Wars are Scilly
On the 17th of April 1985, one of the world’s longest wars came to an end. The Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years’ War between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly began as a result of a conflict involving the Dutch Navy in British waters.
Britain: Peace in Our Time – TIME
In 1651 the Dutch dispatched twelve warships to the islands, which are British territory situated 28 miles off England’s southwest coast. The islands were harboring pirates who had been menacing Dutch ships. The Dutch declared war on the islands, but before any shots were fired, the British promised to resolve the pirate problem. The Netherlands recalled its fleet, but both the Dutch and the Scillonians technically remained in a state of conflict.
It was not until 1985 that the issue came up again, when a historian contacted the Dutch Embassy to debunk the myth that they were at war with the Islands of Scilly. It was revealed that the declaration of war was never repealed and thus the war had continued, without a single shot fired, for 335 years.
The conflict finally came to an end on 17 April of that year when Dutch Ambassador Jonkheer Rein Huydecoper travelled to the islands to sign a peace treaty. The war was over.
And on 17 April 2010, people all over the world declared war on boredom with these wonderfully happy and active photographs:
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- Clackmannanshire
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- Grand Island, NE
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- Tel Aviv
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- Indiana
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- South Wales
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- Luzern
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- Maine
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- Amsterdam
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- Florida
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- Texas
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- Rhode Island
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- Sulham Wood
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- Mijas Costa
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- Oakley
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- Isle of Mann
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- Theale
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- Reading
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- Sheffield
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- Sheffield
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- Reading
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- Worcester
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- Torquay
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- Marbella
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- St. Gallen
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- Blackpool
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- Dubai
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- Arrochar Alps
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- Birmingham
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- Rorschach
Isn’t this just a great set of truly interesting images? Here are our photographers:
- capo42
- RAFairman
- DaughterofLir
- rOcKeTmAn_76
- brooks_beauty
- raumsinn
- KeithSpitalnick
- PCurd
- akrabat
- chris_alexander
- thermalhound
- icklemouse
- sarahfenn
- Sithefire
- twasntme
- Mutley627441
- akaSylvia
- NevilleFenn
- JanetIsserlis
- illuminancy
- dlewis1701
- ingridf
- timewind
- michrueg
- cornellfinch
- ElshaHawk
- elibrody
- UKMelia
- Andrew_Lillie
Would you like to see your scene featured here?
Simply take a photo on a Saturday and tweet it to @SatScenes! Every week I retweet the Saturday Scenes and then I collect them all for a special post here.
This week we almost beat the highscore – just two more people next week and it will be the most popular Saturday ever.
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