Aroostook War

Aroostook War
Map showing the extreme boundary claims (red=British, blue=United States), and the final border (yellow)
Date 1838-1839 Location Maine-New Brunswick border Result Webster-Ashburton Treaty
Belligerents
United States	United Kingdom British North America
Strength
6,000	15,000
Casualties and losses
None	2 injured
38 non-combat deaths

 United Kingdom

The Aroostook War (sometimes called the Pork and Beans War) was a confrontation in 1838–1839 between the United States and the United Kingdom over the international boundary between the British colony of New Brunswick and the US state of Maine. Several people were arrested; no one was killed. Top-level diplomats from the US and Britain met in Washington and forged a peaceful compromise, the Webster-Ashburton Treaty in 1842. It fixed the permanent border. The term "war" was rhetorical; local militia units were called out but never engaged in combat. The event is best described as an international incident.

In the end the crisis involved no actual armed confrontation between military forces and negotiations between British diplomat Baron Ashburton and United States Secretary of State Daniel Webster quickly settled the dispute. Webster secretly funded a propaganda campaign that convinced leaders in Maine of the wisdom of compromise. The Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842 established the final boundary between the countries, giving most of the disputed area to Maine while a militarily vital connection between Lower Canada and the Atlantic colonies was secured by Britain, as well as a project for a commercial right-of-way that would allow British commercial interests to transit through Maine on their way to and from southern New Brunswick or Nova Scotia. (The right-of way is still used in 2013 by the Eastern Maine Railway subsidiary of the New Brunswick Railway Company and by the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway. That trackage was originally part of the Canadian Pacific Railway's Sherbrooke - Saint John rail line.) Despite the lack of military action the episode had major consequences on the states' right to use military force on their own with the understanding that the main purpose was to address internal conflicts. In the aftermath of the crisis, the Federal government assumed complete control over military matters. The episode was to be the last serious confrontation between the US and the United Kingdom.

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