That time when the UK and the US were about to go to war on a pig

Are you familiar with the Oregon Treaty? It is an agreement between the United States of America and British North America (now Canada) that established the borders of the two countries. Nothing complicated, right? However, this is not the case on the islands southwest of Vancouver. Draw geographical boundaries It would have been especially annoying because of the carrots.

One of the largest and most important islands in this region, San Juan Island was of great importance due to its strategic location at the mouth of the channel. Precisely for this reason, both the United States and the United Kingdom claimed sovereignty over the island, and without any kind of oversight and regulation, Citizens of both countries began to settle there.

Based on accounts of the time, there weren’t many differences between the two groups of islanders. However, this did not last long, as on June 15, 1859, a pig belonging to the English accidentally came across the land of Lyman Cutler, an American breeder. When Cutlar noticed that the pig was eating some potatoes, he got angry and In a fit of rage he shot and killed the pig.

Yes, I understood what was about to happen.

The pig was actually owned by a British employee of the Hudson’s Bay Company named Charles Griffin. When Griffin learned of the pig’s death, Went to meet Cutlar.

However, Cutlar offered to pay Griffin $10 as compensation for the dead boar, but that was not enough for the Americans, of course. Griffin Kotler denounced the local British authorities who threatened to arrest the American. In response, Charles’ citizens wrote a petition calling for the protection of the US military.

Over the next month, there was a dead end, as both sides slowly increased their military presence in the area and with 9 American infantry that refused to movegiven their numerical inferiority.

Only with the arrival of Admiral Robert L. Pines, commander-in-chief of the British Navy in the Pacific, things changed: he explicitly refused not to go to war between two great nations. only for pig.

It’s clearly one vote pig war It reached both Washington and London. Officials on both sides of the Atlantic are shocked that the pig feud has turned into a confrontation Up to 3 warships, 84 guns and more than 2,600 men.

In fact, this is not the first time that a file UK enters war for ‘small’ pretext…

Today, the British and American campsites at San Juan Island National Historic Park can still be visited. Interestingly enough, this is the only place in a US national park to go to A foreign flag is regularly flown on US soil. The British government presented the flag and flagpole as a sign of friendship.

Survival in terms of ‘ridiculous struggles’, you know egg war?