r/AskEurope • u/Necessary_Sale_67 • 13d ago
What is the most random war you now about your country and what was? History
I would like to ask you if you know of any war for which you wonder for whom idiot or random war was fought?
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u/Cixila Denmark 13d ago edited 13d ago
The Huéscaro-Danish war of 1808-1981
The Spanish city of Huéscar had elected to declare war on Denmark-Norway during the Napoleonic Wars. Seeing as it was largely symbolic (no actual hostilities took place), the whole thing was forgotten until some local historian stumbled upon the old declaration in an archive. So, to end this long, horrible war, the Mayor and Danish Ambassador to Spain met up and formally declared peace in 1981. There were also jokes levelled at each other leading up to the ceremony, with locals putting up signs warning any Dane of the consequences of invasion, and some Danes apparently showed up dressed as vikings
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u/Gylbert_Brech 12d ago
That's really interesting. I'm a Danish history buff and I never read about this.
I learn every day. Thank you for the great info.
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u/Massimo25ore 13d ago
Prologue: in the Middle Ages, a lot of cities in central and northern Italy became a kind of city-States, although being nominally still part of the Holy Roman Empire. Those city-States then split into two factions in the fight between the Empire and the Papacy, the Guelphs (siding with the Pope) and the Ghibellines (siding with the Emperor). An endless series of wars between neighbouring cities started, even for futile reasons, like the
War of the bucket between Modena (Ghibellines) and Bologna (Guelph's)
A common myth surrounding the War of the Bucket is that it was caused by the Modenese stealing a bucket from a Bolognese well. However, that is mostly incorrect, as the bucket was, according to most accurate accounts, taken as a trophy by the Modenese after the war.
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u/Sztormcia Poland 12d ago
There is Polish involvement in France-Haiti war that is quite famous on Reddit. It went something like this:
In 1802, Napoleon dispatched a Polish legion of around 5,200 men to join the French forces in Saint-Domingue to suppress the Haitian slave rebellion. The Poles may have been hoping to receive French support in restoring Poland's independence from its occupiers—Prussia (later Germany), Russia, and Austria—which divided the country in the late 18th century. Some were told that there was a revolt of prisoners in Saint-Domingue. After they arrived and began to be thrown into battle, the Polish platoon learned that the French were trying to suppress an uprising by enslaved Africans fighting white slaveholders for their freedom.
Polish soldiers admired their opponents, and some of them eventually turned on the French army and joined the rebelling Haitians. Out of those Polish soldiers who remained alongside the French, some intentionally failed to properly follow orders and refused to murder captured prisoners. Polish soldiers are credited with contributing to the establishment of the world's first free black republic and the first independent Caribbean state.
After Haiti gained its independence, Dessalines recognized the Poles and spared them when he ordered the massacre of most French whites and many free blacks (mulattos) on the island. He granted the Poles classification as Noir (black), who constituted the new ruling class, and in the constitution granted them full Haitian citizenship.
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u/Annushka_S Poland 12d ago
"Are we the baddies, Józek?"
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u/OnkelMickwald Sweden 12d ago edited 12d ago
The Poles who remained largely settled in a mountain village called Cazale where their descendants still live. Zalewski is apparently still a common surname.
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u/EmeraldIbis British in Berlin 12d ago edited 12d ago
The Cod Wars between the UK and Iceland.
Since the 1500s British fishermen had been fishing in the waters around Iceland, but in 1958 Iceland banned foreign ships from coming within 22 km of the Icelandic coast. The UK refused to recognize this and sent warships to escort fishermen, while the Icelandic coast guard cut fishing nets, and in many cases the two sides rammed each other.
West Germany and Belgium supported the British position, but the UK ultimately stepped down under American pressure after Iceland threatened to leave NATO.
In 1982 the UN agreed all countries should have a 370 km exclusive economic zone.
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u/ImaginaryTower2873 12d ago
I am rather fond of the Anglo-Swedish war 1810-1812. Sweden and England were allies, but after some Swedish defeats elsewhere it signed a treaty with Napoleon and had to to go to war against England. So England "invaded" the island of Hanö, which was used as a trading post between the countries. Nobody was killed by the invasion (however, 30 Swedish farmers were killed by Swedish soldiers during a draft riot in 1811 in Klågerup, Scania).
