Winfield Scott and British authorities reduced the confrontation to small, controlled garrisons while diplomacy continued. One explanation offered for British restraint is its wider interests: trade and investment in the United States, strategic advantages from the Monroe Doctrine, and the absence of any compelling reason to reconquer American territory. The discussion places this in Britain's shift from mercantilist control toward capitalist investment. An independent United States could absorb British capital without making Britain pay to govern or defend it. Both sides maintained limited occupation while the American Civil War and later negotiations delayed a final boundary. The boundary took years to settle, but professional crisis management prevented the delay from becoming a shooting war.
Notable Point · 24:59-29:18
Negotiation replaced escalation in the Pig War
The crisis settled into limited joint occupation because neither Britain nor the United States benefited from converting a manageable dispute into war.