Second Franco-Mexican War (8 Dez 1861 Jahr – 21 Okt 1865 Jahr)

Beschreibung:

[See Convention of London for background]

Launched in late 1861, the Second Franco-Mexican War was initially supported by Britain and Spain. At the time it was called the Allied Intervention in Mexico. Napoleon III desired to establish a friendly monarchy in Mexico to ensure French access to Latin American markets; and access to Mexican silver mines in Zacatecas [returned to Mexican administration in 1859].

To realize his imperial ambitions without other European interference, Napoleon III entered into a coalition with Britain and Spain, while the U.S. was occupied with the American Civil War. In December, the Spanish fleet disembarked troops at the port of Veracruz, on the Gulf of Mexico. When the British and the Spanish discovered that France had unilaterally planned to seize Mexico, they withdrew from the military coalition agreed in London. Though they gained support from within Mexico by the defeated Conservatives defeated in the Reform War.

The subsequent French invasion dissolved the Second Federal Republic of Mexico, following the French siege of Mexico city in 1865. They replaced it with the Second Mexican Empire, a puppet state of the French Empire. Following the conquest, guerrilla fighting would continue in Southern Mexico until the 1880's.