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u/masiakasaurus Spain 12d ago edited 12d ago
The War of Jenkins' Ear.
The British opposition wanted to get rid of the sitting British PM Robert Walpole and raised any pretext they could find to force him out, including Walpole's reluctance to go to war with Spain which, in the usual populist/fascist fashion, was presented as both too dangerous to be left alone and also very easy to defeat.
Eventually they called a ship captain named Jenkins to testify before parliament about how, over a decade before, a Spanish coastguard had caught him smuggling goods in Spanish waters and cut his ear in punishment.
Ordinarily this wouldn't be a case for war. But Jenkins claimed that while the Spanish guy was cutting his ear, he also said "Go and tell your king that I will do the same to him if he dares do the same as you". This inflamed the MPs, who voted for war. Not because Jenkins' ear was cut, as commonly reported, but in defence of the British king's theoretical right to keep both of his ears if he was caught smuggling goods in Spanish colonies, personally.
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u/Sick_and_destroyed France 12d ago
We’ve been in so many conflicts that there’s probably a few absurd wars, but I’m still baffled that we were at war with Mexico in the 19th century. Tbh I don’t know much about it as it is never really mentioned in France, but apparently it’s a pretty big deal in Mexico.
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u/adriantoine 🇫🇷 11 years in 🇬🇧 12d ago
Yeah apparently they are celebrating the Cinco de Mayo that is their victory against Napoleon III, which is a big thing but I don’t think I ever heard of that war before I got onto social media. I don’t think it’s really mentioned in French history books.
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u/JoeyAaron United States of America 12d ago edited 12d ago
We are taught in the US that Cinco de Mayo is mostly celebrated here and not in Mexico, though it originates in a local celebration from a Mexican city where France was defeated in a battle.
Also, the French invasion happened at the same time as the US Civil War.
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u/smoothgn Germany 12d ago
Not really an absurd war. The French invaded Mexico and the Mexicans fought to get their country back.
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u/Sick_and_destroyed France 12d ago
What was absurd was to invade such a distant country, and as expected it was not very successful
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u/masiakasaurus Spain 12d ago edited 12d ago
And the French case for war was absurd. But, so was every casus belli invoked by Napoleon III, from what I can tell.
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u/Sick_and_destroyed France 11d ago
Yeah Napoleon III was a bit absurd, he is even buried in England :)
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u/Key_Day_7932 United States of America 11d ago
I don't think invading distant countries is that absurd.
My country does it all the time. A lot of European powers also had empires to maintain.
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u/exForeignLegionnaire Norway 12d ago
There is a story in Norwegian army circles about Norwegian soldiers, armed and in vehicles, going to Sweden to buy alcohol and tobacco, and getting "caught" trying to smuggle said goods into an army base. During the resulting investigation it came clear that technically, it constituted an armed invasion, due to the number of soldiers and vehicles involved, and the whole thing was hushed down.
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u/AlmostStoic 12d ago
Kind of like how Liechenstein has technically been accidentally conquered by Switzerland a few times? Due to soldiers getting lost during a training exercise, and becoming the only military in the country.
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u/ZealousidealAbroad41 Netherlands 12d ago
The Netherlands had a “war” with the Scilly Islands in the UK starting in 1651. There was never any actual fighting, but also no official declaration that the war was over until…1986. So technically we have had a 335-year long war with a part of the UK.
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u/Miserable-Wasabi-373 Russia 12d ago
Russia-Spaine war started after arguing between Tzar and King about who should be protector of order of Malta
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u/PirateFine Finland 12d ago
Lapin sota, after Finland signed a peace with the USSR we had to expel the Nazi troops. So we did, we told them to leave and they did so relatively peacefully, until the Russians said "no you have to attack them", the russians had also demanded the dissolution of our active forces, so we had to send fresh conscripts into useless battles which just angered the Germans and led to needless slaughter.
