![]() By the end of the attack, the riots had been quelled and some 30,000 members of the mob lay dead around the grounds of the hippodrome. After bribing the Blues to gain their support, the emperor launched a devastating assault on the remaining hooligans. Faced with a full-scale revolution, Justinian finally resolved to put down the rebellion by force. In a few short days, they had burned the headquarters of the city prefect, clashed with imperial guards and even attempted to crown a new emperor. In a rare instance of unity, the two factions banded together and began to riot. These ancient hooligans acted more like street gangs than sports fans, and the most powerful groups-known as the Blues and the Greens-became notorious for their barbarism.Ĭonflict erupted in January 532, when Emperor Justinian refused to release two members of the Blues and Greens who had been condemned to death. The races held at Constantinople’s hippodrome had soared in popularity during the sixth century, and fans had organized themselves into strict factions. In 532 AD, massive mobs flooded the streets of Constantinople, burning large parts of the city and nearly toppling the government of the Emperor Justinian-and all of it in the name of chariot racing. The two nations would finally negotiate a deal allowing for joint military occupation of San Juan Island in October 1859, ending the Pig War as a bloodless stalemate-save for one unfortunate hog. An absurd standoff ensued, and the situation remained on a knife-edge for several agonizing weeks. property, and the British responded by sending a fleet of heavily armed naval vessels to the coastline. Pickett upped the ante by declaring the whole island U.S. Army dispatched Captain George Pickett-later a Confederate general during the Civil War-to San Juan with a small complement of troops. The ensuing argument over the dead hog increased tensions between the two groups of settlers, and Cutlar was eventually threatened with arrest.Īfter the Americans reported the incident to the military, the U.S. The first and only shots of the Pig War came on June 15, 1859, when an American farmer named Lyman Cutlar gunned down a British-owned black boar after he discovered the animal rooting through his potato patch. At the time, the island was home to American settlers and British employees of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and both parties had laid claim to its fertile soil. The controversy began in 1859 on San Juan Island, a chunk of land located between the mainland United States and Vancouver Island. The aptly named Pig War nearly saw an argument over a slaughtered swine lead to a full-scale conflict between the United States and Great Britain.
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