The Pig That Nearly Started a War

In 1859, a pig wandered into an American farmer's potato patch on San Juan Island. A shooting, a demand for compensation and a disputed border soon brought American troops and British warships face to face. This is the strange story of the Pig War: the commanders who refused to fire first, the temporary arrangement that lasted twelve years, and the map dispute eventually settled through German arbitration. Badly Drawn History — history with rough drawings and a straight face. Subscribe for more strange stories from history. Would you have paid for the pig, or argued about the border? CHAPTERS 00:00 The potato patch 00:25 Two countries, two borders 01:24 An expensive pig 02:22 Protection arrives 03:11 Someone has to go first 04:33 The men who stop it 05:55 Temporary becomes twelve years 06:48 A decision, at last HISTORICAL SOURCES National Park Service — The Pig War https://www.nps.gov/sajh/learn/histor... National Park Service — Lyman Cutlar Homestead https://www.nps.gov/places/lyman-cutl... National Park Service — The Salish Sea https://www.nps.gov/places/the-salish... U.S. Department of State — Northwest water boundary and the island of San Juan https://history.state.gov/historicald... National Park Service — Joint occupation and camp visits https://www.nps.gov/sajh/learn/news/e... MUSIC "Investigations" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) https://incompetech.com/music/royalty... Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Edited, faded, looped where needed, and mixed beneath narration. "The Descent" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) https://incompetech.com/music/royalty... Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Edited, faded, looped where needed, and mixed beneath narration. PRODUCTION NOTE Illustrations and narration were made with AI assistance. The drawings are stylized illustrations, not archival images; maps are schematic. The narration is original historical paraphrase, not reconstructed dialogue. The reference to the pig as the only casualty concerns the armed confrontation. #History #PigWar #BadlyDrawnHistory