0:00 On June 15, 1859, the only shot fired in anger during a twelve-year international dispute killed a pig.0:07 That pig remained the only casualty in a military standoff that involved three warships, eighty-four cannons, and nearly five hundred soldiers from the United States and the British Empire.0:20 Last week, Admin, we examined the War of the Oaken Bucket.0:24 It appears that inanimate objects—or, in this case, livestock—have a history of provoking international incidents.0:31 They do.0:32 And much like that bucket, the pig wasn't the real cause.0:36 It was just the catalyst.0:38 The root of the problem was the 1846 Oregon Treaty.0:41 It drew the border along the 49th parallel, but when it got to the sea, the language became… imprecise.0:48 Imprecise how?0:49 It said the border should run through "the middle of the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver's Island." The problem is, there are two channels there.1:00 Haro Strait and Rosario Strait.1:03 And San Juan Island is right between them.1:05 Exactly.1:06 So Britain claimed the island via the Rosario Strait boundary.1:10 The U.S.1:11 claimed it via the Haro Strait boundary.1:14 For about a decade, both just… coexisted.1:16 You had American settlers, and you had the British Hudson's Bay Company running a huge sheep ranch.1:23 That sounds like a stable arrangement.1:26 What could possibly go wrong?1:28 Well, an American farmer named Lyman Cutlar found a pig eating the potatoes in his garden.1:34 This wasn't the first time.1:36 He shot the pig.1:37 Okay.1:37 So a farmer shoots a trespassing pig.1:40 Right.1:40 But the pig belonged to an Irishman named Charles Griffin, who was an employee of the Hudson's Bay Company.1:48 Griffin demanded one hundred dollars in compensation.1:51 Cutlar offered ten.1:52 The situation escalated.1:54 British authorities threatened to arrest Cutlar.1:57 And the American settlers responded to that threat.2:01 They did.2:02 They petitioned the U.S.2:03 military for protection.2:05 The man who answered the call was Captain George Pickett.2:09 Wait—the George Pickett?2:10 Of Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg?2:13 The very same.2:14 He was stationed in the territory at the time.2:17 On July 27, 1859, he landed on San Juan Island with sixty-six soldiers from the 9th U.S.2:23 Infantry, declaring it fully under United States jurisdiction.2:27 So the British response to this must have been… measured.2:31 Extremely.2:32 They dispatched three warships under the command of Captain Geoffrey Hornby.2:37 The situation very quickly spiraled.2:39 By mid-August, you had 461 Americans with 14 cannons dug in, and on the water, you had three British warships with over 2,000 men and more than seventy cannons pointed at them.2:51 All over a pig.2:53 All over a pig and a potato patch.2:55 The British governor of Vancouver Island, James Douglas, ordered Rear Admiral Robert Baynes to have his marines land and engage Pickett's men.3:05 And this is where the shooting starts.3:07 This is where it should have.3:09 But Admiral Baynes refused the order.3:12 His reported response was that he would not "involve two great nations in a war over a squabble about a pig." A rare moment of high-level de-escalation.3:22 A critical one.3:23 News eventually reached Washington and London, and officials on both sides were shocked at what their local commanders had done.3:32 They immediately began negotiations.3:34 So how do you resolve a standoff with hundreds of soldiers aiming cannons at each other on a tiny island?3:42 Carefully.3:42 Both sides agreed to a joint military occupation.3:46 Each nation would maintain a force of no more than one hundred men on the island until a final settlement could be reached.3:54 And that was the solution?3:56 Just… stay there together?3:58 For twelve years, yes.3:59 The British Royal Marines set up a camp on the north side of the island, the Americans on the south.4:06 And by all accounts, they got along quite well.4:09 They visited each other's camps, celebrated holidays together.4:14 They reportedly became great friends.4:16 So the war over a pig became a twelve-year camping trip.4:20 A very polite, well-armed camping trip.4:23 The issue was finally resolved in 1871, when both nations agreed to international arbitration.4:29 Who arbitrates a dispute between the U.S.4:32 and Britain?4:33 They asked Kaiser Wilhelm the First of Germany to decide.4:37 He referred the question to a three-man commission, and after a year of deliberation, they ruled in favor of the American claim.4:45 The border was set through the Haro Strait.4:48 On November 25, 1872, the Royal Marines withdrew, and the island became fully American territory.4:55 All without a single human death.4:57 Correct.4:58 The only blood spilled was the pig's.5:00 It's a perfect case study in how national pride can inflate a minor dispute into a geopolitical crisis.5:07 And how it all could have ended very, very differently if not for one admiral's refusal to start a war.
