You know what’s funny? Cinco de mayo is probably the best-known Mexican holiday in the world, and we don’t even celebrate it in Mexico.
For those of you who don’t know, 5 de mayo is the yearly celebration of the battle Mexico won against France. Yes, that’s right, the French invaded Mexico…twice. Cinco de mayo is also known as “Battle of Puebla” and it happened in 1862 when the second French invasion took place and the Mexican people managed to beat the vastly superior French army.
This invasion was initially going to be a joint venture, Britain and Spain were in it as well, but the Mexican president made a deal with them. France, however, wanted to grow its power so they sent over an army to take over and oh surprise, they were defeated by a much weaker opponent.
In the end, even though Mexico won the Puebla battle, Napoleon III sent an even bigger army and ended up winning the war, which led to the “Second Mexican Empire” under Maximiliano of Austria.
This empire was brief, and the Mexican people regained control of the country soon after. They removed and killed the emperor (who was a very nice guy actually, so that was not a good moment in history) and Mexico, as a republic, was restored.
Have fun learning!
