In the early years after Mexico's independence from Spain, civil unrest was widespread as various political movements and parties fought for control of the country. These events often resulted in the destruction or looting of private property. Ordinary citizens, of course, were unlucky at all, since they had neither power nor influential representatives who could at least demand compensation for damage. As for foreigners who also lost their property in this way, they usually also did not have the opportunity to receive compensation from the Mexican government. But they had an advantage - they could turn to their governments for help in putting pressure on the leadership of a young and unstable Mexico.
This is how the French citizen Remontl lost his confectionery shop in Mexico City in 1832. During the next riot, the store was looted and destroyed by looting officers. In compensation for the damage, Remontl demanded 60,000 pesos from the Mexican government (Mexican authorities estimated his store at less than 1,000 pesos). After the already habitual disregard of the demands by the Mexicans, the pastry chef sent a complaint to King Louis Philippe of France.
In view of the complaint of Remontl (which gave its name to the subsequent conflict - "Confectionery War") and other complaints from French citizens (among them the looting of other French shops in 1828, and the execution in 1837 of a French citizen, unreasonably accused of piracy), the Prime Minister of France Louis-Mathieu Molay demanded 600,000 pesos (3 million francs) in compensation from Mexico in 1838. It should be noted that this was a huge amount at the time; the typical daily wage in Mexico City was then about one peso.
When the Mexican president refused to pay compensation, Louis Philippe ordered the fleet under the command of Rear Admiral Charles Boden to blockade all Mexican ports in the Gulf of Mexico from Yucatan to the Rio Grande, bombard the Mexican fortress of San Juan de Ulua, and seize the strategic port Veracruz. French troops captured Veracruz by December 1838, after which Mexico declared war on France.
Battle of Veracruz.
With the end of trade, Mexicans began smuggling imports into Mexico through Corpus Christi (then part of the now independent Texas). Fearing that France would also block the ports of the Republic of Texas, a battalion of Texas troops began patrolling Corpus Christi Bay to stop Mexican smugglers. One group of smugglers dumped a load of about one hundred barrels of flour on the beach of the Bay by the cliff, which was later called Flour Bluff. The United States, also at odds with Mexico, dispatched the schooner Woodbury to assist the French in their blockade of Mexican ports.
In military operations, unlike riots and pogroms, the Mexicans did not succeed. They were not helped by the famous general and former president Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, who emerged from political oblivion and concentrated Mexican forces against the French. In a skirmish with the French rearguard, he was wounded by buckshot in the leg, which, after amputation, he buried with full military honors. Skillfully using his wound for propaganda purposes and posing as a hero, Santa Anna will soon regain the presidency.
French troops were withdrawn from Mexico on March 9, 1839 after the signing of a peace treaty. As a result of the war, the Mexican government agreed to pay 600,000 pesos in compensation to French citizens, and a profitable trade agreement was concluded with France itself. It must be said that the Mexicans never paid this amount, and later this was used as one of the excuses for the next French intervention in Mexico in 1861 under Napoleon III.
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Franco-Mexican relations remained hostile until 1880, when both countries abandoned mutual claims to each other.
