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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Missed in History Class from how

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm Sarah Down and we talk about royalty a lot

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Speaker 1: on the podcast. It's really one of my favorite subjects

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Speaker 1: to cover, and consequently, because we talked about it so often,

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Speaker 1: some subgenres have developed. One of them royal impostors. You know,

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Speaker 1: we've talked about guys like Lambert Simnels and Falsdamitri. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Now they're self proclaimed monarchs like Emperor Norton and the

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Speaker 1: King of Beaver Island James Strang. Yeah. Or just sad

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Speaker 1: royal childhoods like Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth. There seemed to

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Speaker 1: be a lot of those, and almost every other Royalty

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Speaker 1: episode is a sad royal childhood. But one of my

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Speaker 1: favorite of these royal subgenres, though, is the puppet ruler.

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Speaker 1: You know, somebody who is important or maybe really charismatic,

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Speaker 1: or just well connected, maybe just well born and kind

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Speaker 1: of weak and easy to control, who is ultimately propped

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Speaker 1: up by a more powerful outside force who's really controlling things.

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Speaker 1: And we're going to talk about a famous puppet ruler today,

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Speaker 1: Ferdinand Maximilian, Archduke of Austria by birth, Emperor of Mexico

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Speaker 1: by invitation, and he'll really surprise you. He's naive but goodhearted.

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Speaker 1: He truly believes that people of Mexico want him, an

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Speaker 1: Austrian prince to rule them, though he's deliberately misled in

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Speaker 1: that respect, and will look at that a little bit

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Speaker 1: more later. He takes this opportunity to rule with fatal dedication. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think he really will surprise you guys as a

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Speaker 1: as a not so good example of a puppet ruler

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Speaker 1: when it all comes down to it. But we're also

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Speaker 1: going to talk about the antithesis of royalty today. Mexico's

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Speaker 1: national hero, Benito Juarez, who was a self made man

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Speaker 1: who rose to the presidency, you know, got his own education,

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Speaker 1: and successfully defended his country from an allied European invasion.

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Speaker 1: You know, pretty serious stuff. But that these two men,

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Speaker 1: a halfsburg prince and the orphaned son of Zappatec Indians

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Speaker 1: should ever be in conflict together in Mexico is just

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Speaker 1: pretty bizarre when you think about it. But that they

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Speaker 1: had remarkably similar plans for what they wanted to do

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Speaker 1: with Mexico, plans for the people of Mexico is just

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Speaker 1: downright strange. So we're gonna talk about both of them.

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Speaker 1: We're going to talk about many, many countries and many

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Speaker 1: rulers in this episode. It really has something for everyone.

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Speaker 1: It does. So at first, we're going to start out

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Speaker 1: with Maximilian Ferdinand. Maximilian Joseph was born in Vienna July six,

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Speaker 1: thirty two, and his full title was Prince Imperial and

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Speaker 1: Archduke of Austria, Prince Royal of Hungary and Bohemia. That

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Speaker 1: sounds pretty fancy, like a lot of power, but those

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Speaker 1: were really just his younger son titles. Maximilian's older brother,

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Speaker 1: you see, was the future Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria Hungary.

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Speaker 1: So the younger Maximilian, who was intelligent, needed some sort

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Speaker 1: of occupation in life, and so those were the titles

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Speaker 1: that he got. At twenty two he became Rear Admiral

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Speaker 1: of the Austrian Navy and worked to modernize it, and

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Speaker 1: at twenty five he took up the position of Governor

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Speaker 1: General of the Lombardo Venetian Kingdom, which was under Austrian

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Speaker 1: control at the time, and he also got married. He

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Speaker 1: married the beautiful and charming seventeen year old Princess Charlotte

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Speaker 1: of Belgium, who was the daughter of King Leopold. The

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Speaker 1: first we mentioned him in our Victorian Albert episode. He's

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Speaker 1: kind of young Victoria's male mentor her uncle Um. But

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Speaker 1: Maximilian might have been really too bent on modernization. When

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Speaker 1: it came to his job in Italy, his brother considered

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Speaker 1: his policies they're just too liberal, and ended up removing

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Speaker 1: him from power. So when Maximilian lost the job, he

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Speaker 1: decided to take a little time off go on a trip,

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Speaker 1: and he journeyed all the way to Brazil, which really

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Speaker 1: kicked off a New World fascination, kind of an obsession

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Speaker 1: even with Maximilian, so speaking of the New World. At

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Speaker 1: the same time Maximilian was governing in Italy and traveling

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Speaker 1: to Brazil, Mexico was in the middle of a civil war.

