cinco de mayo :: essays research papers

The 5th of whitethorn is non Mexican Independence Day, but it should be And Cinco de Mayo is not an American holiday, but it should be. Mexico declared its independence from mother Spain on midnight, the fifteenth of September, 1810. And it took 11 years before the first Spanish soldiers were told and forced to forsake Mexico. So, why Cinco de Mayo? And why should Americans savor this day as well(p)? Because 4,000 Mexican soldiers smashed the French and traitor Mexican army of 8,000 at Puebla, Mexico, 100 miles east of Mexico city on the morning of May 5, 1862. The French had landed in Mexico (along with Spanish and English troops) five months earlier on the pretext of collecting Mexican debts from the newly elected government of antiauthoritarian President (and Indian) Benito Juarez. The English and Spanish quickly made deals and left. The French, however, had different ideas. below Emperor Napoleon III, who detested the United States, the French came to stay. They brought a Hapsburg prince with them to dominate the new Mexican empire. His name was Maximilian his wife, Carolota. Napoleons French Army had not been foiled in 50 years, and it invaded Mexico with the finest modern equipment and with a newly reconstituted Foreign Legion. The French were not afraid of anyone, especially since the United States was embroiled in its experience Civil War. The French Army left the port of Vera Cruz to attack Mexico City to the west, as the French assumed that the Mexicans would give up should their capital deign to the enemy -- as European countries traditionally did. Under the command of Texas-born full general Zaragosa, (and the cavalry under the command of Colonel Porfirio Diaz, later to be Mexicos president and dictator), the Mexicans awaited. brilliantly dressed French Dragoons led the enemy columns. The Mexican Army was slight stylish. General Zaragosa ordered Colonel Diaz to take his cavalry, the best in the world, out to the French flanks. In respon se, the French did a most stupid thing they send their cavalry off to chase Diaz and his men, who proceeded to butcher them. The remaining French infantrymen supercharged the Mexican defenders by means of sloppy mud from a thunderstorm and through hundreds of head of stampeding cattle stirred up by Indians armed single with machetes. When the battle was over, many French were killed or wounded and their cavalry was creation chased by Diaz superb horsemen miles away.