Many Americans think
that the festivities of Cinco de Mayo, held each May 5th, are in celebration
of the independence of Mexico. Few know the real connection between the battle
of that day and the preservation of American, not Mexican, independence.
In May, 1862.
President Abraham Lincoln had much to worry about. The United States was on
the verge of self-destruction by its own hand. Lincoln had the vast industrial
resources of the Northern states at his disposal, but the Confederate forces
of the South were fierce fighters in their quest for secession. The opposing
armies were slaughtering each other by the tens of thousands with no clear
victor at the moment. If someone from the outside would have allied with the
South, that might have been just enough to tip the balance and divide the
country forever. Worse, such an ally was making its way through Mexico. It was
the army of Napoleon.
The French Army of
Emperor Napoleon III, nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, was thought to be the
premier army in the world. It had not suffered defeat in 50 years and had
enjoyed recent victories throughout Europe and Asia. But what were they doing
in this hemisphere? The French had landed at the port of Veracruz along with
troops from Queen Isabella II of Spain and Queen Victoria of Great Britain.
They were there to collect payments on the foreign debt of Mexico, payments
suspended by Mexican President Benito Juarez because the Mexican treasury was
all but bankrupt. Juarez promised to restart payments in two years, but
France, Spain and Great Britain wanted their money now and took over the
customhouse at Veracruz to get the customs payments applied to their debts.
Eventually, the representatives of Spain and Great Britain came to an
agreement with Juarez and went home. But Napoleon stayed. In fact, he landed
4500 troops and set off for Mexico City.
Lincoln had good
reason to be worried. Before the Civil War, America was a rising power in the
world. Other nations, including France, considered this young country a
potential world threat if it continued to grow at the rate it had been since
winning its own independence. What would happen if Napoleon's army conquered
Mexico, installed their own emperor, Maximilian of Hapsburg, and then
proceeded to come north and help the Confederates divide the United States
into two weaker and less threatening nations?
In a sense, the U.S.
had helped to create this situation, by acquiring half of Mexico's territory
in the Mexican-American War of 1846 to 1848. Mexico had been struggling
financially from the time it won its own independence in 1821 from Spain. The
Mexican-American War pretty much sank the Mexican treasury and led to
financial crisis, culminating in the suspension of foreign debt payments that
opened the door for French occupation. Now Lincoln was depending on his
country's former adversary to keep Napoleon's troops at bay and buy him time
to defeat the South so he could re-deploy troops and in turn, support Juarez.
On the morning of May
5, 1862, General Lorenz led a combined force of French and sympathetic Mexican
troops toward Puebla, Mexico, 100 miles east of their destination of Mexico
City. He had believed that he would be welcomed with open arms and that the
local clergy would shower them with magnolia blooms. Waiting for him was
Texas-born General Ignacio Zaragoza under orders from President Juarez to
defend the city with a much smaller force of 2,000 troops along with Puebla
citizens who brought their own farm tools as weapons. Brigadier General
Porfiro Diaz, destined to later become president of Mexico, took his cavalry
out to engage the French horsemen and eliminate them. The bulk of the invading
force attacked across a battlefield made muddy by a recent thunderstorm and
were met by hundreds of stampeding cattle stirred up by Indians armed with
only their machetes. When it was over two hours later, the French withdrew and
La Batalla de Puebla, the battle of Puebla, became a spark that ignited
Mexican pride from that day, Cinco de Mayo, to the present.
One year later, the
French brought in reinforcements and this time made their way to take the
capital of Mexico City and install Emperor Maximilian of Hapsburg as the
reining monarch of Mexico. President Juarez fled north to establish a
provisional government in various parts of Mexico. His loyalist troops did
manage to keep the French at bay long enough to prevent them from supporting
the Confederate states in the U.S. Civil War. With the North and South
reunited, Lincoln ordered the French out of Mexico and sent a military force
to the Texas/Mexican border under General Phil Sheridan. Napoleon potentially
faced 2 million battle hardened U.S. veterans if he persisted in the
occupation of Mexico. In early 1867, Napoleon made the decision to withdraw
his troops. Maximilian surrendered his Mexican Imperial Army on May 15. The
sovereignty of Mexico was returned to the Mexicans.
So, if Cinco de Mayo
really celebrates the victory of Mexico in the battle of Puebla on May 5,
1862, then what is Mexico's Independence Day? It is September 16, 1810. On
that day, Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla issued a proclamation that united
many different local rebellions into one cohesive struggle, which eventually
led to Mexico's actual independence from Spain in 1821.
