Emperor of Mexico

These characters held the position of Emperor of Mexico in the Southern Victory series.

In OTL, in 1864, Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph of Austria, a member of southern Europe's powerful Hapsburg family (Austrian Empire), was installed as Emperor of Mexico with the support of Emperor Napoleon III of France, who sought to exploit the underdeveloped country's abundant natural resources to France's advantage. French imperial adventures in North America were in direct violation of the Monroe Doctrine, but Napoleon counted on the United States remaining too distracted by the American Civil War to intervene. When the war ended, the US pressured France to withdraw its military forces, and, bereft of their support, Maximilian (who had refused to evacuate along with his French patrons) was overthrown and killed by Mexican revolutionaries. He had sat on the Mexican throne for three years. Upon his overthrow, the imperial title went defunct.

In the Southern Victory timeline, the US was defeated in the War of Secession, and thereafter had only a short border with Mexico in the far west. Most of Mexico's northern border was shared with the Confederacy, an ally of France (which, in this timeline, had installed Maximilian no later than the autumn of 1862, before the series' Point of Divergence, see Inconsistencies in Turtledove's Work). The Confederates tolerated Hapsburg rule in Mexico, and the US was helpless to oppose it throughout the nineteenth century. Thus, Maximilian remained on the Mexican throne for the remainder of his natural life, and founded a dynasty of Mexican rulers which had included at least five emperors by In at the Death and which was still in place as of the series's end. The Mexican Hapsburgs (unlike their Austro-Hungarian cousins) were firmly in the Entente camp throughout the series, though their closest association gradually shifted from France to the CSA. There was at least one attempt at a revolution against the Hapsburgs, but the revolutionaries were defeated despite some support from the US government.

Toward the end of the series, Sam Carsten reflected on the fact that the US's failure to prevent French colonialism in Mexico had effectively spelled the end of the Monroe Doctrine as a meaningful foreign policy.

Mexican emperors from the series include (but are not necessarily limited to) the following. Dates are based on the best deductive evidence available within canonical texts but should not necessarily be considered accurate.

Very little information about these Emperors is given. The text does not state their genetic lineage. In OTL, Maximilian I and his wife Carlota were believed to be an infertile couple, and planned to adopt an heir from the surplus royal stock of Europe, perhaps one of Maximilian's Hapsburg relations. The Southern Victory storyline does not have enough clues to make any definitive statement regarding this matter.

Maximilian I

 * See: Maximilian I: 1862-c 1880

Maximilian II
Maximilian II: c 1880 (?)-???? He maintained the close ties between his country and France. In 1881, with his country in desperate need of money, Maximilian decided to sell the Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua to the Confederate States, sparking the Second Mexican War.

Francisco José I (?)
An unnamed emperor whose reign included the period of the Great War. Since we eventually have an Emperor Francisco José II, the moderators of this Wiki have tentatively given him the name Francisco José I.

Maximilian III
Maximilian III: c 1920 (?)-1942 During the Mexican Civil War of the 1920s, the Popular Revolutionaries sought to remove Maximilian from the throne. The United States provided tepid support of the Popular Revolutionaries, whereas Maximilian's faction received substantial (unofficial) support from long-time ally, the Confederate States. Maximilian held his throne, eventually passing it to Francisco José II.

Franciso José II
See: Francisco José II of Mexico