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Speaker 1: La Reforma a liberal movement with the goal of curbing

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Speaker 1: the power of the aristocracy and the Church. The movement's

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Speaker 1: eventual leader was a man named Benito Juarez, a z

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Speaker 1: Appatec Indian who had been born in eighteen oh six.

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Speaker 1: He didn't seem like a likely candidate for the eventual

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Speaker 1: president of Mexico. He was orphaned at the age of three,

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Speaker 1: and he didn't even speak Spanish until he left his

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Speaker 1: hometown and studied in Wahaca. He was smart, though, and

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Speaker 1: while at first his intelligence made him a likely candidate

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Speaker 1: for the priesthood, he was soon studying law. His first

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Speaker 1: public office was on the municipal council, and he became

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Speaker 1: a member of both the state and national legislatures, judge,

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Speaker 1: and eventually governor of Wahaca, making him a notable public

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Speaker 1: figure in the state. But he got into trouble by

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Speaker 1: being so notable because when the Conservative Party of Mexico

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Speaker 1: returned to power in the elections of eighteen fifty three,

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Speaker 1: Whereas was exiled into the United States and he lived

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Speaker 1: in New Orleans in really almost semi poverty. I've seen

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Speaker 1: it described for two years before his party took back

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Speaker 1: control and he was appointed Minister of Justice and Public

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Speaker 1: Instruction for the new administration. And the new reform government

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Speaker 1: started to make some really, really big changes in Mexico,

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Speaker 1: and these changes were of course supported by Wuarez as

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Speaker 1: a as a minister, and just to give you a

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Speaker 1: sense of what was going on, um the government abolished

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Speaker 1: the special courts, the clergy and the military, it broke

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Speaker 1: up landed estates in this attempt to sort of create

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Speaker 1: a middle class from scratch in Mexico, and it forced

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Speaker 1: the church to sell its property, though don't think of

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Speaker 1: it quite like Henry the eight style, because they didn't

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Speaker 1: actually start confiscating property. And then it also increased the

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Speaker 1: educational opportunities available to the poor, something that Whereas especially

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Speaker 1: was really interested in and you can understand why from

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Speaker 1: his own background. And most importantly, the government created a

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Speaker 1: new constitution in eighteen fifty seven, so basically they were

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Speaker 1: in the process of transforming Mexico into a modern nation state.

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Speaker 1: But in eighteen fifty eight the Conservatives revolted and Whuarez

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Speaker 1: was forced to withdraw from Vera Cruz, where he created

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Speaker 1: his own government in exile, and that began a three

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Speaker 1: year long War of the Reform, which started before Whuarez

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Speaker 1: could finally return to power in eighteen sixty one, where

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Speaker 1: he was voted president. He inherits a lot of problems,

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Speaker 1: though after three years of war, Mexico is deep in debt.

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Speaker 1: So on July seventeenth, eighteen sixty one, President HuaaS supports

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Speaker 1: a movement passed by the Mexican Congress and suspends payment

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Speaker 1: of all foreign debts for two years. So this is

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Speaker 1: not okay with the European countries who are owed money

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Speaker 1: from Mexico. But what are they going to do about it? Well,

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Speaker 1: some Mexican conservatives were living in exile abroad, and one

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Speaker 1: of them, Jose Manuel Hidalgo E as now Rezar, suggests

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Speaker 1: to Empress Eugenie, the Spanish wife of the French Emperor

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Speaker 1: Napoleon the Third, that perhaps Juarez could be driven from

