Name of unfought war

[SewerStarFish]

Can some please help me? I remember reading of a South American country declaring war on a European country but there was no fighting.It was over something trivial. I believe the two were technically at war for some time. Who were they?

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

You may be referring to Columbia and Germany, it was in the late 1900s (as in, before 1910), and TR stopped it from happening.

 

[Spartan117]

Unless you talking about argentine declaring war on england over the falkland islands? That happen in the early 80's.

 

[Renner]

Unless you talking about argentine declaring war on england over the falkland islands? That happen in the early 80's.

Yeah, came to my mind as well, definitely fighting in that war though.

 

[SewerStarFish]

You may be referring to Columbia and Germany, it was in the late 1900s (as in, before 1910), and TR stopped it from happening.

I think this is the one. The Colombian government was upset over some less than war needed issue -- but declared war on Germany and Germany just ignored them.

I really thought it was a smaller country than Germany like Belgium or The Netherlands. If anyone has more info I'd appreciate it.

 

[1889]

This also fits the bill:

The Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years' War (1651-1986) was a war between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly (located off the southwest coast of the United Kingdom). It lasted 335 years without a single shot being fired which would make it the longest war and with the fewest casualties. Despite uncertain validity of the declaration of war, peace was declared in 1986.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Hundred_and_Thirty_Five_Years'_War

Which is also the longest war...so far. The shortest was the 45 min. Anglo-Zanzibar War of 27 August 1896.

 

[GinandTonic]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Hundred_and_Thirty_Five_Years'_War

in 1966 a Soviet official waited upon the Mayor of Berwick, Councillor Robert Knox, and a peace treaty was formally signed. Mr Knox is reputed to have said "Please tell the Russian people that they can sleep peacefully in their beds."

Outstanding!

 

[1889]

You refer to this:

There is a curious apocryphal story that Berwick is (or recently was) technically at war with Russia.

The story goes that since Berwick had changed hands several times, it was traditionally regarded as a special, separate entity, and some proclamations referred to "England, Scotland and the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed". One such was the declaration of the Crimean War against Russia in 1853, which Queen Victoria supposedly signed as "Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, Ireland, Berwick-upon-Tweed and all British Dominions". However, when the Treaty of Paris (1856) was signed to conclude the war, "Berwick-upon-Tweed" was left out. This meant that, supposedly, one of Britain's smallest towns was officially at war with one of the world's mightiest powers– and the conflict extended by the lack of a peace treaty for over a century.

Excellent. Now I can't wait for my next chance to play Trivial Pursuit, Silly Wars Edition.

 

[sydhe]

Let us not forget the Pig War of 1841 between France and the Republic of Texas, and the Pig War of 1859 between England and the United States. No human casualties in either one (although there were porcine casualties).

 

[Mirc]

This also fits the bill:

The Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years' War (1651-1986) was a war between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly (located off the southwest coast of the United Kingdom). It lasted 335 years without a single shot being fired which would make it the longest war and with the fewest casualties. Despite uncertain validity of the declaration of war, peace was declared in 1986.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Hundred_and_Thirty_Five_Years'_War

Which is also the longest war...so far. The shortest was the 45 min. Anglo-Zanzibar War of 27 August 1896.

It's not the longest! According to wiki, the longest is the third punic war:

....Combatants.................War Name..........Declared in....De facto peace........Ceremonial peace
Rome vs Carthage.........Third Punic War ........149 BC............146 BC.....................1985 AD

 

[GinandTonic]

Excellent. Now I can't wait for my next chance to play Trivial Pursuit, Silly Wars Edition.

No discussion of silly wars is complete without the Football War. Although with 4,000 casualties perhaps it is rather bad taste to make light of it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_War

 

[Fugitive Sisyphus]

It's not the longest! According to wiki, the longest is the third punic war:

....Combatants.................War Name..........Declared in....De facto peace........Ceremonial peace
Rome vs Carthage.........Third Punic War ........149 BC............146 BC.....................1985 AD

How is that possible? Both combatants were long gone by 1985. Carthage was destroyed at the end of the Third Punic War in 149 BC and the the last parts of the Roman Empire ended with the fall of Constantinople in 1453.