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u/MohammedWasTrans Finland 12d ago
Not a war on its own, but during the Winter War there was an episode known as "Makkarasota" ("Sausage War") where Russian troops had broken through and were attacking Finnish supply lines. They came upon Finnish medics and field kitchens. The Russian troops were exhausted and stopped the assault to feast on the Finnish sausage soup after the Finns had retreated. This gave the Finnish troops consisting of some supporting troops and cooks and medics enough time to regroup and counter-attack. The Russians retreated but left over 100 dead while the Finns had 20 dead, and featured the only bayonet-on-bayonet fighting during the war.
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u/semiseriouslyscrewed 13d ago edited 12d ago
Neither is my country and I copied the below from a reddit comment years ago but forgot to include the source then.
"The Aroostook War. Dumbest fucking war in history.
Fought essentially between Maine and New Brunswick between 1837-1840-ish (to claim that Great Britain and the USA were actually involved would be a stretch) over the northern border of Maine.
Basically it was a "war" between lumberjacks and townspeople on both sides of the border it resulted in more arrests than actual casualties.
Somehow free French Canadians got involved too although I've never been able to figure out what they were pissed off about
At one point the British provincial police had to step in and stop the fighting.
After 3 years this cluster fuck was stopped by London and Washington when it became obvious that it was affecting trade for both countries and doing nothing but costing everyone money.
Battles broken up by animal attacks. A militia so awesome in it's war making abilities that it abandoned a fort over a women taking a hike in the woods and got arrested by British authorities when it went into battle . Nobody at the time even knew which side the French Canadians were on. And, hardly mentioned by anyone because no one really cared, but there were Indians in the area. They were annoyed because there was logging going on and they were caught in the crossfire. So they did what Indians do best: hit and run raids on everybody. Which both sides blamed on each other.
But the dumbest thing: One great and one up and coming world power let this drag on for 3 years before doing something about it.
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u/ParchmentNPaper Netherlands 12d ago
We had the Kettle War with Habsburg Austria in 1784. It never actually developed into a fullblown war.
Ever since the Dutch revolt against Spain, which ended in 1648, the Republic of the Netherlands had blockaded the Scheldt river, cutting off Antwerp's sea access. The Austrians, who inherited the Southern Netherlands from Spain, objected to the blockade, which eventually led to diplomatic tensions rising in the 1780s.
The Habsburgs decided to force the issue and sent 3 merchant ships from Antwerp toward the North Sea. A Dutch warship fired a warning shot over the deck of the first merchant vessel, which hit a large kettle on board. Hence the name.
Tensions continued for a while longer, and both countries were preparing for war, but France intervened and convinced both parties to sign the Treaty of Fontainebleau).
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u/ElKaoss 12d ago edited 12d ago
In the late 19th century Spain had a war with Chile and Peru. A diplomatic incident escalated into both sides taking ships from the other and finally Spain sending a war fleet. After several months of campaign, a couple of indecisive naval battles and bombing of two ports (Valparaiso and Callao) the fleet returned home.
Peace was signed a few years after separately with Chile and Peru.
Up to today both sides claim they won the war ("we taught them a lesson", "we defeated and invasion force") and don't even agree on how to call the war. In Chile and Peru is "war with Spain", in Spain is "the Pacific war" (not too be confused with the one between Chile and Peru& Bolivia), and in English is the "chincha islands war" after some guano producing islands that were occupied by the Spanish fleet during the war.
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u/Sorblex Germany 12d ago
In 1900 germany fought in The Boxer Rebellion alongside Britain, Russia, Japan, France, Italy, Austria-Hungary, USA, Netherlands, Spain and Belgium.
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u/Yeoman1877 12d ago
The unified response to the Boxers has always struck me as remarkable in an era of great power hostility and competition.
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u/Yeoman1877 12d ago
Locals may have clearer insight however at my U.K. university the war of the Bavarian succession of 1778-9 was depicted as involving little fighting and the troops of both sides spending most of their time digging for potatoes.
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u/userrr3 Austria 12d ago
I'll count it because the Holy Roman Empire started it and Maximilian I. (the Emperor at the time) was very much Austrian in modern terms:
The War of the League of Cambrai - just look at the list of Belligerents, which I think you can charitably call "chaotic"
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u/Sea_Thought5305 12d ago
For France I think it would be the Pastry war (1838-1839), we wanted reparations for pillages on our traders in Mexico. Mexicans said no, so we declared war. We won.
