Hapsburgs on the Rio Grande (2024) by Raymond Jonas

 Book Review

Hapsburgs on the Rio Grande (2024)
by Raymond Jonas

  It's a chapter of Mexican history that Americans miss out on because it happened during our Civil War, but for a brief, shining period there was a Hapsburg monarch who purported to rule over the "Empire of Mexico." Emperor Maximillian was the younger brother of the head of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  After his brother the Emperor produced a male heir, he dropped out of the line of immediate succession and found himself dispatched to Milan to run things for his brother, but he wasn't, you know, satisfied.  Meanwhile in Mexico, the Mexicans had created a republic that, among other things, confiscated and sold church property, which upset the Catholic church and Mexican conservatives.  

  This all led to Napoleon III floating a French "intervention" in Mexico designed to place Maximillian on the throne as a "legitimate" monarch of Mexico.  Needless to say, there were, many, many, many flaws in the plan including:

 1,  The existence of the legitimate government of Mexico, which simply retreated and waged a decade long campaign of guerilla warfare designed to wait out the invading French army.

2.  Trying to take over an existing country using borrowed money and mercenary troops.

3.  The general uselessness of Maximillian

4.  An inability to win over the population of Mexico to his cause.

   I could go on.  I had many thoughts during the course of Hapsburgs on the Rio Grande but my major take-aways were that this would make an excellent comedic prestige television show AND that it really makes American capitalism look good, because while the US was building a continent wide industrial powerhouse, the French, decades after their own revolution, were spending their money in this insane fiasco. 

  Maximillian was not without his positive attributes.  He was an avowed fan of the indigenous population and they actually provided the bulk of his Mexican supporters, including his two top generals.   He himself was not a cruel or rapacious guy, although the soldiers in his employ did get a little out of hand as they tried to suppress the guerilla tactics of the Republic.  There are plenty of indelible moments in Hapsburgs on the Rio Grande, but my favorite was the afternoon that Maximillian spent collecting butterflies while his Mexican Empire was in a state of utter collapse.  How 19th century European monarch!