1862
Cinco de Mayo
During the French-Mexican War, a poorly supplied and outnumbered
Mexican army under General Ignacio Zaragoza defeats 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
threat by a powerful foreign nation.
In 1861, the liberal Mexican Benito Juarez became president of a
country in financial ruin, and he was forced to default on his debts to
European governments. In response, France, Britain, and Spain sent naval forces
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 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, Juarez rounded
up a rag-tag force of loyal men and sent them to Puebla. Led by Texas-born
General Zaragoza, the 2,000 Mexicans fortified the town and prepared for the
French assault. 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. 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.
Although not a major strategic victory in the overall war
against the French, Zaragoza’s victory at Puebla tightened Mexican resistance,
and six years later France withdrew. The same year, Austrian Archduke Ferdinand
Maximilian, who had been installed as emperor of Mexico by Napoleon in 1864,
was captured and executed by Juarez’ forces. 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.