The Last Emperor of Mexico by Edward Shawcross PDF Download

March 3, 2023 admin admin History

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The Last Emperor of Mexico by Edward Shawcross PDF Book read online or download for free. “The Last Emperor of Mexico by Edward Shawcross” is an impressive book that is now available in various format including Kindle, ePub, and PDF. If you need this book in any specific format, you can request us.

The Last Emperor of Mexico Book Summary

“The Last Emperor of Mexico by Edward Shawcross” is a good book that you can read online or download to read it later. Before starting the reading or downloading, here is the summary of the book that you can read. In the 1860s, Napoleon III, intent on curbing the rise of American imperialism, persuaded a young Austrian archduke and a Belgian princess to leave Europe and become the emperor and empress of Mexico. They and their entourage arrived in a Mexico ruled by terror, where revolutionary fervor was barely suppressed by French troops. When the United States, now clear of its own Civil War, aided the rebels in pushing back Maximilian’s imperial soldiers, the French army withdrew, abandoning the young couple. The regime fell apart. Maximilian was executed by a firing squad and Carlota, secluded in a Belgian castle, descended into madness.Assiduously researched and vividly told, The Last Emperor of Mexico is a dramatic story of European hubris, imperialist aspirations clashing with revolutionary fervor, and the Old World breaking from the New.

Brief Summary The Last Emperor of Mexico by Edward Shawcross

The short reign of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico (1864-67), is one of those beguiling historical asterisks that are completely improbable but true. Mexico, like the US, faced a civil war in the mid-19th century between the Liberals (headed by Benito Juarez and inspired by the US and its republican ideals) and the Conservatives (heavily influenced by the Roman Catholic Church). The Conservatives hatched a plan to enhance their legitimacy by inviting a bona fide European prince to serve as Emperor of Mexico, and managed not only to persuade Napoleon III of France (who looked to expand French influence, and curb US influence, in the Americas) to back the scheme with money, arms, and troops, but to enlist one of Europe’s most prominent princes, Maximilian von Habsburg (younger brother of the Austrian Emperor Franz Josef) to accept the ersatz crown. The scheme was probably doomed from the start, since it’s unlikely that the US would have tolerated a European backed monarchy on its border for very long, but was obviously distracted by the Civil War. In addition, the book makes a convincing case that Napoleon III imposed such crushing financial conditions on the new empire that it was doomed to failure from the start.