Britain’s reaction to the 1857–61 Mexican Civil War

By focusing on the British response to the 1857–61 Mexican Civil War, this article provides, for the first time, a study of the calls for military action that were made by the diplomats on the ground, Charles Loftus Otway and George Benvenuto Mathew. It highlights how their conflicting views of the liberal and conservative governments evolved as the war unfolded, and it assesses the Foreign Office’s response to their dispatches. In so doing it demonstrates the extent to which the Palmerston and Derby administrations were intent on avoiding military involvement, pursuing a course of action that was neither as pro-liberal as that of the US government nor as pro-conservative as that of its French and Spanish counterparts, with a commitment to bring the conflict to an end through negotiation.