e in a civil war
of gigantic proportions. The time was favorable for a plan conceived
by the emperor to convert Mexico into an empire under a French
protectorate. The principle known as the Monroe Doctrine forbade the
establishment of any European power upon the Western hemisphere; but
the United States was powerless at the moment to defend it, and by the
time her hands were free, even if she were not disrupted, an Empire of
Mexico would be established, and French troops could defend it.

In a few months the French army was in the city of Mexico, and an
Austrian prince was proclaimed emperor of a Mexican empire.

This ill-conceived expedition came to a tragic and untimely end in
1867. The civil war ended triumphantly for the Union. Napoleon,
realizing that, with her hands free, the United States would fight for
the maintenance of the Monroe Doctrine, promptly withdrew the French
army from Mexico, leaving the emperor to his fate. A republic was at
once established, and the unfortunate Maximilian was ordered to be shot.

The finances of France and the prestige of the emperor had both
suffered from this miserable attempt. At the same time, something had
occurred which changed the entire European problem in a way most
distasteful to Louis Napoleon. Prussia, in a seven weeks' war, had
wrenched herself free from Austria (1866). Instead of a disrupted
United States, which he had expected, there was a disrupted German
Empire which he did not expect!

The triumph of Protestant Prussia was a triumph of liberalism. It
meant a new political power, a rearrangement of the political problem
in Europe, with Austria and despotism deposed. This was a distinct
blow to the Emperor's policy, and to the headship in Europe which was
its aim. Then, too, the Crimea, Magenta, and Solferino looked less
brilliant since this transforming seven-weeks' war, behind which stood
Bismarck with his wide-reaching plans.

His own magnificent scheme of a Hapsburg empire in Mexico under a
French protectorate had failed, and now there had suddenly arisen, as
if out of the ground, a new political Germany which rivalled France in
strength. The thing to do was to recover his waning prestige by a
victory over Prussia.

The Empress Eugenie, devoutly Catholic in her sympathies, saw, in the
ascendancy of Protestant Prussia and the humiliation of Catholic
Austria, an impious blow aimed at the Catholic faith in Europe. So, as
the emperor wanted war,