The war that lasted 335 years, but no one was injured? It looks like a fiction, but no – this is a real story! Between the Netherlands and the islands of Silly, the conflict officially stretched from 1651 to 1986, and not a single shot sounded. IA EAOMEDIA tells how the most strange war in history began and ended.
The longest war in history was between the Netherlands and the islands of Silly, which lasted 335 years, from 1651 to 1986. It was a formal conflict without fighting. No one died, there were not even skirmishes.
How did it happen? In 1651, during the English Civil War, royalists from the islands of Silly (off the coast of Cornwall) attacked the Dutch ships who supported the parliament. The Netherlands declared war on Silly, but soon the royalists surrendered, and they forgot the conflict. Officially, no one signed a peace treaty.
Years passed, and the “war” existed only on paper. In 1986, historian Roy Duncan discovered this incident and proposed concluding peace, and on April 17, 1986, the Netherlands and Silly signed a peace agreement, completing the most long and peaceful “war”.
This story is a lesson about how a bureaucracy can create a curiosity.
