No one was killed or even injured. The war lasted 335 years without a single shot being fired.
It was the war between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly, located off the southwest coast of Great Britain.
During the English Civil War between the Royalists and Parliamentarians from 1642 to 1651, the Netherlands chose to ally with the Parliamentarians.
The Dutch merchant navy suffered heavy losses from the Royalist fleet based in Scilly. On 30 March 1651, lieutenant-admiral Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp arrived in Scilly to demand reparation from the Royalist fleet for the Dutch ships.
Since he didn’t get a satisfactory answer, he declared war upon the Isles of Scilly.
In June 1651, soon after that, the Parliamentarians forced the Royalist fleet to surrender. The Dutch fleet, no longer under threat, left without firing a shot.
For some reason, the Dutch did not officially declare peace.
So, basically, they forgot to end the war.
Peace was declared only in 1986, soon after historians had discovered the issue.
This story has a happy ending – no one was killed.
But how many outdated orders, rules, or decisions that you forgot to revoke are still in effect in your business?
How many processes that should have been stopped for good are your employees performing every day?
Are you layering a new strategy on top of old practices?
What do you think? Share your opinions in the comments.
Svyatoslav Biryulin
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I help businesses create their own markets.
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