ANGLO-MEXICAN RELATIONS IN THE EARLY 60S OF THE XIX CENTU-RY

On the 31^st, October, 1861, England, France and Spain signed a secret agreement in London concerning joint armed intervention in Mexico. In December 1861 – January 1862 the troops of these countries invaded Mexico, but soon the troops of England and Spain left it. Spain at this time occupied the Dominican Republic and, apparently, did not hurry to leave this extremely weak state, but rather was going to begin from it the Reconquista of the lost Empire in the New World. England had its own reason for the withdrawal of troops – the beginning of the Civil war in the USA. London in this war supported the southern States, which supplied the British textile industry with cotton. At the same time, the crisis of plantation economy and the slave trade significantly weakened the southern States. In this situation, British politicians preferred to resort to a policy of waiting and not to start hostilities in Mexico. France, which had lost almost all the wars in Europe by that time, apparently sought to achieve at least some success in Latin America, especially since Napoleon III once told whether as a joke, or seriously, that he would like to turn Mexico into French Algeria. However, the official pretext for the invasion was the outstanding Mexican debt to each of these countries. In this situation, France took up arms, and Britain decided to use diplomatic means