20. For 350 years, the Dutch were at war with the Scilly Isles- yet not a single person died.
The Dutch began the English Civil War as allies of the crown. However, as the war wore on, they switched sides. So, the embittered royalists, now isolated on the Isles of Scilly off the Cornish coast took their revenge on their former allies by raiding Dutch vessels. By 1651, the Dutch had had enough. So they sent 12 ships to the isles to demand reparations for the pain of war. The royalists refused. So, on March 30, 1651, the Dutch commander Cornelis Tromp declared war on the Scilly Isles, and then sailed home without firing a shot- or making peace. Representatives finally signed a peace treaty on April 17, 1986, after a historian rediscovered documents detailing the long-forgotten war.