Cinco de Mayo
May 5, 2015
Across much of North America, Mexicans and Mexican Americans will be celebrating Cinco de Mayo today. Cinco de Mayo (Spanish for Fifth of May) celebrates the Mexican victory at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862.
Performers in Mexico City celebrate Cinco de Mayo with a reenactment of the Battle of Puebla. (© Jorge Uzon, AFP/Getty Images)
After the Mexican War (1846-1848) with the United States, and a civil war that ran from 1858 to 1861, the treasury of the Mexican government was nearly bankrupt. The president of Mexico, Benito Juárez, issued a two-year moratorium on the payment of European loans in 1861. In 1862, France, Spain, and the United Kingdom all sent ships to Mexico. Spain and Britain negotiated a settlement with the government of Mexico. France, however, was unwilling to accept Mexico’s promise to pay its debt in future. The French representative ordered troops into Mexico.
To reach Mexico City, the French army had to cross the state of Puebla. The Mexican general Ignacio Zaragoza faced off against French general Charles de Lorencez in the town of Puebla. The French believed that the battle would be easy. The French army had 6,000 well-trained troops. The Mexicans had 4,000 troops, some of whom were untrained farmers armed with implements. Overconfidence proved the undoing of the French. After several unsuccessful assaults, they were forced to retreat, with the Mexican cavalry in pursuit. It was a definitive victory for the Mexican army.
The victory was short lived. It caused the French emperor Napoleon III to send 30,000 additional French troops. They arrived in Mexico in 1863 and quickly defeated the Mexican army. Juárez formed a government in exile in the north of Mexico. Napoleon then appointed the Austrian Archduke, Maximilian, to be emperor of Mexico in 1864.
With the end of the American Civil War in 1865, the United States was able to give military assistance to Mexico, in keeping with the Monroe Doctrine, a policy that supported the independent nations of the Western Hemisphere against European interference. Napoleon III withdrew his forces from Mexico in 1866, leaving Maximilian without support. The Mexican emperor was executed by firing squad on June 19, 1867. Juárez returned to Mexico City and was president of the Mexican Republic until his death in 1872.
Cinco de Mayo is celebrated everywhere in Mexico, but it is especially popular in the state of Puebla. It is even more popular in the United States, especially in regions with a large Mexican-American population. It has become a day to celebrate Mexican heritage.
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