Remembering Volunteers to Mexico

King's Advice on Mexico Adventure

When Mexican conservatives and the court of French Emperor Napoleon first concocted the scheme to revive the Empire of Mexico under Maximilian and Charlotte the Austrian Imperial Family was very much unimpressed with the idea. Emperor Francis Joseph thought it a terrible idea and feared the Hapsburg name would be tarnished by any cooperation with the parvenu Bonaparte clan. Ultimately he even disinherited his own brother in the hope of discouraging him. However, in Belgium things were very different. King Leopold I thought it would be wonderful if his beloved daughter could become an empress. He gave the young Archduke Maximilian advice based on his own experience. He said Maximilian should accept the offer of the Mexican throne but warned him not to be romantic about it but to address the matter in a practical way, like a business deal. Establishing a new throne would be expensive and the King advised Maximilian to hold aloof until he had solid financial backing. He pointed out that France, England and Russia had offered him a guarantee of 20 million francs to take the Belgian throne which went a long way to helping him put the monarchy and the new country on a solid footing.

The King was also wise enough to know that Napoleon would not go against his own interests to keep his promises of support to the archduke. “In regard to military support, even if you were to provide your own Austrian suite, the Emperor Napoleon is quite capable of recalling his troops from Mexico if anything goes wrong, in order to exonerate himself” the King said. Because of that he advised his son-in-law to get something in writing that would be as binding as a treaty. He warned Maximilian that once undertaken the success or failure of the enterprise would fall on him and so he must be stern in holding out until the French met all of his requirements. Leopold I told him, “To sum up it is folly to let yourself be confounded by polite phrases. One must guard against illusions.” It was very good advice from one of the most experienced and pragmatic royals in Europe. However, Napoleon did go back even on his written promises and treaties and Maximilian did not guard very well against illusions. Fortunately, he had our Charlotte there to help him in that regard and she was convinced that they could help Mexico and finally lift those people out of poverty, ignorance and constant civil wars between feuding factions of potential dictators.

Not everyone among Charlotte’s relations was proud to see her go become Empress of the Mexicans. Her grandmother, Queen Marie Amélie of the French, was shocked and frightful. She resented Princess Charlotte being part of any plan hatched by the Bonaparte who had displaced King Louis Philippe from the French throne and she feared what would happen to them, knowing Mexico only as a violent country full of bandits where governments changed by coup détat. When they visited the Queen Princess Clementine was praying her rosary and when they left the Queen lurched from her chair and shouted, “They will be murdered!” before collapsing. However, in Belgium the send-off was much happier. There were decorations everywhere, crowds of Belgians lined the streets cheering and King Leopold I, the Duke of Brabant (soon to be King Leopold II) and the Count of Flanders presided over the official ceremonies. The Duke of Brabant read out a rousing message, “The Hapsburgs, when joined with the Coburgs, find ever new opportunities to indulge their legitimate passion for doing good to the most different peoples.” As Empress of Mexico Charlotte would endeavor to do just that but who could have imagined the inveterate enemies and fair-weather friends they would have to deal with?

Belgian Crown Prince in Mexico

Prince Philippe, Duke of Brabant, seen in the picture with the Spanish Minister of Culture Angeles Gonzalez-Sinde joined heads of state and dignitaries representing numerous other foreign countries were photographed at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City, Mexico on September 14. This is a special occasion as tomorrow Mexico will celebrate the bicentenary of Mexican independence from Spain. Although Prince Philippe may be just one more face in the foreign crowd on this occasion, Mexico has a special significance for Belgium ever since 1864 when Belgium's Princess Charlotte accompanied her Austrian husband Archduke Maximilian to become Emperor Maximiliano and Empress Carlota of the revived Mexican monarchy. Charlotte effectively gave the last of her life in the service of Mexico and many Belgian soldiers also lost their lives fighting for the preservation of the Mexican Empire. So the histories of Mexico and Belgium are tied together from now on because of that period.

The Belgian Volunteer Corps in Mexico

The Mad Monarchist reports in some detail on the story of the Belgian Volunteer Corps in Mexico. This was sent to protect Empress Charlotte of Mexico by her beloved father Belgian King Leopold I. Even in these modern times there are still Belgians who remember the adventure in Mexico:

How does 'Emperor Lorenzo' sound?

