Should Benito Juarez have had Maximilian executed?

Politically, I understand why Juárez had Maximilian executed. He needed to send a message to other would-be emperors that their interference in Mexican affairs would not be tolerated. read more

Miramon and Mejía, the two royalists who supported Maximilian and were executed along with him, commanded the loyalty of some, but not really enough to raise an army capable of defeating Juarez’s US-supported forces by 1867. Maximilian, in my opinion, having no more French military support, thus presented no continuing military threat to Mexico. read more

Maximilian I (Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph; 6 July 1832 – 19 June 1867) was the only monarch of the Second Mexican Empire. He was a younger brother of the Austrian emperor Francis Joseph I. After a distinguished career in modernising the Austrian Navy as its commander, he accepted an offer, conditional on a national plebiscite in his favour, by Napoleon III of France to rule Mexico. read more