Provided as a service to my homies. You can be the person at your table who knows when someone asks, "WTF is Cinco de Mayo about anyway?" Here's the scoop on Cinco de Mayo -- and it ain't Mexican Independence Day.
May 5, 1862, a Mexican Victory in the Franco-Mexican War
144 years ago on this day during the French-Mexican War, a poorly supplied and outnumbered Mexican army under General Ignacio Zaragoza defeated a French army attempting to capture Puebla de Los Angeles, a small town in east-central Mexico. Victory at the Battle of Puebla represented a great moral victory for the Mexican government, symbolizing the country's ability to defend its sovereignty against a European power.
Here's how the Franco-Mexican War got started in the first place.
In the wake of its disasterous war with the United States a little over 10 years earlier, the Mexican government was still broke. Flat busted. In 1861, the liberal Mexican Benito Juarez became president of the financially ruined country and he was forced to default on Mexican overseas debts to European governments.
President Benito Juarez
Benito Juarez, probably the best and purest presidente the Mex's ever had.
In response, France, Britain, and Spain deployed their "collections departments" -- naval forces that is, to Veracruz to demand reimbursement. Britain and Spain negotiated with Mexico and withdrew, but France, ruled by Napoleon III, decided to use the opportunity to carve a dependent empire out of Mexican territory.
Late in 1861, a well-armed French fleet stormed Veracruz, landing a large French force and driving President Juarez and his panicked government into retreat.
Certain that French victory would come swiftly in Mexico, 6,000 French troops under General Charles Latrille de Lorencez set out to attack Puebla de Los Angeles.
From his new headquarters in the north, the Mexican President Juarez rounded up a rag-tag force of loyal men and sent them to Puebla. Led by Texas-born Mexican General Zaragoza, the 2,000 Mexicans fortified the town and prepared for the French assault.
Zaragoza
On the fifth of May, 1862, Lorencez drew his army, well-provisioned and supported by heavy artillery, before the city of Puebla and began their assault from the north. If you've been in the military, you know there is a time-honored piece of doctrine that says you normally need a 3:1 force ratio in order to defeat a fortified enemy. The Froggy General Lorencez had that --6000 Frenchies to 2000 Mexicans. He lost because he was an arrogant French horses ***.
Opening of the battle. The Mexicans under Zaragoza occupied the heights. The French repeatedly hurled themselves at them from below.
Lorencez thought so little of his Mexican "peon" enemy, he ordered repeated direct frontal assaults into the heart of the Mexicans' prepared defenses, which allowed the Mexicans a convenient method of killing a lot of Frenchies. The battle lasted from daybreak to early evening, and when the French finally retreated they had lost nearly 500 soldiers to the fewer than 100 Mexicans killed.
Victory at the Battle of Puebla represented a great moral victory for the Mexican government, symbolizing the country's ability to defend its sovereignty against a European power.
Retreating from Puebla, the French were attacked by hundreds of Mexican native people armed mostly with machetes...and suffered many more casualties as they were repeatedly ambushed and hacked to death.
Although not a major strategic victory in the overall war against the French, Zaragoza's victory at Puebla tightened Mexican resistance. Good thing too, because that autumn, the enraged French showed up with 25,000 recently arrived reinforcements and kicked the hell out of the Mexican Army (which had shriveled to only about 6000 dudes by then) for a couple years. The war would continue at total of another six years before France withdrew.
In 1864, two years after the battle, Puebla de Los Angeles, the site of Zaragoza's historic victory, was renamed Puebla de Zaragoza in honor of the general. Today, Mexicans celebrate the anniversary of the Battle of Puebla as Cinco de Mayo, a national holiday in Mexico.
Important contextual sidenote:
As an aside, it is important to remember that the United States was embroiled in its own Civil War during this period. In fact, Lincoln would have liked to help the Juarista government because he knew the French under Napolean III hated the United States.
Napolean III, nephew of Bonaparte. Emperor of France.
Lincoln knew if the French were succesful in their conquest of Mexico, they would be in a good position to aid the Confederacy in its war with the United States.
Unfortunately for the Mexicans, Lincoln had his hands full with the Civil War and was not able to provide much help to Juarez. Fortunately for the United States, Juarez was able to defend his country, thus making it impossible for the French in Mexico to provide any assistance to Confederate forces.
There you have it. Cinco de Mayo. An Important day in Mexican AND United States history.
BTW, REAL Mexican Independence Day is on September 18.
Originally Posted by Okla-homey
