tiny disputes blown way out of proportion. Thus, through this humorous depiction of a war, Swift suggests that Western conflicts are small-minded, absurd, and ultimately unnecessary. 

In Daniel Defoe's novel Gulliver's Travels, Gulliver becomes involved in the long-standing dispute between the tiny citizens of Lilliput and the nearby island nation of Blefuscu. The conflict between the two nations of little people began long before when one of the Lilliputian emperors determined that eggs could only be broken on the small end. Some Lilliputians rebelled against this doctrine, and Blefuscu entered the conflict since the natives of Blefuscu--also known as "Big-Endians"--believed that eggs should only be broken on the big end. The two nations had been at war ever since.

The war between Lilliput and Blefuscu erupted over the issue of the proper way of breaking an egg. When the Emperor of Lilliput decreed that eggs should (contrary to the old practice) be broken at the small end, those people who clung to the old practice of breaking at the larger end were exiled, and were then given sanctuary and supported by the Blefuscuans.

It's not hard to see that Swift is parodying the kinds of religious disputes that constantly arose among Europeans (and others). Swift was a devout Anglican and a clergyman himself. One can interpret the Lilliput-Blefuscu dispute in various ways, especially as a parable of the disagreements between Protestants and Roman Catholics, or the disputes within Protestantism. But in spite of being a religious believer himself, one might argue that Swift seems to be attacking religion overall, not just a particular sect or denomination.

Swift's satiric approach is often to make a sweeping assault on human nature in general, rather than just specific factions or beliefs. In the Lilliput-Blefuscu war it is the universal silliness of humans who argue about trivial matters—not simply concerning religion, but anything—that Swift parodies.

Blefuscu and Lilliput are two neighboring countries of tiny men in Gulliver’s Travels. The war between these two empires starts due to a decree in Lilliput that bans an ancient practice. Traditionally people break their boiled eggs at the larger end, but ever since one day the king's grandfather accidentally cut his finger while breaking egg this way, this method of breaking eggs has been banned by the lawmaker in Lilliput and everyone must break eggs at the smaller end. The new law results in large-scale civil rebellions and lots of bloodshed. Many citizens of Lilliput who are against this law flee from Lilliput and seek refuge in Blefuscu, where the emperor allows them to break eggs whichever way they like. Blefuscu accuses Lilliput of not following the religious doctrine that "all true believers break their eggs at the convenient end" and attempts to solve this dispute through diplomatic negotiation but fails. Eventually, the war breaks out between these two countries. It has lasted three years so far.

The two great empires of Lilliput and Blefuscu are historical rivals that disagree about what is considered to be the proper end of an egg to break. The current Lilliputian emperor's grandfather had cut his hand breaking an egg on its larger end. The emperor then issued an edict demanding that citizens of Lilliput must break their eggs at the smaller end. The citizens initially resented the law, and as many as six rebellions have ensued because of the edict, which were instigated by the monarchs of Blefuscu. The majority of the population of Blefuscu refer to themselves as Big-endians and are accused of making the schism in the religion by incorrectly interpreting the words of a revered text regarding the appropriate way to break an egg. The venerated text reads, "that all true believers break their eggs at the convenient end" (Swift, 53). The Big-endians exiles reside in Blefuscu, and there has been an ongoing war between the two nations for thirty-six years (six-and-thirty moons). Swift is satirizing the long-standing conflict between Protestant England and Catholic France, which are metaphorically represented by the nations of Lilliput and Blefuscu.

In Gulliver's Travels, Gulliver discovers that Lilliput and a nearby island Blefescu have been at war for a long time over what seems to him to be a ridiculous issue: a dispute over which end one should break open when opening a hardboiled egg. The dispute over eggs extends back to the reign of the present Lilliputian emperor's grandfather, who, while a boy, cut his finger while attempting to break open his egg on the larger end. His father made a law against cracking eggs from that end, and it sparked a series of bitter civil wars that were encouraged by Blefescu: 

It is computed that eleven thousand persons have at several times suffered death rather than submit to break their eggs at the smaller end. Many hundred large volumes have been published upon this controversy; but the books of the Big-endians have been long forbidden, and the whole party rendered incapable by law of holding employments.

Gulliver's Travels is a satire, and Swift is using this absurd state of affairs to show that men go to war over things that aren't worth killing over. When understood in the context of his own time, he has in mind the series of conflicts between England and France that were intensified by the fact that England was a Protestant nation and France was Catholic, and that Catholic France had encouraged the pro-Catholic Stuarts during the seventeenth century, especially James II. If a giant from a faraway land had wandered into early eighteenth-century England, he would have probably viewed the conflicts between Britain and France as absurd as a long-standing war over eggs.