Thirty-seven year-old railway entrepreneur and Lincoln supporter A. Leland Stanford had been elected Republican governor of California on September 4, 1861. He took office, succeeding the seventh governor, Democrat John Gately Downey, and worked during his two year term to keep the state in the Union and support the Lincoln Administration as best he could.  At the same time, he began the building of the Central Pacific Railroad out from Sacramento eastwards.  (By John Osborne)

Mexico had suspended interest payments on the nation's giant foreign debt in July 1861. On October 31, 1861, the main European debtors, Britain, France, and Spain, signed a convention in London for an occupation of Mexican customs houses, beginning with Vera Cruz, to force continued payments.  Spanish naval units arrived off Vera Cruz and were later joined by British and French in the landing of troops at the port.  (By John Osborne)

Mexico had suspended interest payments on the nation's giant foreign debt in July 1861. The main European debtors, Britain, France, and Spain, signed a convention in London for an occupation of Mexican customs houses, beginning with Vera Cruz, to force continued payments.  A combined fleet sailed in December 1861. When the agreement broke down, France took the opportunity for a full scale intervention in Mexico in early 1862.  (By John Osborne)   

Benito Juarez, formally elected as president of Mexico in March 1861, was faced with a continued crushing debt and a new insecurity that the American Civil War promised on his northern border.  Mexico owed 82 million pesos, most of it in British bonds, and in order to gain some control over the economy, the Juarez administration suspended interest payments to Britain, France, and Spain.  This would result directly in the French invasion of 1862.  (By John Osborne)