celebrated on the 5th of May, commemorates the triumph of a small Mexican army over French forces in an 1862 battle, "Batalla de Puebla".
The Battle at Puebla took place only 14 years after the United States defeated Mexico in the Mexican-American War. With a weakened army and lagging national pride, the odds were against the Mexican people.
But when French forces, backed by Emperor Napoleon III, marched on Mexico City and threatened to turn it into a French monarchy, the Mexican people quickly organized.