Napoleon III feared a global American hegemon. Yet when the United States fell into civil war, France’s ruler saw a chance to stop it. He overthrew the liberal government of Mexico and installed an Austrian prince — Maximilian von Habsburg-Lothringen — as the country’s new “emperor”. If the Union did somehow succeed, its rise to world domination would be checked by a strong, French-backed monarchy on its southern border.
But as Edward Shawcross explains in The Last Emperor of Mexico, this ambitious imperial project quickly turned into an absurd disaster. He and Aaron discuss what went wrong and whether Maximilian could’ve rescued himself if he’d been a better politician.
They also talk about the mastermind behind the scheme and the subject of Edward’s next book, Napoleon III. Was he really the absurd figure everyone remembers — or an astute political strategist and the intellectual godfather of autocratic populists today?
If you want to buy The Last Emperor of Mexico AND support independent stores in the UK, visit our Bookshop page: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/strategyaaron
Other links:
Edward’s site
Aaron’s site
Aaron’s Instagram
Aaron’s recommended read this week is
’s interview with documentary filmmaker Norma Percy
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