The Geopolitics of Cinco de Mayo
No, it's not just a drinking holiday. And it may have changed the history of the world.
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NOTE: I originally wrote this essay ten years ago. It’s well worth a re-read, on this holiday that no one takes seriously (yet everyone should). — RDM
by Rod D. Martin
May 5, 2016
Cinco de Mayo is more important than you probably realize. And in some respects, it is more important for us as Americans than for our genuinely heroic neighbors to the south.
Oddly enough, in Mexico the day is barely celebrated. While public schools are closed in its honor, it is not a national holiday. And in America, despite being celebrated in California since the 1860s, Cinco de Mayo would be virtually unknown here if beer companies hadn’t popularized it beginning in the 1980s. Hardly anyone can tell you why it matters.
So I will.
From 1858-1861, Mexico was wracked by civil war (the Reform War, as it was called). In the aftermath, exhausted and bankrupt, the Mexican government found itself unable to pay its debts to European lenders.
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Under normal circumstances, this might have been a relatively minor crisis. And in fact, Britain and Spain sent naval forces and troops to Veracruz, negotiated a settlement and withdrew, more or less business as usual for the mid-19th Century.
But France was another matter.
France, under Emperor Napoleon III, saw an opportunity. The United States was convulsed in its own Civil War. There were no spare resources available for it to enforce the Monroe Doctrine (whether or not there would have been without the Civil War is another question). Mexico looked like an easy conquest. It also looked like the perfect jumping off point for further meddling to the north.
So in January 1862, a powerful French fleet landed its own well-armed force at Veracruz and drove the Mexicans into retreat. After consolidating its position, the French began their march on Mexico City, with the intent to depose the Mexican Republic and set up a puppet Mexican Empire, under an Austrian archduke named Maximilian, believed by many to be the illegitimate grandson of Napoleon I. (Interestingly enough, Mexican monarchists had previously invited Maximilian to take the throne during the Reform War, albeit minus the invading French army.)
The Mexican commander, a 33-year-old named Ignacio Zaragoza Seguin, born in Goliad, Texas and a cousin of the great Texas Revolutionary hero Juan Sequin, struggled to hold off the superior French force. Eventually, he retreated to Puebla, where he mounted his defense.
It was at Puebla that Zaragoza and his outnumbered, outgunned heroes decisively defeated the premier army in the world, May 5th, 1862.
New Orleans had fallen to Union forces just days before. Antietam was months away. Had Napoleon rolled the Mexicans at Puebla, he likely would have had an almost unlimited ability to reinforce the Confederacy, making him the master of America’s fate. How he would have used that power is anyone’s guess. But forcing a Southern victory, at the price of Mexican recovery of the western lands lost in 1848 with the Confederacy rendered a French client state had to be high on the agenda.
Instead, thanks to the Mexican heroes at Puebla, the French were forced to retreat and regroup. Napoleon doubled down on his invasion, eventually defeating the Mexicans at the Second Battle of Puebla a year later, and installing Maximilian as Emperor almost a year after that.
The delay made all the difference. Puebla was immensely inspirational, encouraging resistance throughout Mexico. Even once victorious, the French were never able to pacify the country, much less project power north. And by the time Maximilian was seated on his throne in Mexico City, the South had long since lost Gettysburg and Vicksburg, and Sherman was preparing to march on Atlanta. The French opportunity had passed.
That proved to be the least of their troubles. Barely a year into Maximilian’s reign, a victorious Union, possessed of the largest, best-armed military force in the history of the Earth, was far more inclined to remind the French of the Monroe Doctrine. In 1866, as General Sheridan began transferring tens of thousands of Union rifles directly to Mexican Republican forces, the French announced they would withdraw. And withdraw they did; but not before the Mexicans inflicted upon them an ever-growing string of defeats.
The Republicans retook the capital, evacuated by the French in February 1867. Maximilian stayed. He lived to regret it, but not for long: the Mexicans executed him that June, just over five years after Cinco de Mayo.
