The Mexican Expedition of 1862-1867 and the End of the French Second Empire

TY - JOUR

T1 - The Mexican Expedition of 1862-1867 and the End of the French Second Empire

AU - Greenfield, Jerome

PY - 2020/6/1

Y1 - 2020/6/1

N2 - The French expedition to Mexico from 1862 to 1867 rarely features in accounts of the origins of the Franco-Prussian War or of the liberalization of the French Second Empire in its final years. By contrast, this article uses a range of archival and published sources to argue that the failure of the Mexican expedition was an important factor in the crisis that convulsed French politics in the late 1860s. The legitimacy of the fiscal-military system was undermined, partly because of the burdens that the expedition imposed on the French people. There resulted difficulties over finance and the army, which hindered the Second Empire's ability to confront the Prussian threat and accelerated the emergence of the ‘Liberal Empire’ with the constitutional reforms of 1867–70. Liberalization, though, could not rescue the imperial regime, and the legitimacy crisis of the Second Empire was only resolved by a transition to a parliamentary democracy under the Third Republic.

AB - The French expedition to Mexico from 1862 to 1867 rarely features in accounts of the origins of the Franco-Prussian War or of the liberalization of the French Second Empire in its final years. By contrast, this article uses a range of archival and published sources to argue that the failure of the Mexican expedition was an important factor in the crisis that convulsed French politics in the late 1860s. The legitimacy of the fiscal-military system was undermined, partly because of the burdens that the expedition imposed on the French people. There resulted difficulties over finance and the army, which hindered the Second Empire's ability to confront the Prussian threat and accelerated the emergence of the ‘Liberal Empire’ with the constitutional reforms of 1867–70. Liberalization, though, could not rescue the imperial regime, and the legitimacy crisis of the Second Empire was only resolved by a transition to a parliamentary democracy under the Third Republic.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85081592543&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1017/S0018246X19000657

DO - 10.1017/S0018246X19000657

M3 - Article

SN - 0018-246X

VL - 63

SP - 660

EP - 685

JO - HISTORICAL JOURNAL

JF - HISTORICAL JOURNAL

IS - 3

ER -