- Ya know, some wars are fought
over freedom and some are fought over pastries? (sword slicing) (engines revving) If there was ever a lesson not
to mess with your neighbors, this would be it. Way back in 494 AD in Saudi Arabia, the Banu Taghlib and Banu Bakr tribes got into a disagreement over a camel. The camel, owned by a
woman named Al Basus, wandered off to go hang out
with some of the other camels. Now, Al Basus' nephew
was the leader of the Banu Bakr tribe and those
other camels were owned by the rival Banu Taghlib tribe. That wouldn't have been
that big of a deal except that the chief of the Banu Taghlib's killed Al Basus' camel not
realizing that it wasn't one of his own. When her nephew found out,
he took an eye for an eye to a whole nother level
and killed the chief. That sparked a massive
war between the two tribes that lasted for 40 years. Okay look, I get it, camels are precious, but I'm pretty sure a four
decade long war that's still referenced as a warning
against holding a grudge wasn't the best way to
deal with the problem. I know they got them lovely camel humps, but you just buy another one
instead of starting a war and killing people. It's a good choice. (ominous music) The golden stool is the royal
throne of the Ashanti people and is believed to hold the
spirit of the Asante nation. It's so precious that few
people ever get to even see it, let alone sit on it. Asante was located along the
Golden Coast in what is now Ghana and back in 1900, while
their chief was in exile, they were dealing with
the British trying to colonize their land. But on March 25th, the British governor, Sir Frederick Hodgson,
demanded that they not only let him sit on the stool,
but also give it to him to bring to the Queen. Oh, that was bad movie Freddie! The request was so disrespectful
that the chief's mother led an attack against the Brits. The siege lasted three and a half months until the Brits with heavy
reinforcements broke through on July 14th. Sadly, in retaliation,
local villages were pillaged and land was stolen. Over 2,000 soldiers and
countless more civilians were killed and all because some guy couldn't sit on a stool. It's not like it was a
toilet and the guy was just urgent to make ca-ca. It was just a regular stool. He was just lazy and
didn't wanna stand up. Man, these people. On September 17th, 1788
in the midst of the Austro-Turkish war, an
Austrian army of 100,000 men set up camp near the
town of Cria-sha-besh. A group of Army scouts
crossed the nearby river to make sure that the enemy
Ottoman army wasn't close by, when they met some gypsies
with a whole lot of schnapps. The scouts were pretty
bruised up when more infantry soldiers showed up
and demanded that they share. But the scouts refused and no surprise, a fight broke out and a
makeshift fort was built around the barrels of schnapps. That's kinda crazy. I've never wanted to drink
that badly in my life. But it gets worse because
amongst the chaos, shots were fired and thinking
it was the Ottomans invading, soldiers started yelling,
"The Turks, the Turks," which was made worse when
German speaking officers started yelling halt, which
sounded to some like Allah. It was just a whole big
mess and then the fight woke the rest of the camp
who joined into the battle. By morning, 10,000 soldiers
had been killed and wounded by their own men. Yeah but, still got the schnapps though. The San Juan Islands are
located between Washington state and Vancouver Island,
but ownership of the land was never clearly defined
by the US or the British. In the mid-1800s, the
British-owned Hudson Bay company moved onto the island and
set up a huge sheep ranch, but then in 1859, American
settlers showed up thinking it was their land. Things were pretty tense
and then on June 15th, American Lyman Cutlar found
a pig digging in his garden, so he shot it. Mmm, bacon. Problem was, the pig belonged
to Charles Griffin, a Brit. When the British police
tried to arrest Cutlar, he called for military support. By August 10th, five British
ships and 2,140 troops were face to face with 461
Americans and 14 cannons. But luckily, both sides
gave the order to only fire if fired upon, so they
just kinda sat there. It took over six weeks for
each side to agree to reduce their armies, but the
tension lasted 12 years when America officially
took control of the islands. See kids, think twice next
time before you go into an unknown island and start shooting pigs. In 1731, the War of
Spanish Succession ended with a treaty that let
British traders take 500 tons of goods and as many slaves as they wanted from Spanish colonies. It wasn't much of a peace
deal, so Britain and Spain were at war a lot. In 1731, Julio Fandino,
the commander of a Spanish patrol boat, boarded the
British ship, The Rebecca. Fandino accused the captain,
Robert Jenkins, of smuggling and as punishment, he cut
off Jenkins' left ear. He was like an early,
more civilized Mike Tyson. So, in 1738, British Parliament
decided to hold a hearing, no pun intended. Lucky for them, Jenkins
had kept his detached ear for seven years and brought
it with him to court. They were so outraged by
the shriveled little ear that they actually declared war. 407 British ships and 186
Spanish ships were lost and over 20,000 British were killed along with 4,000 Spanish
killed and 5,000 total wounded. The war lasted nine years