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Speaker 1: power by a new European backed monarchy. Sounds like a

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Speaker 1: bold plan, doesn't it It is. It's one also that

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Speaker 1: would be a win win for Mexican conservatives and France,

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Speaker 1: since for one thing, Juarez would be gone, also France

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Speaker 1: would get her money back, and both would get control

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Speaker 1: of the new monarch. Yeah, so they both have something

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Speaker 1: they can get out of it. And as a further

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Speaker 1: incentive though, for Napoleon the Third, installing his own ruler,

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Speaker 1: his own puppet ruler in Mexico would potentially prevent the

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Speaker 1: country from falling under US control, which was something that

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Speaker 1: was very uncomfortable with. So on October thirty one, eighteen

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Speaker 1: sixty one, France, Britain and Spain, three of the big

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Speaker 1: countries that had money due to them agreed to stage

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Speaker 1: a joint attack on Mexico to recoup their debts. There's

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Speaker 1: another player, though, that is really kind of more notable

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Speaker 1: for being out of the game than in it. And

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Speaker 1: I just think this is so interesting. But since the

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Speaker 1: eighteen twenties, the US had tried to prevent European influence

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Speaker 1: in the Americas with the Monroe Doctrine um just for

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Speaker 1: folks who don't know, basically a policy that viewed any

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Speaker 1: European efforts to colonize the Americas as a sign of

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Speaker 1: aggression to the United States itself. So normally Napoleon the

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Speaker 1: Third wouldn't have wanted to test the Monroe Doctrine, and,

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Speaker 1: by extension, test the United States. But since the American

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Speaker 1: Civil War had really just started, Napoleon figured correctly that

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Speaker 1: the US had bigger problems to deal with than a

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Speaker 1: French invasion of Mexico. Still, Napoleon the Third knew better

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Speaker 1: than to attempt to install someone related to him. Instead,

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Speaker 1: he offers the crown to the available eligible Habsburg Prince Maximilian.

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Speaker 1: So it gives Maximilian something to think about here, something

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Speaker 1: to consider then on January eighth, eighteen sixty two, more

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Speaker 1: than ten thousand Allied troops arrived in Vera Cruz. Though

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Speaker 1: the British and Spanish soon pull out of the scheme. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you can't imagine that they would be very keen on

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Speaker 1: the idea of a French controlled ruler being installed in Mexico. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and Nouirez isn't happy about it either. He makes his

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Speaker 1: opposition to this European scheme quite clear. He declares that

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Speaker 1: any foreigner who makes an armed invasion without the declaration

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Speaker 1: of war will be put to death, as will any

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Speaker 1: Mexican who assists a foreign invasion. That's an important law

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Speaker 1: or proclamation to remember actually for this episode, so just

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Speaker 1: keep it in the vaca. Keep it in mind. There

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Speaker 1: are some really difficult early battles for the French, though,

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Speaker 1: with this invasion. On May five, eight sixty two, the

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Speaker 1: French are trounced at Puebla, which is a victory still

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Speaker 1: marked today by Sinca to Mayo. Next time you go

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Speaker 1: out for Senco to Mayo, you can tell all your

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Speaker 1: friends that you know it is not Mexican Independence Day.

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Speaker 1: You know the story behind it. Yeah, that's what people

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Speaker 1: mean when they're like, that's not what Senco to Mayo

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Speaker 1: is about. It's not inepen Now you know what you're

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Speaker 1: drinking Margarita's for victory at Puebla. So reports of that defeat, though,

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Speaker 1: get back to Paris and really kick off mass disapproval

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Speaker 1: of Napoleon the Thirds Project, I mean that they were

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Speaker 1: going to war over these debts and trying to install

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Speaker 1: a king. Another big defeat happens April thirty, eighteen sixty three,

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Speaker 1: at the Battle of Cameron, where only three of Captain

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Speaker 1: Jean Danjeu's legionnaires survive and Njeue's own wooden hand. This

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Speaker 1: is just like a weird, kind of freaky side note.

