On Cinco de Mayo, many Americans have come to embrace it as an excuse to indulge in quality Mexican cuisine and to imbibe an imported Mexican cerveza or margarita, but many do not know or realize the event commemorated on that date or how, ironically, it is far more potentially important to the course of American history than they realize. How would the course of not just Mexican history, but that of its neighbor to the north and even that of 19th century Europe, if the Mexican forces had not defeated those of the French at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862?