Wars are usually fought over territories, glory, honor and similar motives. Most wars have complex and large-scale causes that have made them happen. But sometimes, there are exceptions. There are wars fought over some insignificant and trivial reasons. And today, those are our topic.
Together, we’ll learn about 10 of world’s most bizarre, interesting and pointless wars that have ever been fought. Without further ado, let’s get into them. Here are the top 10 most interesting wars, ranked in no particular order.
10) Anglo-Zanzibar War
9) War of Jenkins’ Ear
As you can guess by the unusual name, this war is listed here for having a very specific cause – a human ear. That’s right, a war started because of captain Robert Jenkins losing his ear in 1731. The war didn’t start until eight years later, but the first glimpse of conflict was caused by the separation of Jenkins’ ear. Britain suffered around four times the damage and loss compared to their Spanish opponents.
8) Pig War
7) Transnistria War
A local war in Transnistria that happened between in 1992Â is also known as the “Drunken War”, due to its bizarre nature. The soldiers were fighting during the day, but when the night approached they put down their weapons and went for a drink...with one another. The same people who killed each other on the battlefield during the day drank together regularly during the nights. As friendly as that may sound, the war wasn’t victim-less. Couple hundred people were killed and many more were injured during the 4 months long battle.
6) Great War in Paraguay
5) Second Italo-Ethiopian War
Italy vs Ethiopia had a face off in 1935/1936, and it is one of the most one-sided wars that ever happened. Italian army was consisted of over a million soldiers, armed with several thousand machine guns, few hundred tanks, modern assault weaponry as well as motorized transportation vehicles. On the other hand, 500,000 Ethiopians were armed with century old rifles, some even with spears and bows. They used horse-drawn carts as their transportation vehicles. While Italians had several hundred tanks and aircraft, Ethiopians had precisely 4 tanks, 7 armored cars and 13 aircrafts. Obviously, they suffered a major defeat.
4) The War of the Stray Dog
3) Great Emu War
An unusual war took place in 1932. During the November and December 1932, Australians battled…emus. That’s not a typo, we are referring to the animal. Several thousand emus arrived on Australian farming lands, ruining the corps and destroying the field fences. After several failed ambushes, guns that jammed and natural inconveniences (bad weather), the Australians killed only several hundred emus and fired around 2500 rounds of machine gun ammunition. The army withdrew shortly after, and the emus “attacked” again. Â Yet again, the army intervened and managed to kill 986 emus with 9860 rounds, giving it a rate of exactly 10 rounds per kill. Â During the following decades, farmers called for aid several times more, but were denied. A bounty system was put in place and was proven very efficient. However, technically the war vs emus was lost.
2) 355 Year War
1) Falkland War
Falkland War is one of the most bizarre wars because of what it was fought over. Two huge countries, Great Britain and Argentina battled over two South Atlantic Islands, both very small and without great importance. British defended the islands only because they didn’t want to give up their influence across seas. The 2-months long war however did have both impact in both countries and is the subject of many books, films and songs.