The Huéscar War

The Huéscar War is one of the most pointless wars. Huéscar is probably unaware of its existence because it is not a great nation with a long history. That's because it's a town in Spain, not a country. It had a population of slightly more than 7,000 people in 2021. So Huéscar's decision to go to war with Denmark appears to be an unbalanced battle. And that doesn't even take into account the fact that the war had been going on for 172 years when it was officially declared over in 1981.

The war started during the Napoleonic Wars in 1809. Denmark backed France in their war against Spain at the time. Napoleon was defeated, and the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1814, effectively ending the war between all combatants. Except for one.

Back in 1809, the town of Huéscar decided to join their countrymen in formally declaring war on Denmark. It was an unnecessary declaration because Spain was involved, but local politicians can sometimes have bigger, stranger ambitions than their station normally allows. They never went to war because the town had a total of eight municipal guards. The declaration was almost completely forgotten until it was rediscovered in 1981.

The town had to decide what to do about their still-active war against Denmark, which was still going on despite generations of people being unaware of it. They all agreed that ending the war was the right thing to do, and so the people of Denmark must have slept a little better that night.

• Date: 1809-1981
• Location: Huesca, Spain