Emperor of Mexico

The Emperor of Mexico (Spanish: Emperador de México) was the head of state and ruler of Mexico on two non-consecutive occasions in the 19th century.

With the Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire from Spain in 1821, Mexico became an independent monarchy—the First Mexican Empire (1822–1823), ruled by Agustin I, of the House of Iturbide. The monarchy was replaced by the First Republic of Mexico. The Second Mexican Empire (1864–1867), ruled by Maximilian I, was established due to the efforts of Mexican Conservatives and the French government after the president, Benito Juárez, was forced into exile. The Second Empire had very little foreign support or recognition, and quickly collapsed after France withdrew its military aid.

Both Empires ended with the reigning Emperor being forcibly deposed and put to death in short order.

Southern Victory
The restoration of empire in Mexico and the installation of a new Emperor by France came concurrently with the USA's defeat in the War of Secession. From 1862, most of Mexico's northern border was shared with the Confederate States, an ally of France. The Confederate States recognized and Maximilian I's rule, and exploited the Hapsburg dynasty in Mexico, while the US were helpless to oppose it throughout the 19th Century and early 20th Century.

The Mexican Hapsburgs (unlike their Austro-Hungarian cousins) were firmly in the Entente camp throughout the Great War and the Second Great War. The 1920s saw at least one attempt at a revolution against the Hapsburgs, but the revolutionaries were defeated with covert help from the CS, despite some support from the US government. Despite Mexico's defeat during the Second Great War, the Empire was allowed to remain in place, with the US having to focus its attention on the vanquished CSA.

Literary comment
The storyline gives very little information about the Emperors as individuals. Even their genetic lineage is a mystery. In OTL, Maximilian I and his wife Carlota were believed to be an infertile couple, and Maximilian adopted the grandsons of Agustín I as his own sons and heirs. However, he reportedly later changed his mind and planned to disinherit the Iturbides, in favor of bringing one of his own Hapsburg nephews over from the Austrian Empire to adopt. The question became academic upon his subsequent downfall. The name Iturbide appears nowhere in the Southern Victory series, nor are the Emperors referred to as anything but Hapsburgs, but to make any further assumption would be speculative.

Also Robert A. Heinlein in his novel "Job: A Comedy of Justice" depicted a timeline in which 20th Century Mexico is an Empire and the area around Mexico City is "The Imperial District" - but the book's protagonists stay only briefly in that timeline and never learn the Emperor's name or the historical circumstances of that Mexico.

Maximilian I
See: Maximilian I: reigned 1862(?) -c 1880

Maximilian II
Maximilian II: reigned c 1880(?)-????. Maximilian 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.

Literary comment
The emperor reigning during the Great War is never named in the text. As there is an Emperor Francisco José II during the Second Great War, the moderators of this Wiki have tentatively indentified the unnamed emperor as Francisco José I.

Maximilian III
Maximilian III: reigned 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 for the Popular Revolutionaries, whereas Maximilian's royalist 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: reigned 1942-????

Other Emperors
Maximilian I is also referenced as reigning Emperor in the novel The Guns of the South.