Re: Most peaceful European city?
- From: Morten Reistad <first@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2006 12:56:22 +0200
In article <4ercmtF1fn7dnU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
VtSkier <VtSkier@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Wylie wrote:
What European city has had the longest stretch of peace? By peace I
mean no wars, raids, bombardmants, mass riots, etc affecting the city
or it's immediate environs.
As a WAG (wild-ass-guess) I'd say someplace in Scandinavia.
The Norse were much into sending out conquerers but not
much into being conquered. At first thought, Oslo came
to mind, but then Norway was overrun during WWII. I might
say Helsinki, but those dudes had a lot of trouble from
the Russians in the late 30's. How about, then, Stockholm,
as Sweden was neutral during WWII (like Switzerland) and
has a LONG history of relative peace at home.
You would have to choose neutral nations from WW2, that leaves Sweden,
Switzerland, Spain, Portugal and Ireland. Iceland was technically
occupied, but ISTR there were never shots fired, and the locals
accepted the occupiers more or less as protectors.
Reykjavik was raided by pirates in the very early 1700's, and before
that by dutch pirates in 1627.
Sweden has only been peaceful since 1809; before that they had
centuries of expansionist warfare.
Spain had their civil war 1936-1939.
Ireland was still part of the UK in WW1. And the Boer war, etc.
Switzerland had their problems with Napoleon; and then there
was the Sonderbund war in 1847.
Portugal had a revolution in 1975, but it was a pretty
peaceful affair. It fought with the allies in WW1 though.
Monaco was occupied by Italians and Germans 1943-1945, and San Marino
joined the Itanians in declaring war on Britain in 1940. The
declaration was not mutual, and no actual warfare took place. They
managed to switch around to neutral status; and all war participation
was on a volunteer basis. It was previously occupied by the papacy in
1739.
The papacy was involved in frequent wars at least until Garibaldi's time.
Lichtenstein participated with Austria in WW1, and changed the attachment
to Switzerland instead, arount 1920. Wise move. Ardorra has been neutral
in almost all wars since it's inception (1200's) but blows the statistics
by being briefly occupied by France in 1933 due to social unrest.
You may be right about Reykjavik.
I might have said some Swiss city, but a lot of the
reformation strife took place in Switzerland and other
central European areas took big hits from the Turks.
No place in GB comes close with many areas being hit
during their Civil War days and the fairly recent
Irish Troubles and constant fighting in N. Ireland
very recently.
I'll stay with Stockholm, or maybe even Reykjavik, if you
consider Iceland a European country.
On third thought, I'll go with Reykjavik.
This leaves :
Reykjavik 1702 (?) if we accept the WW2 "protection force" as peaceful.
San Marino 1747 if we let them get away with neutrality in WW2.
Stockholm, 1809. like the rest of Sweden.
Switzerland 1847.
Runner-up is Andorra if you accept the briof occupation as a
police measure, which it technically was.
-- mrr
.
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