History The Strange Case
The War Over a Pig
In 1859, an American farmer shot a British pig that was eating his potatoes. Soon, hundreds of soldiers and several warships faced off on a small island. The only casualty was the pig.
[IMAGE: Map of the San Juan Islands showing the rival boundary claims] (Ameli Sanchos / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0; opens as a separate document)
![[IMAGE: Map of the San Juan Islands showing the rival boundary claims]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6a/The_Pig_War_Map.svg/1280px-The_Pig_War_Map.svg.png){kind=link}
In 1846, the United States and Britain signed a treaty setting the border between American territory and British North America along the 49th parallel, "to the middle of the channel" separating the continent from Vancouver Island.
There was a problem. There was more than one channel. And in between them sat the San Juan Islands.
Both countries claimed them.
The pig
By 1859, San Juan Island had a British Hudson's Bay Company sheep farm and a small number of American settlers. One of them, a farmer named Lyman Cutlar, found a large black pig rooting in his potato patch on 15 June.
It wasn't the first time. He shot it.
The pig belonged to the Hudson's Bay Company. Cutlar offered to pay for it. The two sides couldn't agree on a price, and British authorities threatened to arrest him.
It was a dispute about a pig. Within weeks, it was a dispute about an empire.
Escalation
American settlers asked for military protection. A company of US soldiers under Captain George Pickett — who would later become famous at Gettysburg — landed on the island. The British governor sent warships.
Over the summer, both sides built up their forces. Eventually, hundreds of American soldiers with cannon faced several British warships carrying many guns and more than two thousand men.
The long peace
The crisis cooled. Both sides agreed to a joint military occupation of the island, with a small British camp at one end and an American camp at the other. For about twelve years, they lived side by side, visiting each other's camps and celebrating each other's holidays.
FACT Established by documentary or physical evidence.
How it ended
In 1872, the dispute was handed to an international arbitrator: Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany. His commission ruled in favour of the United States, and the British withdrew.
You learned this today!!! YOU LEARNED THIS TODAY !!!
- The Pig War of 1859 was a border standoff between the United States and Britain on San Juan Island, between Washington State and Vancouver Island.
- It began when American farmer Lyman Cutlar shot a pig belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company.
- Hundreds of troops and several British warships were eventually involved.
- No shots were fired between the sides; the only casualty was the pig.
- The dispute was settled in 1872 by arbitration by the German Emperor, Wilhelm I.
One more thing
The University of Oxford was teaching students before the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan was founded.
→ Read something elseSources & further reading
- Pig War (1859), Wikipedia
- San Juan Island National Historical Park, U.S. National Park Service
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