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N0KFQ > TODAY 06.05.11 03:39l 53 Lines 2439 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - May 5
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Sent: 110506/0214Z 7391@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.0.4
May 5, 1862:
Cinco de Mayo
During the French-Mexican War, a poorly supplied and outnumbered
Mexican army under General Ignacio Zaragoza defeats a French army
attempting to capture Puebla de Los Angeles, a small town in
east-central Mexico. Victory at the Battle of Puebla represented
a great moral victory for the Mexican government, symbolizing the
country's ability to defend its sovereignty against threat by a
powerful foreign nation.
In 1861, the liberal Mexican Benito Juarez became president of a
country in financial ruin, and he was forced to default on his
debts to European governments. In response, France, Britain, and
Spain sent naval forces to Veracruz to demand reimbursement.
Britain and Spain negotiated with Mexico and withdrew, but
France, ruled by Napoleon III, decided to use the opportunity to
carve a dependent empire out of Mexican territory. Late in 1861,
a well-armed French fleet stormed Veracruz, landing a large
French force and driving President Juarez and his government into
retreat.
Certain that French victory would come swiftly in Mexico, 6,000
French troops under General Charles Latrille de Lorencez set out
to attack Puebla de Los Angeles. From his new headquarters in the
north, Juarez rounded up a rag-tag force of loyal men and sent
them to Puebla. Led by Texas-born General Zaragoza, the 2,000
Mexicans fortified the town and prepared for the French assault.
On the fifth of May, 1862, Lorencez drew his army,
well-provisioned and supported by heavy artillery, before the
city of Puebla and began their assault from the north. The battle
lasted from daybreak to early evening, and when the French
finally retreated they had lost nearly 500 soldiers to the fewer
than 100 Mexicans killed.
Although not a major strategic victory in the overall war against
the French, Zaragoza's victory at Puebla tightened Mexican
resistance, and six years later France withdrew. The same year,
Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, who had been installed as
emperor of Mexico by Napoleon in 1864, was captured and executed
by Juarez' forces. Puebla de Los Angeles, the site of Zaragoza's
historic victory, was renamed Puebla de Zaragoza in honor of the
general. Today, Mexicans celebrate the anniversary of the Battle
of Puebla as Cinco de Mayo, a national holiday in Mexico.
73, K.O. N0KFQ
Another old retired guy
E-mail: n0kfq@winlink.org
N0KFQ@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
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