Maximilian (
Spanish:
Maximiliano; born
Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph; 6 July 1832 – 19 June 1867) was the only monarch of the
Second Mexican Empire. He was a younger brother of the Austrian emperor
Francis Joseph I. After a distinguished career in the Austrian Navy, he entered into a scheme with
Napoleon III of France to invade, conquer, and rule Mexico. France (along with the United Kingdom and Spain, who both withdrew the following year after negotiating agreements with Mexico's democratic government) had invaded Mexico in the winter of 1861, as part of the
War of the French Intervention. Seeking to legitimize French rule in the Americas, Napoleon III invited Maximilian to establish a new Mexican monarchy for him. With the support of the French army, and a group of
conservative Mexican monarchists hostile to the liberal administration of new Mexican President
Benito Juárez, Maximilian traveled to Mexico. Once there, he declared himself
Emperor of Mexico on 10 April 1864.