About This Book
While fire-eaters, both North & South, fanned the controversial flames into open, armed hostilities, the political situation south of the 186- US-Mexico border also was quickly deteriorating. Liberal Benito Juarez's election, and subsequent persecutions of the Conservative Catholics - prompted affluent, Conservative expatriates to flee to Europe where, as political-refugees, they sought (and gained) the sympathies of France's Napoleon III. Seeing the turmoil brewing across the US, Napoleon, backed by some of Europe's most influential bankers, gambled and embarked on an "intervention" mission to regain a foot-hold in the western hemisphere, that had been since lost with the publication of the US's "Monroe Doctrine." This Napoleon achieved by convincing Austria's Arch-Duke Maximilian in accepting the "Crown of Mexico, which would be "propped-up" by French expeditionary forces. However, when the devastating US turmoil concluded [with the subjugation of the South] US SecState William Seward, issued a threatening ultimatum demanding that Napoleon immediately withdraw all members of the French Foreign Legion - or, face the consequences of a protracted war with the United States. With the final departure of the last vessel carrying French troops, Maximilian realized that his puppet-government could not survive without exterior, military support. Convinced that by forging peaceful, political alliances with the victorious North was his only formula for successful existence, Maximilian spurned the overtures of displaced, unrepentant Southern Generals - who offered him their services. Seward, however, rejected Maximilian's proposals. With his stunningly beautiful bride having returned to Europe to seek the re-establishment of withdrawn financial and military support from governments and the Vatican, Maximilian made his last stand against converging loyal Juaristas in an old, Spanish town north of that republic's capital.