 

[1889]

How is that possible? Both combatants were long gone by 1985. Carthage was destroyed at the end of the Third Punic War in 149 BC and the the last parts of the Roman Empire ended with the fall of Constantinople in 1453.

This is what happens when mayors get board.

 

[Mirc]

How is that possible? Both combatants were long gone by 1985. Carthage was destroyed at the end of the Third Punic War in 149 BC and the the last parts of the Roman Empire ended with the fall of Constantinople in 1453.

I know, but that's what Wikipedia says.

 

[Mongoloid Cow]

Well, Wikipedia is being stupid.

 

[Evie]

Wikipedia is reporting a fact : a peace treaty formally ending the third punic war WAS Signed in 1985 between the cities of Rome and Carthage. Which were, in fact, the initial warring parties in the original Punic War - "The Roman Republic" was never more than a fancy term for "The City of Rome and whatever minions we happen to have right now. The same for Carthage.

Of course, neither present-day Rome or Carthage has much to do with the ancient one, but then again, the Soviet Union of 1966 had little to do with Crimean Tsarist russia ; and the people of the Scilly who signed peace with the Netherlands had nothing to do with the rebels on whom the war was initially declared.

Was the war "really" over long before that? Yes, obviously. But so were EVERY OTHER of those "long wars" - the Three-hundred-and-thirty-five-years war really ended after the rebels were crushed, it's just a diplomatic artifact that no formal peace was declared. The same goes for the Berwickian war on Russia (with the exception that the BBC investigating found Berwick was never mentioned in the declaration of war to begin with, so was not separately at war, and thus was included in the original treaty).

(It's also questionable whether the individual who actually declared war on the Scilly had the legal authority to do so)

Essentialy, calling ANY of those wars "longest-lasting wars" is a stretch and requires suspension of disbelief, because in all cases the actual war ended long before the peace treaty was signed (if it ever existed at all).

If you want to look for a real longest-lasting war, there are plenty of real wars that lasted several decades (and I don't mean the HYW - that's several separate wars with several treaties). The Dutch Revolt (Eighty Years War) isn't bad as far as really long wars go.

But if you want to be serious about long wars, don't look at Berwick or the Scilly, because these peace treaties are no less silly than the Rome-Carthage peace of 1985.

 

[GinandTonic]

But if you want to be serious about long wars, don't look at Berwick or the Scilly, because these peace treaties are no less silly than the Rome-Carthage peace of 1985.

Wasnt the mayor of Berwick-upon-Tweed telling the Russian Ambassador that now, finally, the Russians could sleep peacefully in their beds something of a giveaway that the deal wasnt 100% serious?

I know we Brits can be a little cocky but....

 

[Fugitive Sisyphus]

But Carthage was razed to the ground at the end of the Third Punic War. So it would seem that war was declared on a set of coordinates.

 

[Adler17]

Well, IIRC the mayor of Berwick acted only. But he wasn't able to do so! Only the Queen could do so. So it was like Schwarzenegger negotiating a peace with Ahmadinedshad while the US are at war with Iran. So indeed this war still lasts.
However this story remembers me about a joke:
(The people of Ostfriesland are made fun of here in Germany, like in Ireland the jokes about the people of Kerry).

The East Frieseans send a declaration of war to the Soviets: "We have 1.000 men and 10 tanks and declare war on you." The Soviets replied: "Well we do have 10.000 tanks and 10.000.000 men. Do you really want to declare war?" The East Frieseans replied again: "No, we retreat from the declaration of war. We simply have no facilities for so many PoW to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe."

Adler

 

[Evie]

Actually, IIRC actual studies demonstrated the war was never declared separately, so Berwick hasn't been at war with Russia since the end of the Crimean war.

Fugitiv - isn't that pretty much what the Dutch-Scilly war is all about? War was declared on a geographic location (by someone who might not have had the authority to declare war in the first place), rather than a relevant political entity (the rebels who then occupied the Scilly). Fact is, just as with Carthage, the people the war actually targeted have been gone for centuries.

If we were to look around, we could probably find a lot of countries worldwide that were accidentaly left off in treaties (Montenegro and Japan come to mind), vanished, were reborn, etc.