Episode 1 of 2

Suspension of Foreign Debt

When: 1861
Where: Mexico
Part of: Benito Juárez elected President of Mexico and the foreign debt moratorium

Juárez issued a decree in 1861 suspending foreign debt payments, providing France a pretext for military intervention.

The decree suspending foreign debts gave France a pretext to send troops to Mexico. This concern was rendered null by the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, which prevented the United States from aiding Juárez directly against the French intervention until 1865.

Sources

Benito Juárez Wikipedia
History of Mexico Wikipedia

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.