The real hundred years war

El Hombre Invisible

A bit of light relief...

http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.u...wickupontweed/

"When Queen Victoria signed the declaration of war on Russia in 1853, she did so in the name of "Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, Ireland, Berwick-upon-Tweed and the British Dominions beyond the sea." But Berwick was not mentioned in the Treaty of Paris that concluded the Crimean War in 1856, leaving the town technically still at war with Russia.

A peace treaty was only finally signed by a Russian diplomat and the then Mayor of Berwick in 1966. As the mayor said at the time: "You can tell the Russian people that they can now sleep peacefully in their beds". "

That makes Berwick and Russia at war for 113 years. Anyone know of any other long-term, long dormant spats?

honestrosewater

Not me, but that's a funny story. (Don't want you to feel invisible.)

El Hombre Invisible

You care! You really care!!

Evo

I care too! That was funny.

El Hombre Invisible

[sniff] To be cared for by such lovely people... But you've opened the floodgate of years of repressed emoticons now:

matthyaouw

Haha, very funny!

The only other things like this I can think of are the WW2 Japanese soldiers that spent years hiding in jungles, unaware the war was over. Here is one instance of this:
http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/90/..._japanese.html

I'm sure I've heard similar stories about treaties not being signed, but I can't remember any countries, wars or dates.

El Hombre Invisible

Yeah, I remember this. It's happened a couple of times. Can you imagine after sixty years of surviving in the jungle what it would be like to go home to Japan now? You'd probably want to go back to the jungle.

Anttech

Is there any reason why she signed that way? Why highlight Berwick?

iansmith

Wikipedia often has an answer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berwick-upon-Tweed

El Hombre Invisible

Yes, it was no doubt just in case it changed hands an odd number of times after war was declared. I think people IN Berwick think they are actually a country. A lot of people even now couldn't have told you whether it is in Scotland or England.

matthyaouw

I just heard (though don't nessecarily believe) that oficially ww2 didn't end 'til 1990, as the treaty referred to the country of Germany, which at the time had split into East Germany and West Germany, so it wasn't until the country was re-unified that the treaty became valid.
Not been able to find anything to back it up unfortunately, but it amused me none the less.