Monarchism in Mexico

rdf:langString Monarchism in Mexico

rdf:langString Monarchism in Mexico was a recurring factor during the first few decades of the nation's independence. The nation became independent under a coalition hoping to establish a government led by a member of the Spanish royal family or a prince from another European royal house. In the absence of a willing candidate from an established royal house, Mexican general Agustín de Iturbide was elected Emperor of Mexico by the Mexican congress in 1822 with the hopes of inaugurating a constitutional monarchy, but struggles between congress and the emperor and the emperor's struggle to pay the military led to the empire's collapse the following year. Largely discredited in the wake of the First Mexican Empire’s fall, monarchism remained dormant until the 1840s when select conservative thinkers began to publicly explore the idea as a means of giving the nation a stability which it had never found while trying a republican form of government. Iturbide was dismissed as an upstart, and monarchy was hoped to be tried by inviting a European prince to assume the Mexican throne, following the precedent set by nations such as Great Britain, Greece, and Belgium, who elected their monarchs from different countries. These ideas attracted interest in European courts, culminating in a French intervention in Mexico in 1861 with the aim of establishing a Mexican monarchy as a French client state, this time with Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian as Emperor. The Empire gained Mexican support, and attempted liberal reforms, but the establishment of the Empire through French troops damaged its legitimacy, triggered a war with the overthrown Mexican republican leadership, and invited the opposition of the United States, leading to the Empire's collapse in 1867.