TIL! I've been busy studying for the bar (ew) so I need some information that ISN'T related to legal stuff to stay sane
How about a war? In which no one actually died?
Listen, friend Em, to the story of the Pig War. Rather, one of the Pig Wars (there was more than one), but only one that we were involved in.
So back in the 1850's, the US and Canada (or rather, the UK working through the Canadians) were hammering out their boarders in the American Northwest. Things weren't quite worked out, but they were close enough to worked out, with only some ambiguities, like the San Juan Islands.
Oh, the San Juan Islands. Both sides claimed them. Which would be fine, if it weren't for these two farmers.
See, this American farmer was living on one of the San Juan Islands (the one called San Juan Island, in fact!), and one day he notices a pig that he didn't own. And not only did he not own this pig, this pig was eating his potatoes. Well, simple solution: he kills this wild, wandering pig that started eating his crops.
Problem: this pig belonged to a farmer in the Hudson Bay Company who let his pigs run free and do whatever. This guy got pissed, and tried to get the American farmer arrested by the Canadian military. American farmer got pissed, and called up the American military to defend him. Soon this was a full on border crisis, and both the US and British militaries were stacking men and guns and ships at their borders, ready to blow each other to smithereens.
Over a pig.
Most of this was posing and insults thrown at each other over the lines, because, I mean, almost everyone in charge of this knew this was kind of stupid and ordered their men not to fire the first shot. I say almost everyone, because the governor of Vancouver? Actually tried to get a British admiral to go and engage American soldiers. The admiral refused on the grounds of "Sir, this is about a pig."
By this time this got to Washington and London, the governments were very concerned about how fast this had exploded, and deescalated it pretty quickly. San Juan Island became home to military bases for both the US and UK, and after that apparently the soldiers all got along fairly well? And then the island was de-occupied in the 1870's and everyone went home.
In short, we almost went to war with the UK AGAIN because this Canadian pig ate some American potatoes.
So now you know, friendo.
