Since the day of its birth, human civilization has never lacked long wars.
The Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), the Dutch Federation's 80 Years' War against Spain (1568-1648), and the 117-year Anglo-French Hundred Years' War (1337-1453).
Long wars have devastated the economies, societies and hearts of the belligerents.
▲ 1618-1648, the tragic 30 years war
However, the world's longest war lasted 335 years, beginning in the era when humans drove horse-drawn carriages and ending with the first human landing on the moon. This was the 335-year war between the Dutch and the British Isles of Scilly.
However, as a long war, not a single person was wounded or killed in this war.
▲ United Kingdom, Netherlands and Isles of Scilly
The war began in 1651 when the English royalist army in the Isle of Scilly attacked Dutch merchant ships, causing friction between the two sides, and eventually turned into a war, but as soon as the war began, the royalists of the Isle of Scilly died out, and the battle ended quickly before it even began.
The war was buried in history until 1986. So why did this war last so long, and why did it have no casualties?
▲ The war years in Europe
I. The independence and rise of the Netherlands
The Netherlands is located in the north-west of Europe, and during the Middle Ages, Western Europe had two major powers, the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire.
The Holy Roman Empire around 1000 AD
The Kingdom of France was decentralized, with many highly autonomous ducaldoms. The Netherlands belonged to the Duke of Burgundy, the princely dukedom of France.
▲ The Netherlands has always been a contested area between Germany and France
The Duchy of Burgundy was contested by two major powers due to its position as a key throne, and was eventually divided between the two countries at the end of the 15th century. The Netherlands was annexed by the Holy Roman Empire.
The Netherlands was first ruled by the Habsburgs of the Holy Roman Empire, and then Spain acquired the right to rule the Netherlands through royal marriage, and the Netherlands was placed under the Spanish Habsburg dynasty.
▲Netherlands region
After the emergence of capitalism, the capitalist economy in the Netherlands prospered, industry and commerce flourished, and the bourgeoisie gradually grew. Feudal autocratic Spain squeezed the wealth of the Netherlands with harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, hindering the development of the local capitalist economy.
▲ Spain acquired the Netherlands through political marriage
At the same time, with the Reformation and the introduction of Protestantism into the Netherlands, the angry Catholic Spanish government began to violently persecute Protestants in the Netherlands.
The Dutch were long dissatisfied with Spain's brutal Catholic rule and rampant conquests, and finally broke out in 1568, starting the eighty-year Dutch War of Independence.
▲ Dutch independence hero Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange
At the beginning of the war, the Netherlands was weak and unable to resist the Spanish army, and in order to weaken Spain, the hegemon at the time, Britain spent a huge amount of money, troops and energy to support the independence movement in the Netherlands in the Eighty Years' War.
In decades of fighting, the soldiers and civilians of the two countries can be said to be a good brother in the trenches. In 1581, the Republic of the Netherlands officially declared its independence, and because the Dutch province of the Republic of the Netherlands had the greatest influence, the Republic of the Netherlands was often referred to as the Dutch Republic by foreign countries.
However, Spain refused to recognize the independence of the Netherlands (Netherlands), and wars between the two sides continued until the 17th century.
▲ In 1574, the tragic siege of Leiden
After entering the 17th century, the Netherlands, which had ended the unfavorable situation in the early stages of the war, gradually gained a foothold.
At the same time, the Netherlands gradually rose due to its huge maritime trade volume, gaining the name of "sea coachman", and then the Netherlands began to build its own fleet and merchant fleet, step by step to increase its national strength and influence, Spain gradually fell at a disadvantage in the war.
▲ 17th century, prosperous port of Amsterdam
As the Netherlands grew stronger, Britain began to weigh its aid.
Britain hoped that the Eighty Years' War would drag over mighty Spain, but did not want to see the Netherlands, an ally that had been aided by years of support, become over-powerful and compete with itself for maritime supremacy. Gradually, the two countries' former close relationship gradually drifted apart, the alliance gradually became in name, and both sides began to think about how to profit from each other and secretly expand their influence.
