Cinco De Mayo means May the Fifth. It is a celebration of a great victory by Mexican amateur soldiers against the well-trained and battled hardened French troops. I have posted this before... on every 5th of May since I first drew this picture. Since this took place in Mexico I also will post it in Spanish.
Battle of Puebla
Many people think that Cinco de Mayo is Mexico's independence day. It is not. It is a celebration of a great Mexican Army victory over invading French troops. Emperor Napoleon III of France was trying to force Mexico to pay their debts and he also saw the Mexican default on loans as a chance to spread his empire into the New World. This could not have happened due to the USA non-interference Monroe Doctrine. . . however, the United States was rather busy with our own civil war in 1862.
The Mexican army was commanded by a 33-year-old general named Ignacio Zaragoza. His cavalry general was named Porfirio Diaz. The French commander was General Charles Lorentz.
Lorentz's army of 6,000 crack French troops attacked a small essentially militia force made up of somewhere between 2,000 and 4,500 Mexican citizen soldiers. Most of the Mexican army were probably farmers. The French were professional soldiers just from much experience in European wars. They were also well equipped with state-of-the-art muskets and bayonets. The Mexican Army had some firearms but many of the farmers were armed only with machetes. That is rather amazing.
The battle started at dawn and went until dusk. The French charged twice with artillery support. For their third charge, the French artillery was out of ammunition so the infantry charged without artillery support. The French army was driven back all three times. A cavalry charge by General Diaz was the last straw and the French army withdrew.
Napoleon III must have considered this an affront to his aspirations for spreading his empire and so he sent 30,000 reinforcements to Mexico and eventually they took Puebla and Mexico City. But the First Battle of Puebla had given the Mexicans the confidence that they could fight the French. Although Napoleon III put his cousin Maxamillian on the throne in Mexico, it did not last. After only a few years the Mexicans deposed him and executed him via firing squad. So the Mexican people got the rule of their own country back.
Some think that by then the American Civil War was over so Napoleon III did not want to face off against a highly armed and mobilized United States of America. In fact, I think the US ambassador told Napoleon III that he better get out of Mexico. So he withdrew his support of Maxamillian, which led to Maxamillian losing his throne and his life.
With their knowledge that they really could stand up to the French, the Mexicans took their country back. I think the Battle of Puebla is sort of like the Battle of Lexington and Concord and the Battle of Bunker Hill in the American Revolutionary War. Those battles showed the American colonists that they could stand up to the British Army. Like the Mexicans, we Americans lost a lot of battles before we won a few. We Americans did not win independent rule until many years of war went by and we defeated the British at the Battle of Yorktown. Interestingly enough, we were aided by the French.
The drawing depicts General Zaragoza and some of his army at the start of the battle. The drawing, in printable form, can be found by clicking on the button labeled . . . . . Holidays.
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