Monarchism in Mexico

Monarchism in Mexico is the political ideology that defends the establishment, restoration, and preservation of a monarchical form of government in Mexico. Monarchism was a recurring factor in the decades during and after Mexico's struggle for independence.

Beginning in 1808, it was unclear near the ending of the kingdom of the Viceroyalty of New Spain what form of government—monarchical or republican—might replace the absolutism of Ferdinand VII of Spain, but the default position in that era was monarchy.^[1] In 1821, Mexico declared the Independence of the Mexican Empire. However, lacking a prince to ascend the Throne of Mexico, Agustín de Iturbide, a criollo royalist general who made an alliance with the insurgents for independence, was proclaimed president of the Regency. His Plan of Iguala united factions for independence and envisioned a sovereign nation, with the stated hope that new state would be led by a member of the Spanish royal family or a prince from another European royal house.

In the absence, still, of a willing or unprohibited candidate from an established royal house, Iturbide was elected Emperor of Mexico by the Mexican congress in 1822 as Agustín I. Conflicts between congress and the emperor, coupled with the emperor's struggle to pay the military which propped up his regime, led to the empire's collapse. The emperor abdicated and went into exile in 1823. Mexico established a federated republic under the Constitution of 1824, but the idea of monarchy continued among Mexican conservatives.^[2]

Mexican monarchism was discredited following the First Mexican Empire’s fall, and some scholars have written that "there was no effective monarchist support in Mexico between the Empire of Iturbide and the Empire of Maximilian."^[3] Nonetheless monarchists such as Lucas Alaman continued to hope that monarchy was a viable solution to Mexico's political turmoil by inviting a European prince to assume the Mexican throne, following the precedent set by nations such as the United Kingdom, Greece, and Belgium, who elected their monarchs from different countries.^[4] Many in the Conservative Party continued to voice monarchical aspirations as early as 1832, with many believing that “only a monarchy could save Mexico from anarchy and the United States”.^[5] Regardless, "many times, the monarchist proposals were little more than private intrigues, lacking any real support".^[6]

These ideas attracted interest in European courts, culminating in a French intervention in Mexico in 1861, with the aim of helping the Mexican Conservative party establish a Mexican monarchy, this time with Archduke Maximilian of Austria as emperor. The idea of monarchy gained increasing Mexican support following the military defeat of conservatives in the War of the Reform, sparked by the promulgation of the liberal Constitution of 1857. The victorious liberal government of Benito Juárez suspended payment to bond holders, which gave European powers the pretext to intervene militarily for debt collection. In these circumstances, Mexican conservatives invited Archduke Maximilian to become emperor as French forces of Napoleon III invaded central Mexico. The establishment of the Empire by French troops, with support of Mexican Imperial forces, tainted the imperial regime's legitimacy from the start. This was further compounded by the fact that Juárez never left the national territory and was considered the legitimate head of state by the United States. Mexican conservatives expected the monarch to adhere to conservative principles, but Emperor Maximilian was politically a liberal and ratified many of the reforms of the liberal republican government that his regime displaced. The Second Mexican Empire was established when the U.S. was engaged in its civil war (1861–65), and with its end could give material support to Juárez's republican forces. With Napoleon III's withdrawal of French forces in 1866-67, the Empire collapsed in 1867. Emperor Maximilian was captured, tried, and executed. His execution by firing squad of the Restored Republic marked the end of monarchy in Mexico.