Margen
In the Mexico of the 1830s, amid revolts and lootings, a French pastry cook named Remontel claimed that officers had wrecked his shop in Tacubaya. He demanded an outsized compensation, and his complaint ended up, along with others from French citizens, on the desk of the King of France.
Paris demanded 600,000 pesos from Mexico, an enormous sum. Mexico refused. And in 1838 the French fleet blockaded and bombarded Veracruz. The press mockingly christened the conflict the Pastry War.
The war was short but left its mark. General Santa Anna, who rode out to fight the French, lost a leg to cannon fire. Years later, back in power, he had the leg buried with a state funeral, speeches and full military honours.
A pastry shop as the spark, a leg with a funeral procession as the finale. History sometimes needs no scriptwriters.