Second Mexican Empire

The Mexican Empire (Spanish: Imperio Mexicano) or Second Mexican Empire (Spanish: Segundo Imperio Mexicano) was a limited hereditary monarchy in Mexico declared by the Assembly of Notables on 10 July, 1863, during the Franco-Mexican War. It was created with the support of Napoleon III of France, who attempted to establish a monarchist ally in the Americas. A referendum confirmed Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, as Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico.

Promoted by the powerful and conservative elite of Mexico's "hacendados", with the support of the French and later the Confederate States of America, as well as from the Austrian and Belgian crowns, the intervention attempted to create a monarchical system in Mexico, as it had functioned during the 300 years of the viceroyalty of New Spain and for the short term of the imperial independent reign of Emperor Agustín I of Mexico. Support came mainly from conservative Catholics, who were at the time a majority within Mexico, and the main means came from the Mexican nobility, who aimed to promote stability. Following the Treaty of Mexico City and the death of Benito Juarez in 1864, the Mexican Empire was recognized by the European powers as the legitimate government of Mexico.

The power and stability of the Mexican Empire remained dependent upon the support of France and the Confederates, who provided military and economic aid. The Imperial government faced consistent and periodic insurrections and demonstrations throughout much of the late 19th and early 20th century, despite several major reforms promoted by Maximilin and his successor.

The collapse of the Second French Empire in the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 and the economic collapse of the Confederate States of America in the 1900s, coupled with political pressures of the Great War, eventually led to a massive socialist revolutions in Mexico and the Confederate States. The capture and execution of Agustín II in 1916 heralded the end of the Mexican Empire and the unification of the socialist governments of Mexico and the Confederate States into the Confederacy of American Syndicates.