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Speaker 1: Den Jeu's own wooden hand is recovered from the scene

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Speaker 1: of the battle and turned into the symbol of the

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Speaker 1: foreign legion. Because the French soldiers had fought so bravely

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Speaker 1: even though they were really overwhelmed, it sounds like maybe

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Speaker 1: things aren't going to work out for the French. But

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Speaker 1: by May thirty one, eighteen sixty three, they do get

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Speaker 1: the upper hand and Juarez and his army have to

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Speaker 1: flee to the city of Saint Luis Potosi, which is

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Speaker 1: in the north of Mexico and basically just continue a

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Speaker 1: series of retreats all the way to El Paso del Norte,

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Speaker 1: which is later renamed Theo dad Aias. He and his followers,

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Speaker 1: called Republicans or Huaristas, continued to fight, but then back

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Speaker 1: at the capital, a new conservative government is established and

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Speaker 1: a formal invite goes out to Maximilian. He accepts under

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Speaker 1: two conditions. One is that the French will protect him,

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Speaker 1: and the other is that he has the approval of

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Speaker 1: the majority of the Mexican people. So poor Maximilian, he's

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Speaker 1: misled in both of these respects. Really, only a small

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Speaker 1: percentage of the Royalists want the Austrian prince to rule,

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Speaker 1: and Napoleon is already beginning to regret his decision. Just

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Speaker 1: a few months after offering the crown, but before Maximilian

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Speaker 1: actually moved, Napoleon writes to a friend quote, I realized

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Speaker 1: that I have gotten myself into a tight corner. But

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Speaker 1: the affair has to be liquidated. So yeah, that's disconcerting

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Speaker 1: for sure, But still Maximilian is really upbeat about his

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Speaker 1: new role. He in Charlotte, who changes her name to Carlotta,

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Speaker 1: arrived in Mexico May eighteen sixty four, and he's there

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Speaker 1: fully believing that he does have the support of the

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Speaker 1: Mexican people, not just this little group of royalists. But

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Speaker 1: both of them take their new job pretty seriously to

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Speaker 1: Carlotta learned Spanish and began studying Mexican history and art

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Speaker 1: and culture, and is reported to have developed a pretty

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Speaker 1: deep love and respect for it too, while Maximilian, surprise surprise,

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Speaker 1: started by upholding most of warez Is reform, so he

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Speaker 1: again doesn't seem like he's acting like a puppet ruler

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Speaker 1: him out much at all. He made no friends with

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Speaker 1: his policies. Yeah, the Conservatives were disappointed that they had

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Speaker 1: basically imported foreign Warez, and the Church was angry that

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Speaker 1: As reforms. And though Maximilian's policies were markedly similar to

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Speaker 1: those of war As, the liberals hated him for having

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Speaker 1: toppled their legitimate government Landy's just random Austrian dude, right.

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Speaker 1: So to add to this, Maximilian basically had to personally

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Speaker 1: finance his own government. France took all the customs revenue

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Speaker 1: from Maximilian's own inheritance, which really makes it seem that

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Speaker 1: France wasn't going into this in good faith. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I of Napoleon had Napoleon the Third had multiple motives,

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Speaker 1: But if his primary motive was to get the money

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Speaker 1: And meanwhile, it's not like the fightings over either. Maximilian

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Speaker 1: has to get further help from his brother in Austria

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Speaker 1: even though the Civil War is ongoing, is still a factor.

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Speaker 1: Lincoln did openly complain about the violation of the Monroe

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Speaker 1: of creating an alliance between the French and the Confederates.

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Speaker 1: And meanwhile, Maximilian refused the services of Confederate troops who

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Speaker 1: had moved into Mexico for fear he'd anger Lincoln to

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Speaker 1: the point of war. Lincoln's support, however, was already with Juarez.

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Speaker 1: The two wrote to each other, and the US provided

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Speaker 1: him with some assistance even during the Civil War. After

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Speaker 1: approached the border and transferred arms and weapons to the Wuarristas.

