Second Mexican Empire

The Second Mexican Empire was a constitutional monarchy installed in Mexico by Napoleon III with the support of Mexican conservatives during the French intervention. After the French army occupied Mexico City, a conservative assembly offered the crown to Archduke Maximilian of Austria, who accepted in 1864 and was proclaimed emperor with his wife Charlotte, known as Carlota, as empress. His government relied on French troops and never controlled the whole country; Benito Juarez's republican forces continued a guerrilla war and retained diplomatic recognition from the United States. When the American Civil War ended, Washington pressed France to withdraw, and Napoleon III recalled his army in 1866 and 1867. Maximilian refused to abdicate, was captured at Queretaro and executed in June 1867, and the republic was restored under Juarez. The episode became a symbol of Latin American resistance to European intervention. The imperial court at Mexico City attempted to build a modern administration and patronised the sciences, but its projects were crippled by fiscal weakness and the war.