The Mexican government’s refusal to pay claims…

The Mexican government’s refusal to pay claims for losses sustained by foreign nationals during Mexico’s War of Independence results in the use of force, or the threat of it, by Britain and France to pay claims entered by their citizens.

The United States continues to elects a course of negotiation, which drags on and on.

In 1838, a French pastry cook, Monsieur Remontel, appeals to France's King Louis-Philippe, claiming that looting Mexican officers had ruined his shop in the Tacubaya district of Mexico City in 1828.

Coming to its citizen's aid, France demands six hundred thousand pesos in damages, an extremely high amount when compared to an average workman's daily pay, which is about one peso.

In addition to this amount, Mexico has defaulted on millions of dollars worth of loans from France.

Diplomat Baron Deffaudis gives Mexico an ultimatum to pay, or the French will demand satisfaction.

When the payment is not forthcoming from president Anastasio Bustamante, the king sends 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.