Humanity has been waging continuous wars throughout its history. The reasons are usually the same: power, territory, resources. But the reasons may be the most unexpected - a killed pig, a wooden bucket, a victory in the World Cup.
F utbolny match
In Latin America, football is not just a sport, it is a lifetime. And in some cases, it is a matter of life and death.
Residents of El Salvador and Honduras have long disliked each other. In El Salvador there was an acute shortage of land, and in neighboring Honduras there was plenty of it. As a result, the Salvadorans moved to their neighbor's territory, and not always by legal means. Conflicts periodically arose between local residents and emigrants, but it never came to hostilities.
In 1970, the World Cup was to be held. Three qualifying matches took place between El Salvador and Honduras, in which El Salvador won. The riots during the matches have reached alarming proportions. After the second game, many Honduras fans and even members of the national team were severely beaten by the Salvadorans. In response, Honduras broke off diplomatic relations with El Salvador and expelled all Salvadoran refugees from its territory. El Salvador began mobilizing troops.
Active hostilities lasted four days. Thousands of people died in the conflict. The war had an extremely negative impact on the economies of both countries. The peace treaty was signed only thanks to the intervention of the UN 10 years after the start of the war.
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Give a neighbor a pig
The history of this war is an example of how a quarrel of fellow villagers can develop into a military conflict. In 1859, due to a dispute between two neighbors in the United States and Great Britain, the war for the island of San Juan began.
At that time, the northwest of the American continent was still poorly understood. Due to the ambiguity that arose, both sides decided that the island of San Juan was in their zone of influence, and rushed to colonize it. British settlers took up animal husbandry, American farmers plowed the land. They were far from politics, so they lived with their neighbors in peace.
But everyone knows how annoying neighbors can be! One morning, the American Lyman Cutler found a huge black pig in his garden, eating his potatoes. Cutler got angry and shot the insolent animal. As it turned out, the pig belonged to the British colonist Charles Griffin. In order not to spoil the relationship, Cutler offered Griffin $ 10 in compensation, but he demanded a whole hundred. The American refused to pay, then Griffin went to court, and Cutler - to the American troops for military protection.
The Americans pulled troops to San Juan, the British sent three warships there. The soldiers and sailors exchanged mutual insults for several days. But no one violated the order: shoot only in case of an enemy attack.
To resolve this conflict, the United States and Great Britain had to involve an arbitrator - the German Kaiser Wilhelm I. Having carefully studied the issue, the commission headed by Wilhelm transferred the island to the United States. This happened only in 1872.
Foe of man
And one more story about how the animal became a "bone of contention". In 1925, a serious armed conflict took place on the border between Greece and Bulgaria. These countries were once allies, but then a dispute over the possession of Macedonia began between them. As a result, in the First World War, Greece fought on the side of the Entente, and Bulgaria joined Germany, Turkey and Austria-Hungary.
The defeat in the war did not make the Bulgarians more friendly towards the Greeks.
On the other hand, the Greeks at the frontier post near the town of Petrich were very friendly. One of them, for example, wanted to pet a stray dog. But she ran away and, together with her pursuer, crossed the Bulgarian border. Bulgarian border guards opened fire and the Greek was fatally wounded. A few days later the Greek troops crossed the border. Without declaring war, they occupied several Bulgarian villages. The Bulgarian side began to pull troops to the border and build defensive structures …
Only the timely intervention of the League of Nations, an analogue of the modern UN, saved the Balkan Peninsula from a new war. It turns out that a dog on the border is not always a soldier's loyal friend and assistant.
Contention Bucket
In 1325, a brave cavalryman served in the Italian city of Bologna. Rather, not brave enough - one fine day he decided to leave his duty station and go to the city of Modena (it should be noted that at that time many Italian cities were independent micro-states). In order to water the horse, the Bolognese took a wooden bucket with him.
After a while, the outraged compatriots of the deserter turned to the Modenians. They demanded to return … a state-owned wooden bucket. The inhabitants of Modena did not react in any way to the absurd request, after which Bologna sent an army to its arrogant neighbors.
The war lasted 22 years, with hundreds of casualties on both sides. As a result, the unfortunate bucket was never returned to Bologna - she lost the conflict.
Guano War
Guano is a value that smells like. These are naturally decayed remains of seabird and bat dung. It is an important fertilizer containing a lot of phosphorus and nitrogen.
Deposits of precious dung are found on some islands in the Pacific Ocean. But the largest "deposit" of guano is located in the Atacama Desert, that is, on the Pacific coast of Peru and Bolivia. Their northern neighbor Chile also wanted to participate in the extraction and export of a useful resource, and in 1879 the Chileans attacked Bolivia.
There was a secret mutual assistance agreement between Peru and Bolivia. But even the help of an ally did not save Bolivia from a crushing defeat. The Chileans had a huge naval advantage, which allowed them to quickly seize the entire coastline, land troops and strike at a number of Bolivian cities.
As a result, the total losses of the belligerents in killed and wounded amounted to about 30 thousand people. Bolivia has lost access to the sea. And Chile has acquired a hundred thousand square kilometers of coastline covered with the coveted dung.
Oh these buns
The first French intervention in Mexico was called the "Confectionary War" and here's why.
It is clear to anyone familiar with French cuisine that the people of this country take cooking very seriously. The French confectioner Remontl kept a shop in Mexico City, where he sold his works of art. But in 1838, during the next unrest, his store was ruined, and not by some lumpen, but by Mexican officers. Remétel turned to King Louis-Philippe of France for protection.
The French government estimated the damage caused to the property of Remontl at an inconceivable amount - 600 thousand pesos. A worker in Mexico at the time earned one peso a day. Louis Philippe demanded that the Mexicans pay the damage, and at the same time the foreign debt of France (which by that time amounted to several million dollars). After the refusal, the French fleet blocked all Mexican ports, Mexico was cut off from trade routes. Only the diplomatic intervention of Great Britain made it possible to stop this war. 600,000 pesos were paid to the affected party, and on March 9, 1839, the French withdrew their forces.
Jenkins' ear war
In our review, one cannot ignore another colonial conflict, which grew into one of the largest European confrontations of the 18th century - the War of the Austrian Succession.
Spain at that time owned huge territories in the West Indies (that is, in the Caribbean). But their management was very bad. True, colonial goods entered Europe regularly. The British government, led by Prime Minister Robert Walpole, believed that it was easier and cheaper to buy sugar and cocoa from the Spaniards than to try to wrest their dominance in the West Indies and create their own trading system there.
But once the captain of a British merchant ship Robert Jenkins came to a meeting of parliament (not without the help of the opposition). He said that Spanish ships were robbing all ships flying the British flag, taking their cargo and insulting British citizens. As evidence, he showed a glass bottle with an alcohol-coated ear, which a Spanish officer had cut off for him. He had been carrying this ear with him for seven years, hoping that the doctors would be able to sew it back on.