▲A powerful Dutch fleet that encircles and suppresses pirates
Time gradually came to a key point in British history - the English Civil War. A fierce war broke out in Britain between the Knights Party, which supported the kingship, and the Roundhead Party, which supported Parliament. Beginning in 1642, England fell into a state of prolonged chaos for nearly a decade. The situation inside Britain attracted the attention of its ally Holland.
▲Cavalry corps in the English Civil War
Although the Netherlands had won a decisive victory on the battlefield in 1642, Spain still did not give up the war and refused to recognize Dutch independence. Therefore, the British alliance was still needed diplomatically to coerce and deter Spain and ensure pressure on Spain.
If the Netherlands had taken the wrong side in the English Civil War and chosen the losing side, the new British government would have severed its alliance with the Netherlands, and the pressure on Spain would have been reduced in an instant, which would do no good to the cause of independence.
The Spanish Empire in the 17th century is still strong
At the same time, unlike the weak countries of decades ago, the Netherlands now has a strong navy and economy, so it has also become the target of both sides of the British Civil War. If the victorious side is chosen, the new British government may instead owe the Dutch favor, and the Dutch are more likely to exert influence on Britain in turn.
Therefore, how to bet on the side is a major problem that the Netherlands has to face.
In the society of the time, war against royal power was considered a very dangerous act, and no one thought that the feudal power would be challenged, so the Netherlands should support the Stuart dynasty.
However, the Netherlands made a different judgment at that time, and the Netherlands, as the first modern republic at that time, did not stick to feudal thinking in its diplomatic thinking, so it could make more advanced judgments.
After a choice of pros and cons, the Netherlands chose to support the parliamentary army, which was more likely to win, which ensured the continuation of the alliance between the two sides.
▲ In the Battle of Nacibi in 1645, the parliamentary army defeated the king's army
Under the victory of the Dutch and the pressure of the British, in 1648 the suzerainty Spain finally officially recognized the independence of the Netherlands (Netherlands), and the United Provinces of the Netherlands (Dutch Republic) was officially born.
At this time, 67 years have passed since the Netherlands (Netherlands) declared its independence, and 80 years have passed since the beginning of the war.
▲ The signing of the Peace of Westphalia officially confirmed the independence of the Netherlands
2. Forgotten wars
During the Civil War, Cromwell, the general of the Parliamentary Army, shone in the Civil War, leading the Parliamentary Army to victory over the King's Army, and later became commander-in-chief for his outstanding combat achievements.
Cromwell later used force to dissolve Parliament and became the de facto leader in control of the British military and government.
Cromwell, one of the most controversial figures in British history
Charles II 's royalist army could not compete with the powerful Cromwell, and Cornwall became the last stronghold of the royalists, but it was not long before Cromwell's army continued to capture the Cornish area.
The remaining royalist troops had to continue to withdraw to the Isles of Scilly near Cornwall, which became the last royalist area of British control.
▲ Cornwall, the southwest archipelago is the Isles of Scilly
What the Dutch did not expect was that the royalists, who were busy dealing with Cromwell and were already desperate, actually sent out their navy to raid a large number of Dutch merchant ships and looted a large number of Dutch property. The Netherlands, which had always hoped to reap the benefits, did not expect that it would eventually suffer such a heavy loss, and naturally could not tolerate such a situation.
▲Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly
According to British documents, the incident eventually turned into a war: in 1651, Admiral Tropp of the Dutch navy led a fleet to the Isles of Scilly, demanding that the royalists compensate them for the damage caused by the looting of Dutch ships. The Isles of Scilly refused to make reparations, and the Netherlands declared war on the royalists of the Isles of Scilly.
Subsequent historiography has suggested that the declaration of war order was most likely not made by the Dutch government, but by General Tropp himself.
After the royalists refused to take responsibility for the looting, General Tropp declared the Netherlands and the royalists at war on the spot out of personal anger. But for now, this statement is still only a speculation.
▲Dutch Admiral Tropp
However, the war ended without the two sides fighting. Even though war had been declared, General Tropp and his fleet remained only at the Isles of Scilly without fighting the local army.
After only about three months , Cromwell 's army arrived in the Isles of Scilly , and the Loyalists decided not to resist and surrender to Cromwell, ending the English Civil War.
The Dutch fleet saw that the royalists had died and the enemy had disappeared, so they led the army home. A war that cannot be called a war in this way naturally has not signed a formal peace treaty.