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Speaker 1: By June eighteen sixty five, even the idealistic Maximilian could

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Speaker 1: be said openly that our military situation is very bad.

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Speaker 1: The American Civil War has ended, and the threat of

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Speaker 1: eighteen sixty six, he informs Maximilian that he's going to

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Speaker 1: withdraw French troops from Mexico, and he doesn't even wait

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Speaker 1: when Carlotta figures out what's going on and realizes that

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Speaker 1: Frances pulling out, she heads off to Europe to try

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Speaker 1: to rally support around her husband. She begs Napoleon the

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Speaker 1: Third to reconsider. She asks Pope Pious the Ninth to help,

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Speaker 1: and when it becomes clear that no one can really

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Speaker 1: of her life. So Maximilian, meanwhile, he still believes that

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Speaker 1: he has the support of the Mexicans and he won't

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Speaker 1: he does so. So his backers make him Supreme Commander

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Speaker 1: of the Imperial Army, and on February five, eighteen sixty seven,

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Speaker 1: he leaves Mexico City for Kirataro, where he's met by

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Speaker 1: his general's Miramon and Mahia. They await waras is advancing

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Speaker 1: army there. Carataro falls May eighteen sixty seven and Maximilian

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Speaker 1: is arrested. His living conditions are harsh. There's no caught.

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Speaker 1: And there are these ironic reading choices like the history

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Speaker 1: of King Charles the First of England, which I'd have

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Speaker 1: to say it would be depressing to read about a

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Speaker 1: king who had lost his throne and his head while

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Speaker 1: you were in prison. Indeed, and then on Junet Maximilian

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Speaker 1: and his generals go to trial where they're charged under

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Speaker 1: the old ware As degree of eighteen sixty two, that

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Speaker 1: one that we mentioned to you guys earlier and asked

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Speaker 1: their court martialed and condemned to death, and on June nineteenth,

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Speaker 1: they're executed by firing squad outside of Carrataro. Miramon and

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Speaker 1: Mahia are shot in the back of traders and Maximilian

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Speaker 1: is shot head on, and Maximilian goes down pretty memorably.

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Speaker 1: His supposed last words are Viva Mexico, Viva Independencia. So

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Speaker 1: why is this decision to execute Maximilian is really pretty

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Speaker 1: unpopular abroad? Men like Victor Hugo and Giuseppe Garibaldi, who

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Speaker 1: is another former podcast subject, had even petitioned Ware's to

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Speaker 1: spare the Archduke's life. But because Wuareas wanted to set

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Speaker 1: an example for would be invaders coming into his country,

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Speaker 1: and because so many Mexicans had died in the war,

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Speaker 1: Wuarez decided not to spare Maximilian. Obviously, by July one,

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Speaker 1: the news of the death had gotten back to Paris,

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Speaker 1: right as Napoleon the Third was about to open the

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Speaker 1: prize of being ceremony of the Paris World's Fair, so

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Speaker 1: really bad timing for him. And as detailed accounts started

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Speaker 1: coming out, some people's anger at Napoleon the Third is

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Speaker 1: really rekindled. You know, why did he get into this

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Speaker 1: in the first place, and especially because Maximilian is a

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Speaker 1: pretty sympathetic figure. One of the people who is disturbed

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Speaker 1: at France's involvement in this whole thing is Eduard Manet,

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Speaker 1: who decides to go against his own dislike of painting

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Speaker 1: what he hadn't seen, you know, he believes artist should

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Speaker 1: paint from life. He decides to go against that principle

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Speaker 1: and recreate the execution of Maximilian because of course he

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Speaker 1: had not been there himself. But he doesn't go about

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Speaker 1: it like the heroic historic picture kind of style. He

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Speaker 1: uses really detailed news reports and they're all of these

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Speaker 1: very strange You can you can look them up actually

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Speaker 1: on MoMA's website, because they had an exhibit of some

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Speaker 1: of Manet's paintings of this. You can check out these

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Speaker 1: little cut and paste postcards people were really into making

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Speaker 1: of the time, taking pictures of um just soldiers in

