![]() The loss at Puebla and the resources Napoleon expended in Mexico helped derail his strategy to continue northward and bolster the Confederacy. Napoleon III had aligned with the Confederacy and planned to supply Southern states with weapons in return for cotton, which was being blockaded by the Union. Why is Cinco de Mayo celebrated in the US?Īs the French and Mexicans were battling, the US was embroiled in the American Civil War. In honor of the Mexican victory, Puebla de Los Angeles was renamed Puebla de Zaragoza, and Cinco de Mayo was made a national holiday. Four days later, on May 9, 1862, Juárez declared Cinco de Mayo a national holiday.Įmperor Maximillian of Mexico was executed in 1867.įrench troops fully withdrew from Mexico in 1867, and Maximilian I, the Austrian archduke Napoleon installed as the country's emperor, was eventually captured and executed. The battle wasn't a decisive victory - in fact, the French recaptured Puebla a year later - but many Mexicans saw it as a symbol of throwing off the shackles of colonialism and oppression. The battle lasted from dawn to sunset and, though they were outmanned nearly 2-to-1, Zaragoza's troops repelled Lorencez's troops. Juarez sent a ragtag army of Mexicans and Zapotec Indians to defend the town under the banner of General Ignacio Zaragoza. Emboldened by their early victory, French forces under General Charles de Lorencez attacked Puebla de Los Angeles, about 80 miles outside Mexico City, on May 5, 1862. Napoleon's troops stormed Veracruz and drove Benito Juárez, Mexico's first indigenous president, into exile. A portrait of Napoleon III (Louis Napoleon Bonaparte) by painter Franz Xaver Winterhalter.ĭEA/G.
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