Maximilian of Habsburg disembarked from the Seiner Majestät Schiff and accepted the crown of Emperor of Mexico on April 10, signing the Treaty of Miramare. This was a typical product of the progressive ideas then in vogue in the West. He promoted the establishment of a constitutional monarchy, sharing power with a democratically elected congress, and inspired laws abolishing child labor, limiting the length of the working day, and even eliminating a landownership establishment that virtually spread servile status among the so-called Indians. All this was too liberal to be appreciated by Mexican conservatives; moreover, liberals refused to recognize a monarch, so Maximilian could count very few staunch supporters among his subjects.
