True Friends and Foes in the Roots of Cinco de Mayo

Today is May 5, 2023, and this day is celebrated as a holiday known as Cinco de Mayo, which has become increasingly popular in the past decades. It became viewed in the 1980s as a potential cash cow by beer and alcohol companies and the investments in such a festive holiday made it even more lively and wild. But, there is actually more to this holiday than great nachos, tamales, or mariachi music.

While many Americans mistakenly think that Cinco de Mayo is the Mexican equivalent of the Fourth of July in the United States, this is incorrect. Even in Mexico, celebration of their true independence is much more widely celebrated across the nation than this holiday. Those who know of the holiday understand it as a simple celebration of a minor victory in Mexico’s failed war against France in the 1860s.

Wait! Mexico lost a war with France?

Wait! Mexico lost a war with France? That is the “more to the story” part of the story. Unfortunately, many people do not know too well the other part of the story of Cinco de Mayo, and if history has to compete against a party with cerveza, tacos, and tequila, history loses. Nonetheless, that is a tragic loss, no matter how great the food and frivolities.

The famous Spanish-born philosopher and former Harvard University professor, George Santayana, is quoted as stating: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." While many people from either country would not remember that Mexico's war against France resulted in the takeover of Mexico and the installation of a foreign emperor, more would not realize how it turned out because today Mexicans speak Spanish and not French. The missing component to this mystery is the USA.

Amazingly, the history of these two nations are more intertwined than many people are able to realize, more interconnected than many would want to recognize. There are true lessons to be learned hidden within the history of this holiday, which provide a deeper understanding of a very perilous time in the Americas.

Mexican independence is celebrated in September, and was the result of a successful revolution in “New Spain” that basically liberated Mexico from colonial control of Spain in 1824. But, elitists of royal and old European bloodlines had seized control of Mexico. But, they were finally ousted through a civil war in a period of Mexican history mainly dominated by “La Reforma.” It came to a climax when democratic-minded populists took control of the government with the election of Benito Juarez in 1861.

Mexican elitist government had desperately borrowed large sums of money from the three colonial “superpowers” in Europe

Mexico had suffered through their internal strife for quite some time, and the country had been weakened due to the Mexican Civil War of 1858, due to the internal “reform wars,” which exploded due to deep differences between the factions of ‘Liberals’ and ‘Conservatives.’ However, to apply similar meaning to the conception of the factions in the U.S. would be a mistake. The conservatives were the remnants of the old Spanish dominion in the new world.

Regardless of the semantics and word wizardry, this turbulent period of Mexican history came to a climax when liberals who believed in using the U.S. as a model for a stronger economy, fairly won a legitimate election. The U.S. supported Benito Juarez, a genuine representative of the people. Democratic-minded liberals looked to the U.S. economy as an example of a more “capitalistic-oriented” economy. Unfortunately, losing their grip on a comfortable culture of corruption did not sit well with the Mexican nobility. The elitists felt desperate when Juarez was elected.

In Mexico, Benito Juarez was shocked soon after he took office in January of 1861, as he discovered that as a result of the civil strife, the Mexican elitist government had desperately borrowed large sums of money from the three colonial “superpowers” in Europe and found that the Mexican treasury had been emptied by his predecessors. After serious deliberation over options, the new president of Mexico issued a major moratorium to suspend all foreign debt payments for two years. The announcement came on July 17, 1861, and it proved a grave mistake.

Unbeknownst to Juarez in that desperate moment, the Mexican nobility had seen their control over Mexico eroding, and the majority of this Mexican aristocracy refused to accept the popular election of Juarez. Some of the nobility had gone so far as to meet with representatives of Napoleon III in Europe in hopes of initiating some attempt to regain control. It is unknown exact details of the interactions (no WikiLeaks in the 1860s), but officials with knowledge of the terrible debt of their prior corrupt government, would have divulged information deemed harmful to the Juarez Administration.

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The first battle between the Mexican and French armies was fought at the village of Puebla

In Europe, Napoleon III orchestrated a tripartite agreement to intervene in Mexico to recover the unpaid debts, but kept his true agenda secret. The agreement, between the governments of France, Great Britain and Spain was signed on October 31, 1861, and led to foreign intervention in Mexico to ostensibly recover unpaid debt. Warships were dispatched, reached Veracruz on December 8th, 1861. The Spanish military force seized control of the custom house of their former colony. The obvious intent of the troika was to stay until all parties had collected unpaid balances on the loans.

Juarez sent representatives to Veracruz to renegotiate the debt, which Britain and Spain were willing to do. Their troops got back in their ships and sailed away. Yet, French forces remained, and the real plans of Napoleon III began to unfold. French ships remained docked in the Gulf of Mexico, and troops remained on alert. However, Emperor Napoleon III, already in cooperation with Mexican nobility, had cleverly used the crisis to invade Mexico.

The first battle between the Mexican and French armies was fought at the village of Puebla, on May 5, 1862. It resulted in a rout of the superior French forces. This was where the legends of Cinco de Mayo originated as the French army had outnumbered the Mexicans by a margin of approximately 2:1. This was worth celebrating, and it gave the fledgling Juarez government some hope. The celebration was well deserved, but it was short-lived.

French empire in Mexico was short-lived

Sadly, the Cinco de Mayo victory proved to be only a temporary setback for the French. The following year the French emperor simply sent reinforcements. In 1863, with 30,000 troops, the French fought the second battle of Puebla, and on May 17th, the Mexican army surrendered. By May 31st, President Juarez and his cabinet fled to the city of El Paso del Norte, which is now known as Ciudad Juarez. It was there Juarez persisted with his government-in-exile.

By June of 1863, the combined forces of the French and the Mexican Elitists regained control of Mexico City. On April 20, 1864, the Mexican Congress, members of the Mexican aristocracy and the occupying French forces installed Maximilian as Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico, and essentially made Mexico a French colony. However, this French empire in Mexico was short-lived.

In the United States in 1863, there was a serious turning point in the American Civil War, and President Abraham Lincoln, who had supported Benito Juarez, was able to insist with more confidence adherence to the Monroe Doctrine and advise the French to abandon their plans for an Empire in Mexico. In April of 1865, our Civil War ended, but Lincoln lost his life just days later. Yet, the U.S. government demanded the French leave Mexico, and Napoleon III withdrew his troops.

Unfortunately, this bright period in our nations’ histories did not last, but it was the second time Mexico could remain a free nation because of the United States. This time of friendship should not be forgotten.

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