“Historian Justo Sierra has written in his Political Evolution of the Mexican People, that had Mexico not defeated the French in Puebla on May 5, 1862, France would have gone to the aid of the South in the U.S. Civil War and the United States' destiny could have been very different.” The Mexicans were outnumbered 2:1 but they won. How fascinating to contemplate what would have happened if France had won and gone on to join the US Civil War.
Sounds like the typical self-serving historical revision that typically happens in every backwater third world country that wants to make the claim that they made a huge contribution to making the world a better place.
ReplyDeleteOther examples: Serbs: We saved Europe from being over-run by Moslems in the middle ages.
Yugoslavians: We defeated Hitler by tying down XX% of his army here in WW2.
Russians: We invented everything.
Moslems: We kept civilization alive for a thousand years.
Egyptian General after 1973 war: We had them right where we wanted them but we just couldn't stand to slaughter any more of them so we quit.
Modern American Blacks: Our ancestors built this country.
Spartan Women: Only Spartan women give birth to Spartan Warriors.
http://history.state.gov/milestones/1861-1865/french-intervention
It seems the French didn't leave Mexico until '67, and never intended to help the South either way.
The piece simply states that if the French had won the battle of Puebla, they would have gone to the aid of Confederacy, nothing more nothing less, though we have no way of proving or disproving this.
DeleteJust goes to show, you can't depend on the French! grins.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't even thought of that and you gave me a good chuckle. :) Thanks.
DeleteHarry Turtledove wrote an alternate fiction series based on Lee's infamous lost invasion orders. In this universe, a guard notices the message fall out and returns it to the messenger. Life unfolds differently, and later books carry to The Great War, with two American nations.
ReplyDeleteThanks
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