The War Incited By A Pastry Chef

People have been known to get into skirmishes or even go to war, over some of the most unlikely disputes, and some of these have gone down in the annuals of history. A lowly pig almost drove a irreconcilable wedge between the USA and Canada, and France took up arms in Mexico after a French shopkeeper lodged a complaint with French authorities. So grab a donut and a cup of coffee, while you take a break to find out all about the Pastry War.

After Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821, there was widespread disorder as the locals struggled to come up with a model for government that everyone could agree on, and the liberal and conservative ideologies continually found themselves at odds. In 1828, the President Manuel Pedraza ejected the then-governor Lorenzo de Zavala. The deposed dignitary had the support of a good number of citizens in the capital, and they revolted for four days, fighting and looting in the streets.

The result of this disruption was that Zavala won, and installed a new President. The citizen's uprising created a huge amount of damage to private property, but they weren't able to claim damages. They had no representatives to appeal to the government they had helped to recently change, and any foreigners in Mexico City had even less of a chance of getting compensated. They pleaded with their own governments to provide assistance when things became unbearable.

A French pastry cook known only as Monsieur Remontel had a shop in the Tacubaya district of the capital, and it had been looted by Mexican officers during the conflict. He appealed to King Louis-Philippe ten years after the spat, and the monarchy demanded a payment of 600,000 pesos from the government of Mexico as compensation for the damage. This amount was outrageous, as a the average citizen made about one peso per day at the time. Several million dollars of loans from France were in default, even as a beginning Republic.

Unable (and unwilling) to pay, Mexico soon received an ultimatum from France, and it wasn't long before the king sent a fleet of boats and set up a blockade of all ports. They bombed the citadel of San Juan de Ulua and seized the seaside city of Veracruz. The Mexicans fought back for over four hours, but were eventually forced out of the fort. The Mexican navy was captured in it's entirety by the French, and the Government of Mexico declared war on France at that juncture.

The Mexicans were forced to smuggle imports into their borders through the Republic of Texas, desperate not to lose. The infamous general Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, known as the 'Napoleon of the West', came out of exile due to the war, and was employed by the government to fight back against the French by any means necessary. But in the end, the Pastry War was settled by the intervention of Great Britain, whose diplomats stepped in and ordered President Anastasio Bustamante to pay the 600,000 pesos to the chef who'd demanded them in the first place. France withdrew on March 9 1839, just over three months after landing. It was the first time they had invaded Mexico--but it was definitely not the last.

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