Last Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico

It is the portrait of Emperor Maximilian, who was born on 6 July 1832. He was ArchDuke of Austria. He was married to Carlota, a Princess of Belgium(a). Maximillian was invited by Emperor Napolean III and the Mexican conservative to become the Emperor of Mexico in 1863. He accepted the offer of the Mexican throne, believing that the Mexican people had voted him their king. But in reality, the request resulted from a scheme between conservative Mexicans, who wanted to overturn the liberal government of President Benito Juarez, and the French emperor Napoleon III desired to incorporate Mexico into his sphere of influence(b).Nevertheless, ArchDuke accepted the offer and arrived in Mexico in 1864. The conservatives and the French army welcomed him. The country had two competing groups contesting to represent the Mexcian nation: the liberal forces of Juarez and forces loyal to the crown, backed by the French military.

Upon the arrival of Emperor Maximillian, he declared a political amnesty for all liberals who wished to join the Empire. This move made him win over moderate liberals such as Jose Fernando, Ramirez Jose Mario Lanza, Manuel Orozciu Berra, and Santiago Vidcurri. He prioritized reforming his ministers and the Imperial Mexican Army. To the dismay of conservatives and the church, Emperor Maximillian upheld several liberal policies proposed by Juarez. He held the same view as Juarez concerning reforming the powerful Mexcian church and the powerful colonial institution(c). The laws included in the Reform law were land reforms, religious freedom, and extending the right to vote for all people. In addition, he continued Lerdo Law which prohibited elites, the Roman Catholic Church, and indigenous communities from holding title to a large swath of land.

It created friction between the Conservative supporters and Emperor Maximillian. The Conservatives sought a leader to defend the Mexcian colonizers’ tradition—the one who would protect their land and support their monopoly on trade. Maximillian was more progressive and aligned more toward liberal policy.

The final blow for Maximillian came from the French. The French were growing concerned about the rising power of Prussia and persistent United States pressure to remove their military presence from Mexico. The French eventually withdrew their troops from Mexico. Emperor Maximillian failed to delay the french withdrawal from the country. Maximillian faced the reality of the French army’s exit and his loss of support from the conservatives. He had left with barely a couple of thousand loyalist soldiers. He was no match against the forces of Benito Juarez, the President of Mexico. He was ultimately defeated and captured by troops loyal to Jaurez. He was executed on 19 June 1867 by President Benito Juarez as a message against any new idea of invading Mexico by the great powers of Europe.

Although, Maximillian held a view similar to Jaurez. He supported various reforms enacted by the former liberals and Juarez President. He also enacted laws and invested in the development of the country. However, he faced the neighboring United States of America, which was against any presence of European power in his backyard. The opposition from the Liberals was strong, and the United States backed them. The conservative found him more liberal and was shocked that Maximillian would not support the continuation of laws favoring the conservative hold on the country. It was a period when most Mexicans moved away from the notion of Empire or Royalty in Mexico. His reign was possible only due to the presence of the French army and the loyalist conservative. When he lost their support, it ended the Last Emperor of Mexico.

Work Cited:

a))Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico
hrc.contentdm.oclc.org
b)Maximilian, archduke of Austria and emperor of Mexico
Britannica.com
c) Footnote: Benito Juarez(1806-1872) Against powerful Church and colonial institution.

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The ever-faithful isle, Cuba. Its sugar canes stand strong like the palm trees that populate its pristine beaches. Yet, beneath this facade of a loyal paradise lay a fractured society built on fear. The illusion would be shattered, and a new age would commence; however, is it one of independence and harmony? 

As most of the colonies of North and South America exploded into a period of revolution from 1776-1825, Cuba remained a bastion of loyalty for the Spanish empire in the western hemisphere (Ferrer 151). With the Haitian Revolution resulting in the end of the sugar industry on the island, Cuban planters exploited this uncontested market and started to cultivate more sugar cane and import more enslaved people (Dawson 70). With Cuba still relying heavily on slavery to maintain its place in the world market, it made little sense to emancipate themselves from the Spaniards; furthermore, the brutality inflicted during the Haitian war of independence still lingered on the mind of the white planter. Shall they face the same fate if a war of independence were to break out? For them, it was either Spanish or African. (Ferrer 152). 