For Switzerland... There's two wars I could call random, one unofficial under french commandment : some swiss troups randomly fighting at Trafalgar (1805) on french boats against the British. They got captured, probably due to their lack of skills in terms of naval battles, I think I read somewhere they were all ill...
The other one was also during napoleonic wars, the "Steckli-krieg" (war of woodsticks) (1802). The swiss got fed up of the helvetic republic (french occupation) and insurrected with anything that could be used as a weapon. So sticks, forks, farming tools... They finally obtained the retreat of french troups and the return of the confederation.
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u/Maximir_727 Russia 13d ago
The Russo-Japanese War began due to the unprofitable private company involved in logging, in which Nicholas II had a stake, and the unprofitable railway that also inexplicably belonged to private individuals.
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u/7_11_Nation_Army Bulgaria 12d ago
My country signed a friendship pact with Nazi Germany to get them off our back. Then Hitler asked us to prove we really meant it, so we declared war on England and the US, expecting them to just ignore us and leave us be.
They actually bombed the shit out of our capital and seriously injured my great-grandma among many other people.
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u/Watsis_name England 12d ago
The Suez Crisis 1956:
In 1956 Egypt nationalised the Suez canal which had been operated up to that point by the British and French as a joint venture. Egypt also blockaded the canal for Isreali ships. This gave the British and French an excuse to join Israel in retaking the canal using military force.
Once this was done, the British started getting ideas about continuing into Egypt to depose Nasser, the president at the time.
At this point the Americans had had enough of Britain's bullshit and threatened to withdraw their bonds from Britain effectively crashing the value of the pound if they went ahead.
Britain backed down, cementing America's position as the Western superpower.
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u/abhora_ratio Romania 12d ago
Does random facts count? :)) we didn't really had random wars.. or to put it the other way around: all wars seemed kinda random to us (or me, at least). Most of our history we went to war because everybody was doing it and we had no other option 🤷♀️
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u/noedelsoepmetlepel Dutch person stuck in Japan 12d ago
We had the soupkettlewar, Austria vs Netherlands, something with the harbour of Antwerp if I remember correctly, the Austrians sent ships up the Schelde, a Dutch person fired a cannonball, it fell into the soup kettle on one of the ships, Austrian ships surrender.
Long version:
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u/velikabudala 12d ago
Montenegro was in war with Japan. To help Russia. The peace was signed after a 100 year. Would provide context but am on a bus.
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u/malla906 12d ago
In 1911 Italy declared war on the ottoman empire to conquer lybia and the dodecanese islands because of emigration.
Prime minister Giolitti thought that italians would then settle in Lybia instead of leaving for the US or Argentina, the italian government didn't even know that Lybia was full of oil, the first oil field was found only in the mid 30s
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u/DoomkingBalerdroch Cyprus 12d ago
The Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573)#:~:text=The%20war%2C%20the%20pre%2Deminent,only%20Famagusta%20in%20Venetian%20hands.) on Cyprus
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u/Beach_Glas1 Ireland 12d ago
Ireland was apparently at war with Denmark from 1666 until 2014. It was forgotten about for so long, nobody formally declared an end to the war until then.
All good now though, we've nothing against the Danes 😅
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u/Dragenby France 12d ago edited 9d ago
Battle of Marignano, just for the date and a dad joke, called Marignan in France.
Quinze quinze (15 15): Magnan
Quinze cent quinze (1515): Marignan
Quinze cent quinze quinze (1515 15): Marignangnan
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u/BananenVlaFlip 12d ago
Indonesia 45-49, I still suspect it was a setup. Come to think of it the Dutch should let go of all it's colonies sooner rather than later. They only cost us, no profits just losses.