In the third phase of the English Civil War of 1649-1651, the royalists were completely destroyed
There are still many discussions and theories in the field of historiography about how this war ended. There is not much information on what the British and Dutch governments have done since then. This war, due to its unique nature and small scale, was quickly forgotten by the world. Because soon after, something more noteworthy than this war happened.
Beginning with the Dutch trade volume exceeding that of the United Kingdom, although the two sides remained an alliance, the conflict between the two sides on trade issues became increasingly irreconcilable, and both the United Kingdom and the Netherlands hoped that they could monopolize more trade. The prolonged English Civil War led to a serious decline in Britain's trade competitiveness.
In order to combat Dutch commerce and strengthen its own trade, Britain eventually took radical action. In 1651 , the British issued the Navigation Ordinance , which stipulated that goods delivered to Britain from anywhere must be transported by British ships , which dealt a heavy blow to Dutch commercial trade , and the British navy and privateers began to arrest Dutch merchant ships.
▲ Privateers that are armed robbery at sea are used to combat the maritime trade of other countries
A series of actions completely intensified the long-standing trade conflict between the Netherlands and England, and despite the Dutch efforts to prevent the war, the British still officially declared war with 1652, and the First Anglo-Dutch War broke out.
The Dutch navy and the British navy sent troops in formation over the vast ocean, and a large fleet of countless warships engaged in protracted battles at sea.
▲ Anglo-Dutch fleets engaged
From 1652 to 1674, the British and Dutch fought three large-scale wars. Even though the Netherlands had the upper hand in the war, especially in the Third Anglo-Dutch War, where the Netherlands won all four naval battles, years of war dragged down Dutch power and economy.
In the end, Britain won this battle for hegemony, and the "Empire of the Sun Never Sets" ended the glory of the "sea coachman". In the chaos of nearly two decades, the little conflict of 1651, which no one cared about, was long gone.
▲ Third Anglo-Dutch War, four naval battles The Netherlands won great victories
3. Armistice after a hundred years
For hundreds of years, Britain and the Netherlands fought each other but maintained a unique relationship. Relations between the two countries did not break down completely after the three Anglo-Dutch wars.
In 1649, Cromwell executed Charles I and established the Republic of England, and after the end of the civil war, Cromwell dissolved Parliament by force, took office as Lord Protector, and assumed the power of the Republic.
With Cromwell's death in 1658 , his son Richard succeeded him as Lord Protector , but he was too junior to control the situation and was soon ousted and Cromwell's republic collapsed.
In 1660, England welcomed Charles II to the throne, and the Stuart dynasty was restored.
▲ Charles II who returned
Charles II's successor, James II, perversely restored Catholic absolutism, leading to the Glorious Revolution of 1688.
The Netherlands provided an extremely important help in the Glorious Revolution: in order to prevent James II from returning to Catholic rule, Parliament invited James II's daughter Mary and her Protestant husband William III, the ruler of the Netherlands, to become King of England.
Wilhelm III crossed the sea with more than 100 warships and a Dutch army of more than 20,000 men to support the revolution, and James II saw that the tide had passed and quickly gave up resistance.
The British warmly welcomed the Dutch as king, and during this time England and the Netherlands briefly became a confederation. During this period, the two countries again united their forces against other powers, but with the dissolution of the Commonwealth, the alliance once again diverged.
▲ Two kings rule together
The Netherlands was in decline in the 18th century, and in 1780 Britain tore up the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of Alliance and declared war on the Netherlands due to Dutch support for the American War of Independence. In the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War of 1780-1784, Britain completely defeated the Netherlands, destroying the Netherlands' remaining maritime influence and trade control.
In 1795, the Dutch Republic was destroyed by France, in order to maintain the balance of power on the continent and weaken France's power, Britain vigorously promoted the restoration of the Netherlands during the Napoleonic Wars, and actively supported the construction of a new Dutch kingdom at the Congress of Vienna in 1815.
▲ The Kingdom of the Netherlands, established in 1815, includes the modern Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and later the independence of the two countries
Although Britain made great contributions to the Dutch restoration movement, it also demanded huge benefits from the government of the Kingdom of New Holland, including the colonies, through personal favors.
