The nice thing about the armed 1859 confrontation between the United States and Britain was that nobody got killed, unless of course you count the pig. On the eve of the American Civil War, the US and the UK got into a kerfuffle over the border between Oregon and Canada about a messy bit of islands and waterways. The maps were old and sloppy and the Oregon Treaty of 1845 had settled the whole soggy mess, or so everybody thought. The local Yank Army officers, it was alleged, schemed to start a war with the Brits to create a common enemy and stave off the conflict between the North and South. Another theory held it was meant to be a distraction so the South could leave the Union while the North had bigger worries. Whatever the case, that’s when the pig got shot.
© 2024 John Oliver
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