It is interesting, in view of the total conquest and submission of the
Indians in Mexico, that the final blow for freedom in that country should
have been made by an Indian of pure native blood. His name was Benito
Juarez, and his struggle for liberty was against the French invaders and
Maximilian, the puppet emperor, put by Louis Napoleon on the Mexican
throne. In the words of Shakespeare, "Thereby hangs a tale."
For many years after the Spanish colonies had won their independence the
nations of Europe looked upon them with a covetous eye. They would dearly
have liked to snap up some of these weak countries, which Spain had been
unable to hold, but the great republic of the United States stood as their
protector, and none of them felt it quite safe to step over that
threatening bar to ambition, the "Monroe Doctrine." "Hands off," said
Uncle Sam, and they obeyed, though much against their will.
In 1861 began a war in the United States which gave the people of that
country all they wanted to do. Here was the chance for Europe, and
Napoleon III., the usurper of France, took advantage of it to send an army
to Mexico and attempt the conquest of that country. It was the overweening
ambition of Louis Napoleon which led him on. It was his scheme to found an
empire in Mexico which, while having the name of being independent, would
be under the control of France and would shed glory on his reign.
At that time the President of Mexico, the Indian we have named, was Benito
Juarez, a descendant of the Aztec race, and, as some said, with the blood
of the Montezumas in his veins. Yet his family was of the lowest class of
the Indians, and when he was twelve years old he did not know how to read
or write. After that he obtained a chance for education, and in time
became a lawyer, was made governor of his native state, and kept on
climbing upward till he became secretary of state, president of the
Supreme Court, and finally president of Mexico.
He was the man who had the invaders of his country to fight, and he fought
them well and long. But the poor and undisciplined Mexicans were no match
for the trained troops of France, and they were driven back step by step
until the invaders were masters of nearly the whole country. Yet Juarez
still had a capital and a government at San Luis Potosi, and all loyal
Mexicans still looked on him as their president.
When Napoleon III. found himself master of Mexico, he looked around for a
man who would serve him as a tool to hold the country. Such a man he found
in Ferdinand Joseph Maximilian, the brother of the emperor of Austria, a
dreamer rather than a man of action, and a fervent believer in the "divine
right of kings." This was the kind of man that the French usurper was in
want of, and he offered him the position of emperor of Mexico. Maximilian
was taken by surprise. The proposition was a startling one. But in the end
ambition overcame judgment, and he accepted the lofty but perilous
position on the condition that France should sustain him on the throne.
[Illustration: HOUSE OF MAXIMILIAN AT QUERETARO.]