Juan Nepomuceno Almonte Ramírez (May 15, 1803 – March 21, 1869) was a Mexican soldier, commander, minister of war, congressman, diplomat, presidential candidate, and regent.

Almonte was minister to the United States in the years leading up to the Mexican American War and lobbied against its interference in Texas, which Mexico considered a rebellious province.

Between 1822 and 1824, Almonte was on the staff of insurgent rebel leader José Félix Trespalacios in Texas and then was sent as a part of the Mexican delegation to London.

[6] In 1834, Vice President Valentín Gómez Farías appointed Almonte and Col. José María Díaz Noriega to make an inspection tour of Texas and write a status report on what they witnessed.

In late January 1836 Almonte was appointed aide-de-camp to Antonio López de Santa Anna and accompanied him to Texas in an attempt to quell the rebellion there.

Santa Anna led his army directly for San Antonio de Bexar, where a small group of Texians was garrisoned at the former Alamo Mission.

[9] On April 21, 1836, Almonte, at the head of part of the Guerrero battalion, surrendered to Texian Thomas J. Rusk at the Battle of San Jacinto.

Finally, through the efforts of Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston, Almonte, accompanied by Texas Vice-president Lorenzo de Zavala and Bailey Hardeman was sent along with Santa Anna to Washington, D.C., where they had several meetings with U.S. President Andrew Jackson.

[4] In the aftermath of the fighting which had devastated the capital, the statesman and writer Jose Maria Gutierrez Estrada wrote an essay, arguing that after two decades of civil war, the republic had failed, that the instability was making the country vulnerable to predations by the United States, and that Mexico should now invite a European prince to found a Mexican monarchy that could bring stable government to the nation.

Ironically, in light of his later role, Almonte found himself as one of the leading figures who denounced the essay, characterizing it as scandalous, offensive to the nation, and anti-constitutional.

[4] President Bustamante would be overthrown by a coup in 1841, and while Bustamante went on a failed campaign to put down the rebels, finance minister Francisco Javier Echeverría would be made interim president only for him to go into hiding as the rebels advanced, during which Almonte, as Minister of War, was the remaining visible, and de facto head of government in Mexico City.

[10] Biographer Rivera Cambas has written that it was this development which finally convinced Almonte that United States expansion must be opposed even at the cost of courting European intervention.

Almonte was once again made Minister of War, and he counseled President Paredes to seek foreign allies to give Mexico a fighting chance against the United States.

Paredes was successfully overthrown and Almonte was made Minister of War in the new government, during which he organized the national guard, purchased arms, planned maneuvers for the troops in the north, and advocated for American conditions and proposals to be ignored.

[11] Comonfort was overthrown by conservatives in 1858, triggering the Reform War, and Almonte remained with the new government, being transferred to Paris as Minister to France.

Almonte advised Lorencez to attack an orchard of the convento del Carmen opposite the fortified heights of Guadalupe and Loreto, which was not done.

After Charles de Lorencez's small expeditionary force was repulsed at the Battle of Puebla, reinforcements were sent and placed under the command of Élie Forey.

Maximilian formally accepted the crown on 10 April 1864, and set sail for Mexico, arriving in Veracruz on 28 May and reaching the capital on 12 June.

Franco-Mexican troops struggled to pacify the entire country, and the challenge was increased once the United States Civil War ended, and the American government began giving aid to the liberals and placing diplomatic pressure on France to leave the continent.