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review February 2026

A Habsburg imperial experiment in Mexico

Review by Barnabas Szabo
A 19th-century oil painting showing a formal meeting between two groups indoors. On the left, several Indigenous Kickapoo delegates stand together, wearing traditional clothing, feathered headdresses, and draped garments. On the right, European figures in dark formal attire—including a woman in a deep blue dress—stand facing them. The figures are arranged in a line as if greeting one another. Ornate framed portraits hang on the wall behind them, and a patterned rug covers the floor, emphasizing a ceremonial, diplomatic setting.
In Habsburgs on the Rio Grande (Harvard University Press, 2024), Raymond Jonas re-examines the Second Mexican Empire and argues that rather than being a historical sideshow, it was at the centre of world-historic power struggles. Barnabas Szabo writes that Jonas’ combination of systematic research and engaging prose powerfully conveys the striking contemporary relevance of the geopolitical lessons of Maximilian and Charlotte’s ephemeral Mexican empire.
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