I alluded earlier to this subject, a thought that first came to me commenting on another blog about the late Emperor Maximilian of Mexico. I know, or know some people 'in the know' about the imperialists of Mexico and the heir to their monarchy, one Hungarian-Australian named Count Maximilian von Goetzen-Iturbide, never seems to have even visited Mexico and shows no interest in restoring the Mexican Empire or taking any leadership of the legacy of the empire for the Mexican imperialists. So, what about the Mexicans starting over and trying again? I would suggest a good candidate for their throne would be our own Prince Lorenz of Belgium. Think about the similarities. Like Maximilian he is an Austrian archduke, House of Hapsburg like the first Christian monarchs to rule over Mexico, and he and Maximilien share an Italian connection. Maxil was Viceroy of Lombardy-Venetia and Prince Lorenz is of the Italian branch of the Hapsburg dynasty and titular Duke of Modena. Both are also married to beautiful Belgian princesses, which of course is a big plus!

Prince Lorenz also has some benefits poor Emperor Maximilian did not have. First place he has a nice family so there is no worry over the succession to the throne. He is also very well educated in business and economics (from what I know Maximilian was terrible with money issues) and so he could maybe do what is needed to take Mexico out of poverty and put her on a good financial platform. Of course the family are good Catholics like most Mexicans and since there is no French empire involved anymore the United States should have no legitimate grounds for complaint if Prince Lorenz were to become "Emperor Lorenzo of Mexico" (I say legitimate only because I know they would anyway just because the US does not like monarchies at all and does not want any in America especially).

Obviously this is a daydream like I am told, but it is a fun one and an idea that has stuck in my mind since I thought of it. How could such a thing be worked out today? I have been thinking of fictional scenarios for this and maybe, just for fun, I will post them here as a sort of alternate-current events serial. It might be fun, if for me and no one else. Also, if I can "scoop" a friend, I am told that a deeper look at the real historical Belgian army that served in Mexico back in the time of Maximilian and Charlotte will be coming on another blog and I will certainly be linking to that. I wish someone would make a movie or even a good historical novel about that. I think it would make a great adventure story. I also will mention, in connection to my last blog entry, in the Indiana Jones movies, where did the hero meet his Belgian friend and decide to join the Belgian army in World War I? It was in Mexico, fighting in the revolution with Pancho Villa. You see, I am finding lots of fateful reasons to carry on these fancies.

New Belgium - Nova Belgica - Nueva Bélgica

Some people may have heard of New Netherland, the colony that later became the state of New York after the English took it over, land, as I related in the last post, purchased by the Belgian colonialist Peter Minuit. If you look at old maps of that time the name given to the land mass is often not 'New Netherland' but is 'Nova Belgica' or 'New Belgium' in Latin language. This was obviously long before the modern Kingdom of Belgium as we know it existed and yet the name was still associated with the area that was the Spanish and Austrian Netherlands, later the United Provinces (Dutch republic) when the Spanish were forces out. But, I have discovered there was a later effort at Belgian colonization in the New World after the independence of the Kingdom of Belgium as it is today. Shortly after independence Belgium recognized the country of Mexico and Belgian engineers built the first railroad in Mexico (already they had established the first brewery in Mexico long before). Eventually there was the idea for a 'Nueva Bélgica' colony in the Mexican state of Chihuahua (seems a rather harsh change compared to the Belgian climate). Nothing finally came of the idea though less formal colonies (communities really) were established in other areas, some in Mexico and a number across the United States et cetera.

It would have been a nice holiday spot to have a Belgian colony in Mexico, but not to be. There were also efforts to establish Belgian colonies in the Ethiopia-Eritrea-Sudan Red Sea coast area, the Philippines and Hawaii, none of which were finally successful. Those were mostly done by King Leopold I and more later by King Leopold II who obviously was finally successful in a big way in establishing the Belgian colonial empire in central Africa (and also a tiny corner of China). What would have happened though to "New Belgium". I hate to admit it but probably it would not have worked out anyway. Just like the English gobbled up New Netherland and New Sweden in North America, with all of the civil wars and revolutions in Mexico the New Belgium colony there would probably have been victimized by the government as well. I have an idea for that particular problem though that I will try to remember to discuss in greater detail later.