Tacubaya, Mexico, 1832.
Monsieur Remontel was a French pastry chef. He had a small shop in Tacubaya, a town near Mexico City. There he sold cakes and sweets that smelled of butter.
In those years, Mexico was a young country. It had won its independence in 1821, but there was no peace: the generals fought among themselves for power.
One day in 1832, some Mexican army officers came into the shop. They ate, they drank… and they did not pay. According to Remontel, they also wrecked the place.
Remontel was furious. He asked the Mexican authorities for money, but he received nothing. So he went further: he took his complaint all the way to the King of France.
Remontel asked for 60,000 pesos for his shop. It was an enormous amount of money: his shop was worth less than a thousand pesos.
But Remontel was not the only one. Other French merchants in Mexico also said they had lost money. In 1838, France added up all the complaints and demanded 600,000 pesos from Mexico.
Mexico refused to pay. For many Mexicans, it was an absurd amount. In Veracruz, the country's most important port, people began to worry.
They were right. In April 1838, French warships arrived in the Gulf of Mexico and set up a blockade: no ship could enter or leave Mexican ports. For months, trade came to a stop.
In November, the French attacked the fortress of San Juan de Ulúa, in front of Veracruz. A few days later, Mexico declared war on France.
It had all started with some cakes. That is why people gave it a name: the Pastry War.
Then a famous figure appeared: General Antonio López de Santa Anna. In December he fought the French in Veracruz. A cannon shot shattered his left leg, and the doctors had to amputate it.
Santa Anna lost his leg, but he gained fame. For many Mexicans he was a hero, and soon afterward he became president again.
The war ended in March 1839. England helped negotiate the peace, and Mexico agreed to pay the 600,000 pesos, although it is not clear whether it paid all of it.
And the leg? This is where the story becomes even more incredible.
In 1842, Santa Anna ordered his leg to be dug up and taken to Mexico City. There they held a funeral for it, with a parade and speeches. A funeral for a leg!
Two years later, in 1844, the people rose up against Santa Anna. A crowd took the leg out of the cemetery and dragged it through the streets. No one knows where it ended up.
But that is not all. Santa Anna wore an artificial leg made of cork. In 1847, during a war against the United States, he had to flee so fast that he left it behind. Some soldiers from Illinois found it… and took it home as a trophy.
Today, that leg is in a museum in Springfield, Illinois. Many people say it should go back to Mexico. But it is still in Illinois.
Remontel never imagined any of this. He only wanted to be paid for some cakes. But his unpaid bill ended in a war, a funeral… and a museum in Illinois.