 The War of the Reform saw the defeat of the conservatives on the battlefield, but they remained strong and took the opportunity to invite foreign intervention against the liberals to forward their own cause.France invaded Mexico in 1861 on a pretext of collecting on defaulted loans to the government of Benito Juárez, but at the invitation of Mexican conservatives seeking to restore monarchy in Mexico, set Maximilian I on the Mexican throne.The United States, engaged in their own civil war at that time (1861–65), did not attempt to counter the French invasion.