June 19, 1867.
Compared with Juárez, Maximilian I could be said to possess neither a politician's mindset nor a politician's abilities.
As a traditional monarch backed by Mexico's conservative forces and Napoleon III, he had largely implemented the Republicans' policies, while naively believing that he and opponents like Juárez and the other Republicans could shake hands and make peace.
Juárez did not disappoint Maximilian I. Seizing upon Maximilian I's pitiful naivety, he swiftly rose again, and now had even imprisoned Maximilian I.
If Ernst had become Emperor of Mexico, he would certainly have vigorously supported the local conservatives, steadied the French, and actively suppressed those so-called revolutionaries.
As for reactionary forces, backward systems, and rotten rule, it was all just a laugh. Take the many small African nations from Ernst's previous life: their leaders and governments had been riddled with corruption, stirring up heaven's wrath and the people's resentment, leaving the populace destitute—yet in the end, had they not all met good ends?
Even when forced to flee overseas, their descendants could return to their homeland and run for office again, perfectly embodying American-style democracy.
As long as you could promise benefits to the local powerful elites, you had a chance of being elected. As for your fathers' dark histories, did those African people truly not know? Could they forget what their families' rule had been like in just one or two generations?
All one could say was that the votes in the people's hands could be cashed out. Even if the people refused to swallow that trick and truly elected a president who dared to stand for them, the elite class could still arrange a "convertible" one-stop service for that so-called elected president.
Political struggle was a fight to the death, and one could not stray from one's own