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The country of Andorra fought World War 1 for 25 years.

The country of Andorra fought World War 1 for 25 years.

In August 1914, all of Europe was caught up in the Great War. Andorra, a usually neutral country in southwestern Europe, decided to join in and declared war on Kaiser Wilhelm II’s Imperial Germany. Given its size and neutrality, Andorra’s army consisted of just 10 part-time soldiers that assembled only a few times a year for ceremonies; and with no military budget (the country has no income tax), the only ammunition the army had were ceremonial blank cartridges.

Needless to say, World War I passed pretty quietly for Andorra—so quietly, in fact, that the country was left out of the Versailles Peace Treaty negotiations, and was not included on the final signed Treaty. Since no peace treaty was enacted, Andorra remained in a state of war with Germany. It wasn’t until the start of World War II, some twenty-five years later, that the oversight was discovered. On September 25, 1939, Andorra signed a reparation-free treaty, finally ending its state of war against Germany and ending its involvement in World War I.

After living in a state of (albeit bloodless) war for twenty-five years, the government of Andorra decided to sit out World War II.