"Sin Perdón: Acquiescence with Murder:
While fire-eaters, both North & South, fanned controversial flames into open, armed hostilities, the political situation south of the 1860 US-Mexico border was also quickly deteriorating. Prior to opening shots at Fort Sumter, Liberal Republican President Benito Juarez wrested power away from the clerical Conservatives who had held the country in a oppressive grip since before Spain's embarrassing evacuation. Juarez's election, and subsequent persecutions, prompted affluent expatriate Conservatives to flee to Europe, where, as political refugees, they gained the sympathies of France's Napoleon III. Seeing the turmoil brewing in the U.S., Napoleon, backed by some of Europe's most influential bankers, gambled and embarked on the mission of regaining a foot-hold on the western continent that had been lost since the publication of the U.S.'s Monroe Doctrine. This Napoleon accomplished by convincing Austria's Archduke Maximilian in accepting the "Crown of Mexico," which would be propped-up by French expeditionary forces (The French Foreign Legion). However, when the devastating U.S. turmoil concluded with the subjugation of the South, U.S. Secretary of State, William Seward, issued a threatening ultimatum demanding Napoleon to immediately withdraw French troops from Mexico, or face the consequences of war with the United States. With the final embarkation of the French Foreign Legion from the coastal port of Vera Cruz, it was only a matter of time before Maximilian realized his puppet-government could not survive without exterior military support. Convinced that forging peaceful, political alliances with the victorious North as his only formula for successful existence, Maximilian spurned the overtures of displaced, unrepentant CSA Generals who offered their services. Seward, however, rejected Maximilian's unbelievable proposals. With his stunningly beautiful bride having returned to Europe, seeking the reestablishment of withdrawn monetary and military support from governments and the Vatican, Maximilian made his last stand against converging loyal Juaristas at an old Spanish town north of that republic's capital. Contains MANY B & W Images previously unpublished!