Obviously not.
At this time, Metternich was nowhere near as bedraggled as he had been in history. Though he was no longer Chancellor of the Austrian Empire, he still held many important posts—such as lifelong elder of the House of Peers, Prince of the Austrian Empire, imperial envoy, and so on.
Metternich carried more than enough weight, and open provocation was a far more direct casus belli than a debt dispute.
Never mind Mexico's dogshit domestic affairs and military—the mere matter of finding outside aid for Santa Anna would be difficult.
The series of wars that had swept Europe from 1848 to 1850, coupled with the economic crisis, had left all the major European powers licking their wounds.
Britain in particular was pouring its heart and soul into preparing the World's Fair, hoping to find a way out of the economic crisis through it.
And now they were expected to pay a massive price to help a faithless little man fight a war with no certain future? Did he really think The British were running a charity?
Furthermore, the Austrian Empire's influence had long since seeped into every corner of Mexico. Thoroughly transforming Mexico would not be easy, but propping up a puppet or stirring up trouble would be simplicity itself.
Franz had only one reason for not replacing him: Santa Anna's competitors were even more unhinged.
Take Lucas Alamán, for instance. This man could be considered Mexico's number two, and he was the exact opposite of Santa Anna—an extreme white supremacist.
Lucas Alamán did not even regard Native Americans as human, treating them as nothing but livestock. The crimes some of his family members had committed against Native Americans would have made Africa's three great tyrants hang their heads in shame.
Then there was a bishop who liked corpses,