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Reform War
This was a civil war between the Liberals and the Conservatives. They fought over between separating the church and state and freedom of religion, or the others who wanted it to only be the Roman Catholic Church and the Mexican State. -
End of Reform War
From fighting this civil war, Mexico lost a large amount of money. This angered Britain, France and Spain because Mexico still owed them some money. -
Tension between countries
The 3 countries were so angry that they came upon Mexican soil looking to force the Mexican government to give them money. Luckily, Benito Juarez, Mexico's president, persuaded Britain and Spain that causing a war would cause Mexico a loss of more money and it would take longer for them to return it. So Britain and Spain retreated, but France was not buying any of it and decided to stay and fight. -
French captures Campeche
Mexico just got done with a civil war, so they weren't as well prepared as France. French forces took no time and took the city of Campeche barely even trying. They're next aim was to capture Mexico City. -
Preparation of battle at Mexico City
With France capturing the first city so easily, they started feeling a little too confident in taking over other ones. As soon as the captured Campeche, they moved right along and traveled to take over Mexico City. They had to hold out and postpone their raid because many of their troops became ill. While all of this was going on, normal Mexicans, under General Ignacio Zaragoza, marched to defend the city. Mexico only had 4,500 men while France had over 6,000 men. -
French Attack
The French expected for the Mexicans to surrender quickly because they didn't want anymore damage done. They were wrong. France pushed them back many times but Mexico kept coming back to defend the forts. The French attacks involved heavy artillery. They were running out of shells so their final attack was with no artillery. The Mexicans really fought back this time. -
French Retreat
While the French started to retreat for more ammo, Zaragoza ordered his troops to attack the French. The Mexicans were beating the French so bad that Zaragoza pulled them back so the fight didn't turn into a disaster. -
Aftermath of the War
France retreated back to the other towns that they captured. After the battle of Puebla, France sent over 27,000 troops to take over all of Mexico. They did just that. Then, they chose Maximilian of Austria and the Emperor of Mexico. -
Finally taken back
After holding off for so long, Benito Juarez led his people to victory against the French and to take Mexico back again. -