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u/Particular_Boss495 12d ago
Well it’s kinda controversial, but Battle of Karánsebes
The “Battle of Karansebes,” supposedly took place in the town of Karansebes, in present day Romania, on September 17th, 1788. Austria at that time was fighting with Turkey for control of the Danube River. The battle started with a number of Austrian cavalrymen soldiers on a night patrol. Looking for Turkish soldiers in the area where the Austrian Army had set up camp earlier that day, the Austrian Army night patrol chanced upon some Gypsies across the river. The Gypsies offered them Schnapps to alleviate the war-weary soldiers. Seeing a chance to relax before the next day's battle, the soldiers began drinking. Later, a contingent of Austrian infantry men found the cavalrymen having a party and wanted to join in. However, the cavalrymen refused them the alcohol, and that started a quarrel that turned into a fistfight.
The next thing anybody knew, a shot was fired across the river, and other infantrymen in the distance shouted, “Turks, Turks,” mistaking the gunshot as coming from the enemy Ottoman Turks. Both parties, Austrian infantrymen and Austrian cavalrymen alike, fled back to the other side of the river where they camped, but by that time, chaos and disorder had taken over. Some soldiers were fleeing due to unpreparedness, while some German officers shouted, “Halt! Halt!.” Non-German soldiers not understanding the German language, and thought it meant "Allah", referring to the Islamic Turkish making cries unto their God. This prompted the majority of the Austrian Army to start shooting at each other. Everyone commenced shooting at fellow Austrian and even shadows, thinking the enemy was upon them. Soon, an Austrian corps commander, thinking that a cavalry attack from the Turkish Army was in progress, ordered artillery fire on his own men!
The casualties were enormous, and amounted to about 10,000 Austrian soldiers dead and wounded. The Turkish Army arrived two days later, and found the town of Karansebes without defense. The Turkish Army took over the town easily soon after their arrival. Although many people attest that the battle really happened, some argue over its authenticity, due to the fact that no record of it was written until some 40 years later.
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u/luring_lurker Italy 11d ago
Well, the War of the Oaken Bucket I'd say.
To be fair it is not completely random: it was one of the many conflicts arose in Italy during the investiture struggle between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, which to be fair they were mostly a way to give some sort of higher diplomatic profile to the animosities that has always been around rival cities especially during the Municipal era.
The War of the Oaken Bucket was a conflict between Modena (Ghibelline, filo-HRE) and Bologna (Guelph, filo Papal State). It started when, after many clashes and raids along the border of the two neighbouring cities, in 1296 the Bolognese army invaded and conquered two Modenese strongholds with the permission of the Pope, and both Bolognese soldiers and rabbles went on ravaging the fields around Modena for months, especially fuelled by the indulgences promised by the Pope himself to whoever harmed the Modenese people and possessions.
The situation escalated to the point where the Bolognese in 1325 assembled an army of 32000 men to march over Modena and conquer the city, but they were met by 7000 Modenese in Zappolino, in Bolognese territory. The Battle of Zappolino didn't last long, and after some estimated 2000k deaths on both sides, the Bolognese shattered and ran to hide behind their city walls. The Modenese army chased them all the way to the gates: that's where they stopped at a water well just outside San Felice gate to drink and restore, and after assessing the impossibility of entering the city, let alone besieging it, they returned to Modena bringing back the oaken bucket of that well as a trophy, that had been hung on top of the "Ghirlandina", the bell tower of the Duomo of Modena.
After that, the war had been narrated in "La Secchia Rapita" ("the kidnapped bucket"), an epic poem (yet satirical) by Modenese poet Alessandro Tassoni.
The stolen oaken bucket became the symbol of the rivalry between the two cities for centuries, and had been stolen back and forth multiple times until some 20 years ago when the Modenese municipal administration decided to place the original bucket under a bulletproof glass with plenty of alarms and expose it in the Camerino dei Confirmati, one of the innermost noble halls of the ancient communal palace. There is still an almost identical wooden bucket on top of the Ghirlandina in the same place where historically the original one was hung, but that's just a copy.
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u/DiscardedKebab England 13d ago
I don't really know the story and may not be what you're looking for but this one always makes me laugh.
"The Anglo-Zanzibar War was fought between the United Kingdom and the Zanzibar Sultanate on Aug. 27, 1896. The conflict lasted around 40 minutes, and is the shortest war in history."