However, this Louisiana sheet music dating to 1898, composed by Ruby Mallory Kennedy, offers us a glimpse into the long struggle for independence on the island and the dissatisfaction the Cuban people had towards the paternal Spaniard. Titled after the famous battle cry by Cuban Nationalist, Viva Cuba Libre contains lyrics such as “The North and South are one at last, Viva, Cuba libre!…. The Blue and Gray, both true and tried, will march, Will march to battle side by side, Viva, Cuba libre!” (Kennedy 5). References to the American Civil War are echoed to highlight the unity of the late 19th-century United States. Now united, they will march alongside Cuban rebels toward their independence and kick out the oppressive Spaniards from the western hemisphere. This solidarity lay in the sinking of the Maine by supposed Spanish enemies, leading many to call for war against Spain in 1898.   

The United States may have played a crucial role in the independence of Cuba from Spain in 1898; however, that wasn’t always the case. The war of independence the sheet music references is only the most current from a series of two previous anti-colonial rebellions spanning over thirty years (Ferrer 152). The third and final one commencing in 1895, was one filled with rhetoric of antiracism and racial equality, expressed by revolutionary intellectuals such as José Marti and showcased by Nationalist leaders such as Antonio Maceo. This notion of “no whites nor blacks, but only Cubans” and racial integration, stood against the ideals of the United States, as postwar South was a hotbed of racial inequality and segregation (Ferrer 153). With Cuban rebels poised to remove this racial line after the revolution, it acted as a bulwark against the growing racial divide seen in the states.  

While the US intervention in the Caribbean helped to establish the new nation, this was just the beginning of the United States’ growing empire. Gaining the Philipines in the aftermath of the Spanish-American War, the U.S. claw would dig itself deeper into the soil of the globe, especially Latin America. This sheet music tells a story of solidarity between the two nations; however, after the war, there was an imbalance on who would be the one to determine the outcome of Cuba’s future. The exertion of the Monroe Doctrine helped to justify the U.S. intervention in the region to rectify the perceived deficiencies Latin America had. Had the Spaniards been replaced with a much larger enemy?  “Viva Cuba Libre” would once again be cried out by the 26th of July rebels in 1953, to oust the Batista dictatorship on the eve of the new year. This would only further complicate and strain the relationship between the two nations as the ragtag team of rebels was composed of outspoken communists, unsympathetic to America’s presence in the country (Dawson 209). The hostility between Cuba and its neighbor to its north persists to this very day; a far cry from 1898, once marching alongside one another to the beat of victory.

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In order to view the sheet music in its entirety.

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Works Cited:

Dawson, Alexander. Latin America since Independence a History with Primary Sources. Vol. 3, ROUTLEDGE, 2022.

Ferrer, Ada. “A Raceless Nation.” In, Problems in Modern Latin American History: Sources and Interpretations, edited by James A. Wood and Anna Rose Alexander, 16-21. 5th ed. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2019.

Kennedy, Ruby Mallory. “Viva Cuba Libre.” Viva Cuba Libre | Tulane University Digital Library, https://digitallibrary.tulane.edu/islandora/object/tulane%3A18871.

During a revival of liberalism within Latin America in the late 19^th century, liberal leaders yearned to replicate European customs (Wood, 131) while also establishing their place in the global trade market. Looking to modernize, many different nations implemented railroad construction, as it symbolized progress and industrialization (Burns, 134). In this picture titled, “Children on Railroad Tracks,” from the Tulane University Digital Library, said to be taken in 1850-1900, we see two children in Ajusco of Mexico City, Mexico, walking along railroad tracks. Liberals encouraged the utilization of vast landscape to grow their exports, either “temperate agricultural commodities,” “tropical agricultural commodities,” and “mineral products,” to trade to Europe and the U.S. This new form of transport made these vast untouched lands accessible to liberals and companies to use them to grow agricultural goods. Because of this rapid expansion, railroads facilitated the transport of these goods over long distances. They also carried workers to their job sites. Railroads, that ranged over thousands of miles throughout Latin America, (Dimas, 100) are a physical manifestation of the efforts made by liberals to not only open Latin America to the global stage, but to conform to the standards imposed by the Global north.

