Biography Of Maximilian Of Habsburg

Known for being a man of somewhat romantic temperament and liberal ideas, Archduke Fernando Maximiliano José de Habsburgo, was born in Schoenbrunn Palace, Vienna, on July 6, 1832.
Son of Archduke Francisco Carlos of Austria and Princess Sofia of Bavaria, Maximilian He was the brother of Emperor Francisco José I of Austria - Hungary and the second Emperor of Mexico.
During his youth he served in the navy of his country and toured the Mediterranean and much of Europe. In 1856 he married Princess Carlota Amalia of Belgium, daughter of Leopold I of Belgium, in Brussels.
Between 1857 and 1859, Maximilian he was governor of the Lombard kingdom - Veneto, where he practiced a liberal and conciliatory policy that failed to convince all those who wanted the independence and unity of Italy.
In 1861, the then Mexican president, Benito Juárez, suspended payments on the foreign debt that Mexico had, which caused a French intervention in Mexican territory. In July 1863, a group of Mexican notables offered to

Maximilian the throne of Mexico.
The archduke Maximilian of Habsburg accepted the offer and in 1864 signed with the French government the document known as the Pact of Miramar, by which, the French promised to provide military support to the future emperor while he will pay the expenses.
After conquering the city of Puebla, the French troops received Maximilian of Habsburg, who triumphantly entered Mexico City in June 1864, being crowned on the 12th of that month.
The new emperor, Maximiliano I of MexicoHe tried to follow a policy of moderate liberal reforms, which led him to build an enmity with the clergy and with those French who were displaced from the administration.
But it was not until 1865 when the decisive change occurred, the American president, Abraham Lincoln, finished the civil war in his country, recognized Benito Juárez and requested the departure of French troops from the territory Mexican.
Napoleon III, busy with other matters, decided to withdraw his troops from Mexico, thus breaking with the Miramar Pact and leaving Maximilian without troops and without some vitally important men in his government, so the emperor found it necessary to accept, in his government, men of a more conservative ideology.
After the withdrawal of the French army, in March 1867, Juárez headed for Mexico City along with his troops. Maximilian I he assumed the supreme command of the army and went to Querétaro, where he planned to resist the offensive. The imperial troops were besieged by those of Benito Juárez and on May 15 they capitulated. On June 19, 1867, Maximilian I He was shot along with his generals, Miguel Miramón and Tomas Mejía, on the Cerro de las Campanas in Querétaro.