Introduction

In the mid nineteenth century, a civil war raged in the united states. A cohort of european royals joined forces with exiled mexican conservatives to try and install a young austrian archduke as the emperor of mexico. At the centre of what would become an imperialist disaster was ferdinand maximilian, a second son in the royal house of habsburg. Historian edward shawcross has written a new book on this ill fated episode. He joins digital editor eleanor evans to discuss this ill-fated episode.