First things first. Let’s understand what causes a war. Economic gain, Territorial gain, Revolutionary ideas are some of the elements which cause war and we see a point in them. But, wait, history has also witnessed a ton of wars where we can see absolute no point in them.
Let’s know some of the funniest and pointless things that have started a war. Let’s dive in!
1. Bird Droppings (Spain Vs. Peru)
Seriously? Bird Droppings started a war? Yeah! The Spanish landed on the Chincha Islands whose only notable feature was that birds really, really loved defecating on them. These islands were claimed by Peru. The islands’ reserves of guano were valuable as a fertiliser, but the Spanish mainly wanted it to show they didn’t think Peru was a proper country and they could take stuff from Peru’s islands whenever they wanted. Peru disagreed and boom, a war started. After a few naval battles both sides claimed to have won.
2. The Golden Stool (The Ashanti Empire vs Great Britain)
Almost every house has got a special spot, thing or a place which is trated sacredly by the people of the house and you better not mess with those special ‘sacred’ things. The same happened here. There was a Golden stool in the Ashanti Empire. The stool was sacred, believed to house not only the authority of the chief, but also the spirit of the Ashanti nation, as well as the souls of the living, dead and yet to be born. You might have guessed where the story is going! The king of Ashanti Empire had been exiled and the empire was left without an in-charge. In March 1900, the British General Hodgson entered the Ashanti capital and said that since the Ashanti lands were under the rule of the Queen, they had better fetch him this sacred Golden Stool and things started to fall apart. The people united and declared a war on the British troops! Alas, the Ashanti Empire lost on the battle field in the end.
3. The War of Jenkins’ Ear (Great Britain vs Spain)
Though this is not too funny, it’s outright ridiculous. Will you wage a war on someone for the things happened several years ago? In 1738, a British mariner, Robert Jenkins, displayed a severed, decomposing ear before the members of Parliament. In his testimony, he claimed that a Spanish coastguard officer had sliced off his ear seven years earlier as punishment for smuggling. Soon The British declared a war on Spain. There were clashes between The British and Spain earlier and this acted as a fuel to wage a war. At the end, it was a draw.
4. The Pig War (Great Britain vs America)
In 1859, America and Britain were fighting over boundaries. Apparently, Lyman Cutlar, an American farmer who had moved onto the island claiming rights to live there under the Donation Land Claim Act, found a large black pig rooting in his garden, so he shot and killed the pig…which turned out to be owned by Irishman Charles Griffin. This led British authorities to threaten to arrest Cutlar, and American settlers called for military protection, creating The Pig War. During the duration of the war, there was no actual combat, According to the National Parks Service, the only threat to the peace during the war’s 13 years was an extravagant supply of liquor…meaning the pig was the only casualty of the war.