Most Absurd Reasons Wars Started in History

In 1838, France declared war on Mexico because of an unpaid restaurant bill. A French chef's pastries were eaten without payment. France sent twenty-six warships. Mexico lost a fort. A general had his leg buried with full military honors. This actually happened. And it's not even the most absurd reason a war has ever started. Today: five wars. Five reasons so petty, so baffling, so completely avoidable that historians have been writing about them with straight faces for centuries. A bucket. An ear in a jar. A pig in a potato garden. A chair that wasn't a chair. And one unpaid pastry bill that somehow became a diplomatic incident between two sovereign nations. The weapons were real. The casualties were real. The reasons were completely, utterly magnificent. —————————————————————————— CHAPTERS The War of the Golden Stool (1900) The War of Jenkins' Ear (1739) The War of the Bucket (1325) The Pastry War (1838) The Pig War (1859) —————————————————————————— Sources: Beverley Gartrell, "Colonial Wives: Villains or Victims?" (1984) Richard Pares, "War and Trade in the West Indies" (1936) Alessandro Barbero, "Battaglia: La guerra nel Medioevo" (2009) Gene Brack, "Mexico Views Manifest Destiny" (1975) Scott Kaufman & John Soares, "Sagacious Beyond Praise? Whiting and the Pig War" (1999) #WeirdHistory #HistoryFails #AnimatedHistory