cinco de mayo :: essays research papers

The 5th of May is not Mexican Independence Day, barely 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 15th of September, 1810. And it took 11 geezerhood before the first Spanish soldiers were told and forced to leave Mexico. So, why Cinco de Mayo? And why should Americans savor this day as well? Because 4,000 Mexican soldiers affluent the cut and traitor Mexican army of 8,000 at Puebla, Mexico, 100 miles eastbound of Mexico City on the morning of May 5, 1862. The cut had landed in Mexico (along with Spanish and side troops) five months earlier on the pretext of solicitation Mexican debts from the newly elected government of democratic President (and Indian) Benito Juarez. The English and Spanish quickly made deals and left. The french, however, had different ideas. Under Emperor pile III, who detested the United States, the cut came to stay. They brought a Hapsburg prince wit h them to rule the new Mexican empire. His name was Maximilian his wife, Carolota. Napoleons French Army had not been defeated in 50 years, and it invaded Mexico with the finest modern equipment and with a newly reconstituted Foreign Legion. The French were not white-lipped of anyone, especially since the United States was embroiled in its own 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 fall to the enemy -- as European countries traditionally did. Under the command of Texas-born General Zaragosa, (and the cavalry under(a) the command of Colonel Porfirio Diaz, later to be Mexicos president and dictator), the Mexicans awaited. Brightly dressed French Dragoons led the enemy columns. The Mexican Army was less stylish. General Zaragosa arranged Colonel Diaz to take his cavalry, the best in the world, out to the French flanks. In response, the French did a most stupid thing they sent their cavalry finish up to chase Diaz and his men, who proceeded to butcher them. The remaining French infantrymen charged the Mexican defenders through and through sloppy mud from a thunderstorm and through hundreds of head of stampeding cows stirred up by Indians armed only with machetes. When the battle was over, some(prenominal) French were killed or wounded and their cavalry was being chased by Diaz superb horsemen miles away.