0:00 On June fifteenth, 1859, an American farmer named Lyman Cutlar shot and killed a pig.0:05 That single act brought the two most powerful empires on Earth — the United States and Great Britain — to the absolute brink of all-out war.0:14 Last week in episode ninety-four we talked about the Australian army literally losing a war to a bunch of emus, but this story...0:23 this might be even more absurd.0:25 Because this wasn't just a failure of logistics, it was a failure of common sense so profound it almost redrew the map of North America.0:34 So here's the setup.0:35 The year is 1859, and out in the Pacific Northwest, there’s this little cluster of islands between Vancouver Island and the mainland United States.0:45 The main one is called San Juan Island.0:47 The problem?0:48 Nobody could agree who owned it.0:50 The treaty that set the U.S.-Canada border was just vague enough that both the Americans and the British had a legitimate claim.0:58 So, you had a few dozen American settlers living there, alongside a massive sheep and pig farm run by the British Hudson's Bay Company.1:07 It was a tinderbox waiting for a spark.1:10 And that spark was a pig.1:11 A large black boar, owned by the British company, had a bad habit of wandering into Lyman Cutlar's potato patch and eating his dinner.1:20 On that June morning, Cutlar had enough.1:23 He shot the pig.1:24 Now, here’s where a tiny local dispute becomes an international incident.1:29 Cutlar went to the British agent, a guy named Charles Griffin, and offered to pay for the pig.1:35 He offered ten dollars.1:36 Griffin demanded one hundred.1:38 Cutlar said no pig was worth that much.1:41 Griffin threatened to have him arrested by British authorities.1:45 And that’s the key.1:46 For the American settlers, this wasn't about a pig anymore.1:50 It was about sovereignty.1:52 Are we living under American law, or British law?1:55 They panicked and sent a petition to the U.S.1:58 Army for protection.1:59 And the army sent Captain George Pickett.2:02 Yes, THAT George Pickett, the one who would later lead the disastrous Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg.2:08 He lands on the island with sixty-six American soldiers and declares it U.S.2:13 territory.2:14 The British, seeing an American military occupation of what they consider their land, completely freak out.2:21 They dispatch three warships, carrying over two thousand men and more than one hundred and sixty cannons, to the island.2:29 So now you have sixty-six American infantrymen in a makeshift camp staring down the barrels of a Royal Navy fleet.2:36 All because of a pig.2:38 Here's where you have to ask: where have we seen this before?2:42 This is a classic tripwire conflict.2:44 It’s the same shape as the Berlin crises during the Cold War.2:48 A tiny, localized dispute — a disagreement over access roads, a checkpoint standoff — that has the potential to trigger a global catastrophe.2:57 Why?2:58 Because the pig wasn't the reason for the conflict; it was the public excuse.3:03 The real issue was two expanding empires bumping into each other, each unwilling to back down and lose face.3:10 The pig was just the formal occasion for the fight they were already spoiling for.3:15 But here’s where the analogy breaks, and where the story gets really good.3:20 In a lot of those Cold War standoffs, everything was controlled by hotlines and leaders thousands of miles away.3:27 Here, on the ground, one man had the power to stop it.3:31 The British governor of British Columbia ordered the commander of the fleet, Rear Admiral Robert Baynes, to land his marines and drive Pickett’s men off the island.3:42 And Admiral Baynes… just said no.3:44 He looked at the three warships, the thousands of troops, the tiny American detachment, and the dead pig at the center of it all, and refused the order.3:54 His reported words were that he would not "involve two great nations in a war over a squabble about a pig." It was an incredible act of insubordination that probably saved thousands of lives.4:06 He recognized the absurdity when his civilian boss could not.4:10 With the immediate threat gone, the diplomats took over.4:14 Washington and London, now fully aware of how close they’d come to disaster, sent negotiators.4:20 The top U.S.4:21 general, Winfield Scott, arranged a deal with the British governor for a temporary joint military occupation of the island.4:29 Each side would maintain a camp of no more than one hundred men until the border could be formally decided.4:36 That "temporary" occupation lasted for twelve years.4:39 For twelve years, British and American soldiers lived peacefully on the same small island, reportedly becoming great friends and holding regular sports competitions and holiday celebrations together.4:52 The crisis was finally resolved in 1872, when the dispute was sent to international arbitration.4:59 The arbitrator?5:00 Kaiser Wilhelm the First of Germany.5:02 He reviewed the original treaty and sided with the Americans, giving them the San Juan Islands for good.5:09 The only casualty of the entire twelve-year standoff remained the pig.5:13 It’s a story we tell because it’s funny, but it’s important because it’s rare.5:19 It’s a moment where the people with the cannons and the orders chose restraint, and a conflict that should have happened, simply… didn't.