Through free trade and establishing an export-oriented economy, liberals brought conditions to the masses in which the economy could support population growths. In the same country in which the picture was taken, Mexico’s “population increased from 9.4 million in 1877 to 15.2 million in 1910,” because of the export boom and exponential growth of capital (Furtado, 267-269). The population growth is represented by the two children pictured. Although liberals attempted to push Eurocentric standards onto the rural masses, famously advocated by Domingo Faustino Sarmiento of Argentina in his “Civilization versus Barbarism,” we see here in this picture the lack of shoes on the children. Sarmiento encourages the masses to take on European attire, as the culture of the countryside is “barbarous” (Sarmiento, 139). Although they pushed this rhetoric of economic and cultural “progress,” the realities of the impoverished masses were commonly dismissed because these large regions physically separated the rural masses from the state (Dawson, 100). Because these new forms of large-scale production over on privatized land demanded mass labor, the peasantry was transformed into a unique working class. Agricultural workers who worked for wages faced exploitative conditions and increasing inequality against landowners. There were massive economic and cultural transformations, at the expense of the rural masses and their children.

Works Cited:

Dawson, Alexander. Latin America since Independence: A History with Primary Sources. 3^rd ed. New York: Routledge, 2022.

Wood, James A. and Anna Rose Alexander, editors. Problems in Modern Latin American History: Sources and Interpretations. 5^th ed. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2019.

Title: Children on railroad tracks, Source: Box 1, Disk 6, SEAA Mexican Lantern Slide Collection 66, #MX06-0375, Publisher, The Latin American Library

The end of caudillismo introduced a new thriving political system within Latin American countries, the era of liberalism. Latin America was entering a new phase of political ideologies, which diminished the government order of militarism. Caudallismo was associated with traditional views, supporting the church, and was led by militant political leaders. Liberalism political views wanted to move past caudillismo by using its domestic resources in order to modernize and be considered a serious nation able to trade with other European nations. The goal of Latin American countries is to become allies with westernized countries and be recognized as countries with technological, scientific, and culturally advanced. In the image above, we can see the advancements being made in the region of Mexico.  Under Porfirio Diaz, Mexico introduced railroads to increase its economy and adopt modernization from western countries. 

Porfirio Diaz is a controversial political figure because of his dictating reign. Different controversial decisions made him beloved by some and hated by others. Diaz discriminated against indigenous groups referring to them as inferior and stating that the only way they could improve was to attend “La Casa del Estudiante Indigena,” a school meant to teach them how to be westernized (Dawson 111). Liberalism meant progress in modernization but discriminated against the groups of people that did not want to accept advancement. Photography captured these scenes as it became a popular method of recording data because it was also seen as another form of advancement exposing racial, criminal, and poverty issues (Dawson 108). 

Mexico needed the support of the United States to be seen as a country that could be taken seriously. The statistics portrayed a narrative of how much the GDP has increased due to the construction of not only railroads but also canals and roads (Dawson 107).  Diaz not only wanted to seem reliable in the eyes of the United States but also show a nationalistic prowess on how much the nation was improving artistically and scientifically (Dawson 110). Pearson Magazine released an article named “ Porfirio Diaz, Hero of the Americas,” describing his accomplishments and perspectives on the future of Mexico. The article has a biased interpretation to portray him as a hero but still informs the reader of the management of the railways. To attract U.S citizens to travel and create new tourism opportunities, they provide lower prices for first and second-class seats (Dawson 121). With new tourists visiting the area, they can create opportunities by recommending others to visit and proving to the United States that they are a serious partner.  Under Porfirio Diaz, it accumulated that the railroad was about 19 thousand miles managed by Americans working as managers, engineers, and contractors (Dawson 120). The government controlled the railroads and did not let private companies intervene; instead, they “merged into one corporation” to prevent oppression (Dawson 120). This can be controversial because it would give power to the government, creating an internal monopoly and leading to corruption. The progression of railroads helped expand the economy of Mexico, making it a legitimate potential ally for westernizing countries, but it sacrificed the expense of liberty amongst the indigenous people. 

Work Cited

Dawson, A. (2022). Latin America since Independence: A History with Primary Sources (3rd ed.). Routledge. https://doi-org.remote.baruch.cuny.edu/10.4324/9781003146094