with no territory gains or a winner, all over an ear. Man, I can't listen to this story anymore! Heh, see what I did there? Ear joke. From 1838 to 1839, France
and Mexico were involved in the Pastry Wars, but
don't get too excited. It wasn't nearly as
delicious as it sounds. At the time, many countries
were trying to take control of Mexico and people were getting upset with all the damage being
done to their property. So, in November of 1838,
a French pastry chef, Monsieur Remontal, issued a
complaint with the French King, Louis-Philippe. He claimed that in 1832,
his shop near Mexico City had been looted and he wanted
60,000 pesos in compensation. So, the King gave him his
full support and demanded that Mexico pay 600,000 pesos in damages, but Mexico just refused. So, France sent a fleet
of warships to Veracruz, the main port in the Gulf of Mexico. Not only did he occupy the entire city, but they blocked the Navy
leading to Mexico declaring war on France. It only ended on March 9th,
1839 when Britain intervened and got the Mexican
president to agree to pay. That would've been way
more interesting if someone just stole a whole bunch of croissants and two countries went at it. (sigh) And more tasty. On February 6th, 1840, the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi allowed
the British to legally occupy New Zealand, which wasn't exactly favored by the local tribes. The British began to
take over more control and move the capital from
Waitangi in the Bay of Islands itself to Auckland. This was upsetting to the
Maori tribe, which had signed a deal to ensure their independence. As the region lost out on huge
revenues because of the move, they built up support for a
rebellion against the British. And on July 8th, 1844,
supporters cut down the flagstaff that flew the Union Jack on Maiki Hill in Kororareka. But it did not take long
for the British to put up a new pole and flag. So, they went and cut it down again. In six months, the pole was cut down and put back up three times. Having enough, on March 11th,
1845, the 600 armed Maori stormed the city and fought the
British who were outnumbered but eventually won. The Battle of New Orleans
was the biggest battle of the War of 1812 between
the US and the British. British forces had made
their way down to Louisiana with hopes of taking New Orleans. On January 8th, 1815,
they marched on the city but Major General Andrew
Jackson had set up a strong defensive that was three lines deep and four miles long. The fighting lasted until
January 16th and it was one of the war's bloodiest
battles, but amazingly, the Americans won with only 100 casualties compared to the 2,000
British who were killed. Only one small problem. The battle was completely unnecessary. That's because when the fighting started, the war was already over. Earlier, on December 24th, 1814, a peace treaty between the
US and the UK was signed in GET, Belgium,
effectively ending the war. But see, 200 years ago, news
didn't travel like it does now and it took weeks for the
news to reach North America and the troops. Damn technology, you scary! In 1958, Iceland claimed
that they had exclusive fishing rights 12 miles off their coast. Sounds fair enough, except
the British weren't happy about it because this was
four miles more than Iceland had before. But instead of dealing
with the issue with long, boring policy meetings,
things got pretty fishy, like literally. Like a scene from the Three Stooges, the captains from both
sides started throwing live cod at each other. At one point, Icelandic
patrol boats tried to board the British ships, but
they chased them off with axes and hammers. Iceland even tried to blast
a British fishing boat out of the water, but
was chased away by a gang of British naval ships. By the end of it, Iceland
had six Navy ships and Coast Guard vessels
up against the force of the British Royal Navy. It took all the way up
until 1976 for the British, after being internationally
mocked and losing tons of money on military expenses,
that they decided to quit and let Iceland keep their water. The British love their fish, do they? It's not really worth it now, is it? No. The Kettle War took place
in the Netherlands in 1784 and is considered to be
the most humiliating war of all time. At that time, the Netherlands were split into two territories. The Northern Netherlands
and the Austrian Netherlands backed by the Roman Empire. Since the late 1500s,
the Northern Netherlands had blocked trade ships
from using the Scheldt River to access Austria-controlled Belgium. But on October 8th,
1784, the Roman Emperor, Joseph the Second, decided
to send three ships, including his prized
merchant ship, Le Louis, up the river figuring it was
about time that the Dutch just let them use it. No one ever thought that
the Dutch would even notice, but oh boy, they were wrong. With tensions running
high, a Dutch warship fired a single shot at Le Louie and it hit a kettle of soup. This alone caused the army to surrender. The Emperor tried to save
face by declaring war on October 30th but no
one took him seriously. I'm pretty sure this is where the phrase, "Pick your battles," came from. Hey guys, thanks so
much for watching this. As always, I would very much appreciate it if you left a like on it
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