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French intervetion (The Second French Intervention in Mexico (Spanish:…
French intervetion
The Second French Intervention in Mexico (Spanish: Segunda intervención francesa en México, 1861–1867; known as Expédition du Mexique in France), also known as the Second Franco-Mexican War, was an invasion of Mexico, launched in late 1861, by the Second French Empire
. Initially supported by the United Kingdom and Spain, the French intervention in Mexico was a consequence of Mexican President Benito Juárez's imposition of a two-year moratorium of loan-interest payments from July 1861 to French, British, and Spanish creditors.
To extend the influence of Imperial France, Napoleon III instigated the intervention in Mexico by claiming that the military adventure was a foreign policy commitment to free trade. The establishment of a friendly monarchy in Mexico would ensure European access to Latin American markets; and French access to Mexican silver.
To realize his imperial ambitions without interference from other European nations, Napoleon III entered into a coalition with the United Kingdom and Spain, while the United States was occupied with its civil war and unable to enforce the Monroe Doctrine.[
The Monroe Doctrine was an American policy, written by James Monroe and issued in December 1823, that warned against further European imperialism in the Americas. The doctrine reads "the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers
While Britain would eventually show support for the Union because of their shared quality of abolition, Spain did not abolish Slavery until 1886. So the Union's stance would have no real political significance to them. Like England, France had already abolished slaver
The French government knew that a unified America would once again enforce the Monroe Doctrine, so the Confederacy was tempting as a buffer nation to protect their Latin reign. While technically,
the French government never technically recognized the Confederacy, that does not mean that the nation as a whole ignored the American Civil War. French Capitalists funneled funds to the Confederacy to help assist war efforts.[16]
On 31 October 1861, France, the United Kingdom, and Spain agreed to the Convention of London, a joint effort to extract repayments from Mexico
The subsequent French invasion created the Second Mexican Empire (1861–1867), a client state of the French Empire. Besides the Continental empires involved, the Russian Empire also acknowledged the political legitimacy of Maximilian's Second Mexican Empire, when the Tsarist fleet saluted the imperial Mexican flag when sailing off the Pacific Ocean coastal state of Guerrero.[
In Mexican politics, the French intervention allowed active political reaction against the liberal policies of racial and socio-economic reform of president Benito Juárez (1858–72), thus the Roman Catholic Church, upper-class conservatives
In European politics, the French intervention in Mexico reconciled the Second French Empire and the Austrian Empire, whom the French had defeated in the Franco–Austrian War of 1859. French imperial expansion into Mexico counterbalanced the geopolitical power of the Protestant Christian United States,
After much guerrilla warfare that continued after the Capture of Mexico City in 1863 — the French Empire withdrew from Mexico and abandoned the Austrian emperor of Mexico; subsequently, the Mexicans executed Emperor Maximilian I, on 19 June 1867, and restored the Mexican Republic.
The British, Spanish and French fleets arrived at Veracruz, between 8 and 17 December 1861 intending to pressure the Mexicans into settling their debts
The Spanish fleet seized San Juan de Ulúa and subsequently the capital Veracruz[19] on 17 December. The European forces advanced to Orizaba, Cordoba and Tehuacán, as they had agreed in the Convention of Soledad.[19] The city of Campeche surrendered to the French fleet on 27 February 1862
Mexican forces commanded by General Ignacio Zaragoza defeated the French army in the Battle of Puebla on 5 May 1862 (commemorated by the Cinco de Mayo holiday). The pursuing Mexican army was contained by the French at Orizaba, Veracruz, on 14 June
More French troops arrived on 21 September, and General Bazaine arrived with French reinforcements on 16 October. The French occupied the port of Tampico on 23 October, and unopposed by Mexican forces took control of Xalapa, Veracruz on 12 December
The French bombarded Veracruz on 15 January 1863. Two months later, on 16 March, General Forey and the French Army began the siege of Puebla.
On 30 April, the French Foreign Legion earned its fame in the Battle of Camarón (or Camerone in French), when an infantry patrol unit of 62 soldiers and three officers, led by the one-handed Captain Jean Danjou, was attacked and besieged by Mexican infantry and cavalry units numbering three battalions, about 3000 men
They were forced to make a defence in a nearby hacienda. Danjou was mortally wounded at the hacienda, and his men mounted an almost suicidal bayonet attack, fighting to nearly the last man; only three French Legionnaires survived. To this day, the anniversary of 30 April remains the most important day of celebration for Legionnaires.
The French army of General François Achille Bazaine defeated the Mexican army led by General Comonfort in its campaign to relieve the siege of Puebla, at San Lorenzo, to the south of Puebla. Puebla surrendered to the French shortly afterward, on 17 May.
On 31 May, President Juárez fled the city with his cabinet, retreating northward to Paso del Norte and later to Chihuahua. Having taken the treasure of the state with them, the government-in-exile remained in Chihuahua until 1867.