Pastry War: Encyclopedia II - Pastry War - 1830s

Pastry War - 1830s

In 1838 a French pastry cook, Monsieur Remontel, claimed his shop in Veracruz had been ruined by looting Mexican officers in 1828. He appealed to France's King Louis-Philippe (1773-1850). Coming to its citizen's aid, France demanded 600,000 pesos in damages. This amount was extremely high when compared to an average workman's daily pay, which was about one peso. In addition to this amount, Mexico had defaulted on millions of dollars worth of loans from France. Diplomat Baron Beffaudis gave Mexico an ultimatum of paying, or the French would demand satisfaction. When the payment was not forthcoming from president Anastasio Bustamante (1780-1853), the king sent a fleet under Rear Admiral Charles Baudin to declare a blockade of all Mexican ports from Yucatán to the Rio Grande, to bombard the Mexican fortress of San Juan de Ulúa, and to seize the port of Veracruz. Virtually the entire Mexican Navy was captured at Veracruz by December 1838. Mexico declared war on France.

With trade cut off, the Mexicans began smuggling imports into Corpus Christi, Texas, and then into Mexico. Fearing that France would blockade Texan ports as well, a Texas militia force began patrolling Corpus Christi Bay to stop Mexican smugglers. One smuggling party abandoned their cargo of about a hundred barrels of flour on the beach at the mouth of the bay, thus giving "Flour Bluff" its name. The United States, ever watchful of its relations with Mexico, sent the schooner "Woodbury" to help the French in their blockade.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "1830s", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki