Cinco de Mayo(which is a much bigger holiday in the US than it is in Mexico) commemorates a Mexican victory against the French in what was ultimately a losing campaign. However, the Mexicans eventually won when the French withdrew under international pressure a few years later.
It depends upon who you talk to, and most seem to consider the war a draw, but the War of 1812 is still celebrated in the US (battle of New Orleans, Star Spangled Banner), even though you could make a case for the US even losing (they burned the capitol!). Certainly many sites just across the border in Canada celebrate US losses that I never learned about in school.
And, of course, they’re cdelebrating it this year, as it’s the bicentennial of the war. They had lots of activities here at the Boston Harbor. This was the Constitution’s shining moment, after all.
Plus what’s being celebrated is that they foiled the plot (and subsequently did nasty things to the plotters) and so it’s not the losing side being celebrated.
How about the Easter Rising in Ireland? Granted it was a precursor to the eventual successful separation from the UK a few years later. But in of itself, it was a failure.
ETA: Or for that matter any of a number of failed rebellions in Ireland, like Theobald Wolfe Tone’s in 1798. Failed rebellions were practically a cottage industry on the Emerald Isle.
Yeah, you really don’t know much about the events of and leading upto Oct 1973 do you? Or various war aims?
To the OP. I am surprised at you. You forgot the Indian Mutiny.
1973 Yom Kippur War, or, the Ramadan War, celebrated as a victory in Egypt.
We irish are quite fond of glorious failure
I’m not sure that this counts, but when I was young, I was taught in school about how we won the war of 1812. Then I went to visit my Canadian cousins and found out they were taught in school how they won the war.
Not quite what the OP was looking for, but it is kinda odd when you have both sides claiming victory.
Same country, but there’s also the Alamo. I suppose that would be in the same category as Cinco de Mayo in that it was a military defeat that laid the groundwork for an eventual victory.
Today the Boer Wars might be a good parallel with the celebration of the Confederacy in the US. Eventually the Afrikaners did get their independent state (60 years later) so perhaps they can also be viewed as an eventual victory, but the current South African state certainly doesn’t resemble the Boers’ vision. In post-apartheid South Africa the losing Boer rebellion is only celebrated by a vocal minority who have to try hard to equate their remembrances with heritage instead of racism. Now why does that sound familiar?
I agree Look up to entry #22
North Korea decided they won the war in 1953. Nevermind that they were thoughly defeated and it took the Chinese to push back to where the war started.
Not a country but the most important celebration and iconic moment for the French Foreign Legion is the Battle of Camaron. A battle in which all but 3 died.
Previous thread which is relevant, though mostly concerned with individual battles:
Just the first thing that came to mind.
I remember that.
4/5ths of my Irish music collection wouldn’t exist without the many glorious defeats to sing about!
It’s not really that surprising. Each side did win at least some of their pre-war goals (except for the Indians, who lost badly). The Americans wanted the British to stop blocking US trade and forcing American sailors into service in the Royal Navy. They also wanted territorial expansion into Canada and just a little respect on the world stage. Of these four, they got all but the territorial expansion, albeit the naval issues weren’t won in the war but came about due to the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
The British goals were to brush off the ridiculous complaints of those upstart Americans and defend their Canadian colonies. They didn’t really manage the first, but the second was achieved and they didn’t have to give up anything critical outside of the embarrassment of how the Battle of New Orleans was lost. The Canadian colonists’ goals were just defense of their homes, so it was pretty much a straight win for Canada considered in its own right - although there were a few counter-invasions that failed badly.
Between everybody getting most of what they were after out of the war, and the natural propensity to spin things in your own favour, the narratives spun by both sides about the War of 1812 are neither mysterious nor particularly misleading.
No. It’s a popular historical figure, that’s all. And I’m not aware of any celebration. France being a Republic, she could hardly celebrate a dictator, anyway. Not officially, at least.
America won the Pig War (or at least the Pig Peace) - so I think that gives us the tie-breaker after the Revolution and the War of 1812.
Every other song by the Clancy Brothers was about a failed uprising. The Irish have longed revelled in the memory of glorious martyrs who, typically, accomplished absolutely nothing.
Go to any Irish themed pub on March 17th, and listen to all the songs about Kelly, the Boy From Killan. Or the Croppy Boy. Or Young Roddy McCorley. Or even that infernal bungler Sean South of Garryowen.
The Irish have romanticized their failures and defeats at least as much as Southerners have.