Today is a day for celebrating Mexican heritage. While it may be a great excuse for a party, many Americans mistake Cinco de Mayo as the birth date of Mexican independence. The anniversary in fact commemorates Mexico's surprise victory over the French Empire at the 1862 Battle of Puebla. France's invasion of Mexico was a ruthless attempt to install a foreign puppet ruler in the guise of Archduke Maximillian of Austria. The redheaded pretender was proclaimed Maximillian I of Mexico, but his reign came undone before a Mexican firing squad. Though largely forgotten outside Mexico today, this failed intervention reflected the dastardly ambitions of Napoleon III, the scheming nephew of the more famous Napoleon Bonaparte (pictured above).
As fate has it, May 5, 2021 is also the 200th anniversary of Napoleon Bonaparte's death. In honor of this Napoleonic coincidence, here are five remarkable facts on one of history’s more memorable characters: ¡Qué viva México! Napoleon III’s invasion of Mexico gave rise to Cinco de Mayo, but Napoleon Bonaparte played an arguably greater role in Mexican history. When Napoleon’s armies invaded Spain in 1808 and installed his brother Joseph on the Spanish throne, France triggered a crisis of authority which led, in 1810, to frustrated Mexicans declaring their long-overdue revolutionary independence. American ambitions: Napoleon’s ambitions did not end in Europe. He dreamed of a powerful French Empire in North America, centered in Louisiana and supplied by colonies in the Caribbean. France abolished slavery in 1794, but Napoleon restored it in 1802 as part of his efforts to crush ongoing revolt in Saint Domingue (later Haiti). Fierce resistance by Haitian revolutionaries led by former slave Toussaint L’Ouverture forced Napoleon to abandon the Americas, and prompted the sale of the Louisiana Territory in 1803, doubling the size of the fledgling United States. Not now, Josephine! Napoleon’s Caribbean connections were personal as well as political. His first wife, Josephine de Beauharnais, was born on the island of Martinique to a family of white plantation owners. A powerful figure in her own right, Josephine was also known for her extravagant lifestyle, rivaling the decadence of Marie Antoinette. She was also a fanatical collector. Her home at Malmaison housed Europe’s greatest botanical garden, as well as a private zoo including zebras and a tame orangutan. Laissez les bon temps rouler: Following defeat at the Battle of Waterloo (1815) Napoleon was exiled to the remote south Atlantic island of Saint Helena. This did not prevent sympathetic conspirators plotting to break him free, including former New Orleans Mayor Nicholas Girod, who offered his house as a refuge. Though the plot never transpired, today the Maison Napoleon thrives as a Napoleonic-themed restaurant, offering some of the finest jambalaya and Sazerac cocktails in the French Quarter. A name to remember: Today the United States boasts eight cities named for Napoleon, including Napoleon, Ohio (44 miles southwest of Toledo). Napoleon’s other cultural namesakes include the Napoleon complex (the supposed inferiority complex of unusually short men), and the delicious mille-feuille, or Napoleon pastry.
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AuthorMatthew Smith, PhD (History). Public Programs at Miami University Regionals. Historian of Appalachia, the Ohio Valley, & the early American republic. Archives
February 2024
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