, even dressing up as a charro. He earned some support, but the majority of Mexicans did not want him as their ruler.
One can blame Maximilian’s youth and naiveté for his initial error in judgment, but once he became emperor of Mexico, he made several faux pas that can better be categorized as stupidity of the highest order. One of the more foolish was a grand plan to tie himself to the previous (badly failed) first Mexican emperor, Agustin Iturbide, who ruled for less than a year in 1822. The brevity of that reign should have been a warning sign, but Maximilian seemed to forget that Iturbide ended up before a firing squad. Perhaps becoming an emperor of Mexico was not such a good idea…
Instead, Maximilian decided that connecting himself to Iturbide would somehow advance his own cause. He and his wife, now called Carlota, badly needed an heir to give legitimacy to their empire and provide the continuity needed. When Maximilian ascended to the throne, he pledged to designate an heir within three years if he and Carlota had no children by then. But the intimate relationship between the emperor and his consort was anything but harmonious, and her pregnancy seemed highly unlikely; a son had to come from elsewhere. The two devised a ridiculous plot that anyone could have predicted would explode in their faces.
In 1865, the emperor established with the family of Agustin de Iturbide that the youngest grandson of the family would be adopted as heir apparent. The boy, Agustin de Iturbide y Green, was only two years old. Thrilled by the $150,000 pesos they would receive for allowing the adoption—a veritable fortune in those days—the family eagerly signed the document.
However, the adoption never materialized. Young Agustin’s mother, the American Alice Green, was not interested in her in-laws' negotiations and asked for the return her son. Maximilian ignored her demands. In October 1866, when his empire was collapsing, he finally returned the boy to his mother. The entire time that the child was held at Chapultepec Castle became an ugly source of rumors, whispered about, and criticized everywhere. Benito Juarez called it a kidnapping. It became a blotch on Maximilian’s reputation as a man and as a ruler.
The final major blunder was Maximilian’s October 3, 1865, “Black Decree,” covered in the previous article. More than just a faux pas, it was a morally degenerate decision and an unforgivable error in judgment. There is no question that this act sealed his fate.
Napoleon III saw the writing on the wall, and aware that his dream of a Mexican empire was doomed, he ordered the withdrawal of French troops that were protecting the emperor. On May 15, 1867, Maximilian was captured by the republican forces now answering to President Benito Juarez, who had returned from exile to claim his rightful power. Maximilian faced a court-martial, was found guilty of treason, and sentenced to death.
The eminent French writer Victor Hugo had denounced the injustice of the Black Decree. Now he penned a passionate letter to Benito Juarez, pleading for clemency toward the young emperor—for a stay of his execution. Juarez, however, did not yield. Among the reasons he gave for upholding Maximilian’s death sentence was the very decree of October 3, which had claimed the lives of so many Mexicans. By ordering the summary execution of the republican rebels two years before, Maximilian had signed his own death sentence.
On June 19, 1867 Maximilian was executed by firing squad.
The grandson of Agustin de Iturbide, the future “Emperor of Mexico” who lived with Maximilian and Carlota at Chapultepec Castle for just under a year, returned to his mother. He was born on April 2, 1863, and died on March 3, 1925, two years before Carlota’s death—the woman who was to be his adopted mother. Pronounced insane and confined to a palace in Europe, she lived to the age of 86, oblivious to the world around her. Iturbide’s descendants live in Europe, and none have ever aspired to participate in Mexican politics.