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Speaker 1: this case, the wall where Maximilian was executed, and then

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Speaker 1: pasting on heads, like pasting on Maximilian's real head or

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Speaker 1: Mehia's real head. And uh so Mane had all of

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Speaker 1: this kind of stuff to look at, and he did

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Speaker 1: a series of paintings that, due to their controversial subject matter,

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Speaker 1: were never exhibited in Paris during his lifetime. But we

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Speaker 1: want to give you sort of enclosure on our other

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Speaker 1: subjects we've covered in this podcast too, especially Warez, because

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Speaker 1: his later history really surprised me. I knew him as

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Speaker 1: a Mexican national hero, and I figured since he was

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Speaker 1: an older man at this time, he probably had um

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Speaker 1: sort of a heroic end of life. But even though

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Speaker 1: he was reelective president of Mexico, political mistakes late in

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Speaker 1: his career made him really extremely unpopular at his death. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: he died in eighteen seventy two and didn't become the

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Speaker 1: celebrated hero that he is today until the twentieth century,

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Speaker 1: when it became clear that his reforms had helped modernize

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Speaker 1: the country. Carlotta or Charlotte lived until nine seven, and

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Speaker 1: she never really recovered from her paranoia and mental illness.

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Speaker 1: She spent the rest of her life in castles in

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Speaker 1: Belgium and in Italy, and Maximilian's older brother Franz Joseph

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Speaker 1: reigned as emperor until nineteen sixteen, so that wraps it up.

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Speaker 1: I thought this was such an interesting subject to learn about,

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Speaker 1: especially considering that it's going on parallel to the American

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Speaker 1: Civil War, and the fact that the US is at

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Speaker 1: war is such an interesting um, such an important part

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Speaker 1: of it all, kind of why it's able to start

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Speaker 1: in the first place, and it is an influence in

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Speaker 1: why it finishes. It's kind of an early example of

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Speaker 1: some major global politics going on. Yeah, it's actually a

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Speaker 1: really complicated story, it is, but it's got these charismatic

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Speaker 1: figures involved that make it kind of fun to talk about.

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Speaker 1: And consequently, because it is a good story, it's been

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Speaker 1: suggested a lot. So we want to thank listeners Gabriella

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Speaker 1: and Jen and Mike and probably other people who have

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Speaker 1: suggested Maximilian or Juarez before. And I think that's probably

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Speaker 1: a good segue to some listener mail. We have three

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Speaker 1: gorgeous postcards here from listener Abbey from Texas, and she

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Speaker 1: recently took a trip to visit her in laws in Moscow,

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Speaker 1: so she sent us a postcard of the Kremlin, a

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Speaker 1: postcard of the star Bell, and a postcard of the

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Speaker 1: Novodevichy convent. I hope, I said that correctly about the

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Speaker 1: last one, she said, this is the convent where Zur

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Speaker 1: stashed inconvenient women like mother's sisters, cast off wives. If

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Speaker 1: you paid across under the river into the convent, all

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Speaker 1: your sins are absolved. Pretty cool. Yeah, and they really

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Speaker 1: are beautiful postcards. Yes, thank you so much for sending those, Abby.

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Speaker 1: If any of you would like to send us, maybe

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Speaker 1: not something so physical that an email suggesting a topic

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Speaker 1: um like the one we talked about today, or just

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Speaker 1: any old topic you want to hear about, please email

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Speaker 1: us at History Podcast at how stuff works dot com,

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Speaker 1: or you can look us up on Facebook or on

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Speaker 1: Twitter at Myston History. And if you want to learn

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Speaker 1: a little bit more about Mexican traditions or about royalty,

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Speaker 1: we do have articles on both of those on our website.

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Speaker 1: You can search for them on our homepage at www

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Speaker 1: dot how stuff works dot com. Be sure to check

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Speaker 1: out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join

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Speaker 1: how Stuff Work staff as we explore the most promising

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Speaker 1: and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. The How Stuff Works iPhone

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Speaker 1: app has a rise. Download it today on iTunes,