After the restoration of the Netherlands, its influence and military strength were greatly reduced, and the Netherlands preferred neutrality in international affairs and gradually withdrew from the struggle for world hegemony. During the colonial wars, the Dutch focused only on retaining their existing colonies such as the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia), rather than continuing to expand.
▲ Battle of the Dogger sandbar in 1781
During World War II, the Netherlands tried to maintain neutrality like World War I, but soon fell under the iron heel of the Nazis, and the Dutch royal family and government went into exile to England, where they fought together with the fascists and won a hard-won victory.
After the war, with the wave of independence and liberation of the colonies, the British and Dutch colonies became independent, and the two countries were transformed together in modern society. With the development of contemporary historical research, the war in the Isles of Scilly in the Netherlands, which should have been buried in history, has also reappeared.
▲The Netherlands, the modern country of peace in the triangle
The modern Isles of Scilly seceded from Cornwall as a separate administrative region of the United Kingdom, with a parliament and autonomy within the British legal framework. It is a tourism-based area with a population of just over 2,000 people and only five of the 145 islands inhabited.
▲Beautiful view of the Isle of Scilly
Centuries of inextricable ties between Britain and the Netherlands have left behind many legends and stories that often become the material for the investigation and research of historians in both countries.
In 1985, Roy Duncan, chairman of the Isles of Scili Parliament and historian, decided to investigate a strange legend circulating in the Isles of Scilly: that the Isles of Scili and the Netherlands had a war hundreds of years ago, and that the war has not yet ended.
As the investigation deepens and the dusty history reopens, Duncan discovers the startling fact that according to some ancient documents, the Isles of Scilly and the Netherlands have indeed been at war for 334 years.
In other words, during these more than three hundred years, the Dutch army attacked the British Isles of Scilly at any time, which was not considered an undeclared war. The people of the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly have been at war.
▲Landscape of the modern Isles of Scilly
In 1986, Duncan wrote to the Dutch Embassy in London with the facts and asked the Dutch side to investigate the matter. Embassy staff searched through a large number of documents over the centuries and were surprised to find that there was indeed no peace treaty between the two sides.
As soon as this matter was announced, it quickly shocked the British and Dutch people. People in Britain, the Netherlands, and even all over Europe are closely watching the next steps in this matter and how to properly solve the ancient war problem.
▲The era of the beginning of the war is like a world away for today's people
People in Britain, the Netherlands, and even all over Europe are closely watching the next steps in this matter and how to properly solve the ancient war problem.
It was felt that, even if it was not a real war, a proper and formal solution should be sought. In response, Duncan invited the Dutch ambassador to visit the Isles of Scilly and officially end the war.
▲Modern Anglo-Dutch friendly diplomatic relations
Under the close attention of the whole of Europe, the Ambassador of the Netherlands embarked on a journey to the Isles of Scilly, bearing the ardent expectations of the two peoples, and the two sides negotiated in a harmonious atmosphere, and the whole archipelago was filled with cordial and friendly atmosphere.
With the joint efforts of the government workers of the two countries, an armistice was formally signed on April 17, 1986, and the two sides jointly completed the conclusion of a peace treaty.
The war lasted 335 years, from 1651 to 1986, during which time no one was killed or injured. It began during the Cromwell period in England and the Republic of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, and ended under Elizabeth II and the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
In the more than 300 years of time flying, Europe and the world have experienced major changes such as the Seven Years' War, the Napoleonic War, the two world wars and the Cold War.
▲The era of maritime hegemony has long passed
Strictly speaking, the 335-year war was just a farce three hundred years ago. It cannot be called a war in the true sense of the word, but it is precisely because of its unique nature that it eventually lasted for more than 300 years without casualties, becoming an interesting episode in human history.
▲ Blood stains the blue sea, and the past of the battle is angry
Britain and the Netherlands also further strengthened their relationship by resolving the incident, and at the same time, the incident also brought the Scilly, a small archipelago that had been unknown, into the world headlines, greatly increasing the visibility of the Isles of Scilly.
The proper resolution of this incident not only represents the pursuit of peace and friendship between modern Britain and the Netherlands, but also an attempt by mankind to find a proper solution to the problems of past history.
▲Peace is the pursuit of mankind