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[[File:Franz_Xaver_Winterhalter_Napoleon_III.jpg|thumbnail|left|300px250px|Franz Xaver Winterhalter, French Emperor Napoleon III]] __NOTOC__
In 1862, French Emperor Napoleon III maneuvered to establish a French client state in Mexico, and eventually installed Maximilian of Habsburg, Archduke of Austria, as Emperor of Mexico. Stiff Mexican resistance caused Napoleon III to order French withdrawal in 1867, a decision strongly encouraged by a United States recovered from its Civil War weakness in foreign affairs.
====European forces invade Mexico and install Maximilian the Archduke of Austria as Emperor of Mexico====
[[File:Maximilian_I_of_Mexico_portrait_standing.jpg|thumbnail|left|250px|Emperor Maximilian of Mexico]]
With no other options, Juárez suspended payments on Mexican debt for two years. In response, representatives from the Spanish, French, and British governments met in London, and on October 31, 1861, signed a tripartite agreement to intervene in Mexico to recover the unpaid debts. European forces landed at Veracruz on December 8. Juárez urged resistance, while Conservatives saw the intervening forces as valuable allies in their struggle against the Liberals. Although the British and Spanish governments had more limited plans for intervention, Napoleon III was interested in reviving French global ambitions, and French forces captured Mexico City, while Spanish and British forces withdrew after French plans became clear. In 1863, Napoleon III invited Maximilian, Archduke of Austria, to become Emperor of Mexico. Maximilian accepted the offer and arrived in Mexico in 1864. Although Maximilian’s Conservative government controlled much of the country, Liberals held on to power in northwestern Mexico and parts of the Pacific coast.
In response to these actions, Secretary of State Seward issued statements of disapproval, but the U.S. Government was unable to intervene directly because of the American Civil War. Moreover, both Seward and U.S. President Abraham Lincoln did not want to further antagonize Napoleon III, and risk his intervention on the side of the Confederacy. The U.S. Government also rejected overtures from other Latin American countries for a pan-American solution to the conflict. However, the Mexican Minister to the United States, Matías Romero, worked carefully to build American support for Mexico. Seward soon began to show increased support for Juárez’s government.
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====Mexico overthrows Maximilian=====
[[File:Edouard_Manet_022.jpg|thumbnail|left|250px|The Execution of Emperor Maximilian]]
The end of the American Civil War in 1865 coincided with the beginnings of success for Juárez’s forces against Maximilian’s. Maximilian, ill-informed on Mexican affairs prior to his arrival, alienated his Conservative allies by attempting to adopt more Liberal policies, while he failed to win over Liberals, who saw him as a tool of French interests and Mexican Conservatives. In 1865, Liberal military victories made Maximilian’s position increasingly difficult. Meanwhile, U.S. Generals Ulysses S. Grant and Philip Henry Sheridan bypassed Seward and began covert support of Juárez along the Texas-Mexico border. By then, the intervention in Mexico had grown unpopular with the French public and was an increasing drain on the French treasury.