Few of America’s drunken partiers tonight, celebrating some confused combination of Mexican heritage, Corona and Dos Equis, will have the slightest idea of any of this. But they are right to celebrate. Much like the heroes of the Alamo, the courageous Mexicans at Puebla gave their lives to delay what seemed inevitable, and in the process, made it anything but.
They saved their country. They very likely saved ours too.
Feliz Cinco de Mayo!
-- This article was originally published at The Daily Caller.
Consider this the official Cinco de Mayo reading list:
* El Cinco de Mayo: An American Tradition by David Hayes-Bautista
* Hapsburgs on the Rio Grande: The Rise and Fall of the Second Mexican Empire by Raymond Jonas
* Maximilian in Mexico: A Woman’s Reminiscences of the French Intervention, 1862-1867 by Sara Yorke Stevenson
* The Last Emperor of Mexico: The Dramatic Story of Austrian Archduke Who Created a Kingdom in the New World by Edward Shawcross
* Maximilian and Carlota: Europe’s Last Empire in Mexico by M.M. Allen
* The Mexican Adventure, 1861-67 by Rene Chartrand
* The Shadow Emperor: A Biography of Napoleon III by Alan Strauss-Schon
* A Life of Benito Juarez, Constitutional President of Mexico by Ulick Ralph
Feliz Cinco de Mayo to all Mexicans and Americans! 🇲🇽🇺🇸 Americans love to party on Cinco de Mayo, eat Mexican food and down as many Budweisers, Miller Lites and Dos Equis as they can. But what historical event does the holiday actually commemorate? This is something few Americans know. Also, why is Cinco de Mayo relevant to the United States? These are both questions Dr. Martin answers here with his usual brilliance and conciseness. After the Mexican Civil War or Reform War as it was known, from 1857 to 1861, Mexico was bankrupt and couldn’t pay its debts. Britain, France and Spain were none too pleased about this and sent in troops as a show of force to get Mexico to pay. Britain and Spain negotiated a settlement and withdrew. But France stayed, recognizing they had an opportunity here. The United States was too caught up in its civil war to enforce the Monroe Doctrine. So Mexico would be easy pickings for them. They intended to topple Mexico’s President Benito Juarez and its fledgling democracy and install a puppet monarchy under Austrian and member of the famed Hapsburg family, Maximillian.
Napoleon III France’s Emperor wanted to claim Mexico as a French protectorate and add it to his empire like Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, or Vietnam were. The French won the initial outing with the Mexican Army causing them to retreat to Puebla. But little Mexico was not about to give up even in the face of much larger and more well equipped army. The Mexican forces at Puebla were commanded by General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguin, cousin of Mexican War hero General Juan Seguin and an American by birth having arrived in Mexico from Goliad, Texas. The First Battle of Puebla would be very important not only for Mexico to preserve its independence but also for the United States of America. You see, this is because if France prevailed over Mexico, the French could give the Confederacy the assistance they needed to win the Civil War. But it was not to be! Despite being outnumbered and outgunned, the Mexicans defeated the French in a victory that would earns its place in history and legend forever! At the Second Battle of Puebla in 1863, the French would be victorious and Maximilian was installed on the throne. But it was a hollow victory and too little too late.
By this point, the Union was on its way to victory in the Civil War having defeated the Confederates at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. Also, General Sherman was getting ready to go his famous March to the Sea. Abraham Lincoln and the United States could now enforce the Monroe Doctrine and help the Mexicans kick the French out of our hemisphere. The United States immediately sent all the weapons they could to the Mexican Republican forces. Mexico would prevail over France ultimately in 1867, send the French packing and shatter Napoleon III’s dreams of expanding his empire into North America. As for Archduke and “Emperor” Maximilian I, he was executed by the Mexican Republic. Thanks to those brave men who fought and risked their lives at the First Battle of Puebla, the United States was spared being torn apart and slavery’s potential expansion into South America were both prevented.