Cinco de Mayo, the Munroe Doctrine, and the Birth of Canada

The fifth of May is celebrated by many as "Cinco de Mayo". Why is the day important? And why might Americans, Canadians and Mexicans alike see the celebration as one of significance?

After the 1860 election of US President Abraham Lincoln, seven states seceded from the Union, and established an independent Southern government, the "Confederate States of America" on February 9, 1861. The American civil war began on April 12, 1861 with the opening of fire upon Fort Sumpter.

Three months later, on July 17, 1861, Mexico's President Benito Juárez suspended payments of interest on loans to foreign countries. Spain, France and Britain were among the creditors. On October 31, 1861, those three countries signed the Treaty of London, agreeing to unite their efforts to collect the debts owing from Mexico. This was in direct defiance of America's Monroe Doctrine, which warned Europe to stay out of the affairs in our hemisphere. America, however, was engaged in a civil war.

On December 8, 1861, the Spanish arrived in Mexico, followed by the British and French on January 6 and 8, 1862, respectively. However, for France, debt collection was but a cover story. France's plan was to depose the Mexican government and set up a monarchy favourable to France, following which it would expand its control into Central and South America. Realizing that the French had such ambitions in Mexico, the British and the Spanish withdrew their troops in April of 1862.

On May 5, 1862, French troops attacked in Puebla. However, Mexican indians, armed largely with machete's, led a cavalry that caused the French, who lost hundreds of men, to retreat. For at least a short period, the Mexicans and - thanks to the Mexicans - the Americans, could breath a sigh of relief.

But the battle of Cinco de Mayo was only the beginning of a chain of events that, arguably, led to the creation of Canada.

Impressed by the Mexican's performance on May 5, 1862, the French returned with 30,000 men and took Puebla on May 17, 1863. Mexico City fell to the French in June and the crown was offerred to Maximilian I, a member of Austria's Imperial Habsburg family, who accepted the crown on October 3, 1863. Emporer Maximilian arrived in Mexico in May of 1864. French forces continued winning battles in Mexico before and after his arrival, into 1865.

The US Congress had unanimously passed a resolution which opposed the establishment of the Mexican monarchy on April 4, 1964. In June of 1865, the American Civil War ended and viewing a powerful French presence in Mexico as a threat to the USA, the USA began supplying the Mexican republican forces with arms. US soldiers were discharged if they decided to support the Mexican army.

On February 12, 1866, the US demanded the French withdraw their forces from Mexico. Napoleon the III agreed to do so and urged Maximilian to abandon Mexico. Refusing to abandon his imperialist supporters, Maximilian instead decided to stay and fight...and, eventually, to lose to the Republican forces of Benito Juárez.

The Americans having sent men and guns to help the forces of republicanism in Mexico to fight off the European imperialists, one might forgive Britain for being a bit worried that America might engage in similar efforts to the north.

According to Bruce Ricketts:

Since 1850, William Seward, the American Secretary of State during the Civil War, had been an annexationist who felt that British North America (Canada) was destined to become part of the United States. As it became obvious that the North would emerge victorious from the War, there was a fear that American expansionism would rear its head and turn its eyes to the north. In the Canadas and the Maritimes many thought that invading BNA [British North America] would give the victorious Union army something to do. The possibility of annexation was even more real in the northwest of what is now Canada. In 1860 Seward praised the people of Rupert's Land for conquering the wilderness and creating a great state for the American Union. In the election of 1864 the Republican Party used annexation as a means to gain support from Irish Americans and the land-hungry.

An Annexation Bill introduced by General Banks was passed in the United States House of Representatives in July of 1866. It intended that the United States acquire all of what is now Canada. Whether based in reality or not, the fear of annexation played a definite role in the achievement of Canadian Confederation and in shaping its constitution...Sir É.-P. Taché, Premier of Lower Canada, said it best in 1866: "If the opportunity [for Confederation] which now presented itself were allowed to pass by unimproved, whether we would or would not, we would be forced into the American Union by violence, and if not by violence, would be placed upon an inclined plain which would carry us there insensibly."

Prior to March 29, 1867, British North America was comprised of 6 colonies - Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island and British Columbia. On March 29, 1867, Queen Victoria gave royal assent to the British North America Act, a statute passed by the Imperial Parliament in Great Britain. The BNA Act took away some legislative powers from the colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Canada, divided the Province of Canada into the provinces of Quebec and Ontario (Lower and Upper Canada had been combined into one "Province of Canada" in 1844, largely in a failed attempt to water-down French culture and influence in Canada), and gave those powers (over such matters as criminal law, railroads, banking and the military) to a newly-formed legislative body: the Parliament of the Dominion of Canada. Between the federal Parliament and the Provincial Legislatures, the new Dominion of Canada - with its elected members of parliament - arguably satisfied or attenuated many of the concerns of those with republican sympathies, who felt that too much legislative control rested in the Imperial Parliament of far-away Britain.

On May 11, 1867, Maximilian decided upon an attempted escape through enemy lines, but he was captured by Juárez's republicans. He was executed by firing squad on June 19, 1867. On July 1, 1867, the British North America Act came into force, forming what is now still formally called the Dominion of Canada, but what is more commonly called "Canada".

Okay, many of the links are a bit tenuous, but the whole story will certainly provide for some interesting tale-telling tonight, should you decide to sit down with some friends and, looking for something to which to toast, say "Happy Cinco de Mayo!"

P.S. Click here for Cinco de Mayo recipes and drink ideas