By Dimitar PAnayotov, Xd class
The War of the Oaken Bucket
The War of the Bucket or the War of the Oaken Bucket was fought in 1325 between the rival city-states of Bologna and Modena. It took place in the region of Emilia-Romagna, in northern Italy. A common myth surrounding the War of the Bucket is that it was caused by the Modenese stealing a bucket from a Bolognese well.
However, that is mostly incorrect, as the bucket was, according to most accurate accounts, taken as a trophy by the Modenese after the war—in fact war was declared because Modena had captured the Bolognese castle of Monteveglio. Modena won the Battle of Zappolino, the only battle of the war, and the bucket remains in Modena to this day.
The Kettle War
The Kettle War was a confrontation between the troops of the Holy Roman Empire and the Republic of the Seven Netherlands in 1784. It was named the Kettle War because the only shot fired hit a soup kettle. In 1781 Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, taking advantage of the ongoing Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, and in 1784, he demanded the return of territory in the Overmaas and States Flanders as well as Dutch evacuation of Maastricht and the reopening of the Scheldt. Although the Habsburg army in that region was not equipped very well, the emperor decided to threaten war with the Dutch.
The Kettle War was a confrontation between the troops of the Holy Roman Empire and the Republic of the Seven Netherlands in 1784. It was named the Kettle War because the only shot fired hit a soup kettle. In 1781 Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, taking advantage of the ongoing Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, and in 1784, he demanded the return of territory in the Overmaas and States Flanders as well as Dutch evacuation of Maastricht and the reopening of the Scheldt. Although the Habsburg army in that region was not equipped very well, the emperor decided to threaten war with the Dutch.
In 1784 the Dutch ship the Dolfijn was sent out to intercept the Imperial ships. After only one shot, which hit a kettle, Le Louis surrendered and the emperor declare war. Meanwhile the States of Holland reacted: the Count of Salm was asked to form a small army. The Patriots used the incident for political propaganda and organized the Exercitiegenootschappen militia all over the country. Austrian forces invaded Dutch territory, razed a custom station and occupied the old Fort Lillo, at the time used as a vegetable garden.
As a consequence of this short skirmish, and under the mediation of France, negotiations were reopened between the countries. This led in 1785 to the Treaty of Fontainebleau. It was decided that the Scheldt would remain closed to shipping, but that the southern Netherlands would be compensated for this by the Republic. At a rough estimate the Republic paid 2 million guilders.
The Tree Hundred- and Thirty-Five-Years’ War
The Three Hundred- and Thirty-Five-Years’ War was an alleged state of war between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly, and its existence is disputed. It is said to have been extended by the lack of a peace treaty for 335 years without a shot being fired, which would make it one of the world’s longest wars, and a bloodless war. Despite the uncertain validity of the declaration of war, and thus uncertainty about whether or not a state of war ever actually existed, peace was finally declared in 1986, bringing an end to any hypothetical war that may have been legally considered to exist.
The Whiskey War
The Whisky War is a border conflict between Denmark and Canada over Hans Island. Since the 1930s, Hans Island has been in the middle of a disagreement between the two nations. Hans Island is in the middle of the Kennedy Channel between Greenland and Ellesmere Island. A theoretical line in the middle of the strait goes through the island.
Canada and Denmark could not come to terms on Hans Island in 1973 when a border treaty was signed, leaving a gap in its border description. In 1984, Canada provoked Denmark by planting its flag on the island and leaving a bottle of Canadian whisky. The Danish Minister of Greenland Affairs came to the island himself the same year with the Danish flag, a bottle of snaps, and a letter stating “Welcome to the Danish Island”. September 12, 2019 – The Government of Greenland decided to approve a temporary closure of Hans Island for the application for mineral exploration permits. This approval was based on an agreement between Canada and Denmark. The Canadian geologist John Robins therefore also had his minerals exploration claim for Hans Island suspended by the Canadian government. The Dane Andreas G. Jensen also had his application for mineral exploration permit rejected by the Kingdom of Denmark, because of this closure agreement.
The Pig War
The Pig War was a confrontation in 1859 between the United States and the United Kingdom over the British–U.S. border in the San Juan Islands, between Vancouver Island and the State of Washington. On June 15, 1859, exactly 13 years after the adoption of the Oregon Treaty, the ambiguity led to direct conflict. Lyman Cutlar, an American farmer who had moved onto San Juan Island claiming rights to live there under the Donation Land Claim Act, found a pig rooting in his garden and eating his tubers. This was not the first occurrence. Cutlar was so upset that he shot the pig, killing it. It turned out that the pig was owned by an Irishman, Charles Griffin, who was employed by the Hudson’s Bay Company to run the sheep ranch on the island. The conflict continued to escalate. By 1859, 461 Americans with 14 cannons under Colonel Silas Casey were opposed by five British warships mounting 70 guns and carrying 2,140 men. The governor of the Colony of Vancouver Island, James Douglas, ordered British Rear Admiral Robert L. Baynes to land marines on San Juan Island and engage the American soldiers under the command of Brigadier-General Harney.
When news about the crisis reached Washington and London, officials from both nations were shocked and took action to calm the potentially explosive international incident. In September, U.S. President James Buchanan sent General Winfield Scott to negotiate with Governor Douglas and resolve the growing crisis. This was in the best interest of the United States, as sectionalist tensions within the country were increasing, soon to culminate in the Civil War.
The Emu War
In morning of 2 November 1932, the Seventh Heavy Battery of the Royal Australian Artillery alighted at Campion, WA, on to a hot red-dirt landscape about halfway between Perth and Kalgoorlie. There they unpacked two Lewis automatic machine guns and 10,000 rounds of ammunition. The unit’s intention? To open hostilities with the emus of Western Australia that were moving in from central Australia in search of water and, having stumbled on the region’s delicious wheat districts, had begun to ravage crops.
No sooner had the unit arrived than a flock of 50 emus was sighted. The company’s commander, Major G.P.W. Meredith, immediately ordered his troops to circle the birds and chase them into range of the guns. By the day’s end only a dozen birds out of the thousands the men had shot at were dead. Nevertheless, first blood had been drawn in Australia’s ‘Emu Wars’. It all came about late in 1932, after a marauding emu population of at least 20,000 had been devastating farms across WA for some time. The farmers under attack (many of them ex-soldiers themselves) had eventually petitioned for military aid from the Minister of Defence George Pearce. He deployed troops swiftly, and they arrived with hopes of quick victory and a few emu feathers for their hats. No sooner had the conflict begun, however, than it became clear that the Australian military had vastly underestimated the emu. Cunning adversaries, the emus proved almost impossible to hit with machine-gun fire, and they seemed able to shrug off even serious injury from bullets without breaking stride.
“If we had a military division with the bullet-carrying capacity of these birds it would face any army in the world… They can face machine guns with the invulnerability of tanks.”
A few days into operations, a planned ambush by a dam failed miserably when one of the Lewis guns jammed. A later attempt to mount a machine-gun on a truck fell apart when it was made apparent that the vehicle could not keep up with the birds. Within a week of first contact the troops were recalled. Roughly 2500 rounds had been fired and killed somewhere between 50 and 200 emus. Meredith did note that his men had suffered no casualties. When the question was raised if a medal would be struck for the conflict, federal labor parliamentarian A.E. Green replied that any medals should go to the emus who had ‘won every round so far’. For his involvement in the deployment, Defence Minister George Pearce earned the unofficial title ‘Minister for the Emu War’.
