During the French Intervention (1862-1867) French troops invaded Mexico in an attempt to install Maximilian as Emperor of Mexico. In March of 1865, Maximilian's troops landed at the port of Guaymas and helped restore former Sonoran governor Manuel Maria Gandara to power. The French invasion of Sonora and the ensuing political struggle prompted 25,000 refugees to flee north into Arizona and California. Some of the more affluent immigrants settled in Tucson and Tubac; many of the poorer ones went to Yuma, Florence, or the Salt River Valley. Ignacio Pesqueira defeated the French at Guaymas in 1867. Maximilian was executed, and Gandara's long political career came to an end. Immigration from Sonora continued into the 1870s as Gandara's supporters now fled. The Governor's brother, Lieutenant Colonel Francisco A. Gandara, escaped to Arizona with his son, Francisco, who later established a ranch near Florence. Members of the Gonzales family, wealthy ranchers from the region around Ures and San Miguel Horcasitas, resettled in Tucson, Florence, and Tempe. Civil unrest continued to sweep across Sonora through the 1870s. In 1875, General Francisco Serna commanded rebel forces from his headquarters in Tucson, directing a battle with Pesqueira's troops in the Altar Valley. Pesqueira lost power in 1877 and a third wave of political refugees moved north.
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