Seceding from the Union? That kind of thing is so totally 19th-century, right? Wrong. Just 43 years ago, the city of Key West in Florida did just that, declaring itself to be an independent state known as the Conch Republic. Well, sort of – the Conch Republic isn’t really its own country (attempt to use one of its souvenir passports at the airport and you’ll be laughed all the way back to the parking lot), but back in 1982, its citizens certainly felt as though the city was being treated like one. In March of that year, the US Border Patrol had placed a roadblock on the only route into the Florida Keys, stopping the cars going in and out of the archipelago to search for illegal drugs and immigrants. To absolutely nobody’s surprise, this generated some pretty gnarly traffic jams that were not only an inconvenience for the people living and working there, but also started to put off visitors. Residents of Key West were understandably peeved on both counts. To many, it felt as though the city was being made subject to the same restrictions found at the borders between countries. Attempting to resolve the situation first saw an injunction filed against the US government – but it didn’t succeed. Outside the court after the judgement, Key West’s mayor, Dennis Wardlow, was asked by the press what he planned to do next. “We are going to go home and secede,” said Wardlow. If they were going to be treated like a foreign country, well then, they might as well become one. And so, on April 23, 1982, the Conch Republic was born. Then, as if creating a new nation wasn’t enough work for one day, the now Prime Minister Wardlow proceeded to declare war on the US. What followed was a truly stunning display of characteristically bonkers Floridian behavior. “The Schooner [a type of sailing boat] Western Union, under command of Captain John Kraus, went forth into the harbor and attacked the US Coast Guard Cutter DILIGENCE with water balloons, Conch fritters and stale Cuban bread. The DILIGENCE fought back with fire hoses and thus commenced the Great Battle of the Conch Republic,” explains the Conch Republic's website. Less of a war and more of a food fight, then – and a very short one at that. Wardlow quickly surrendered, although he did then request $1 billion in foreign aid. That money never turned up, of course, but you can’t blame a guy for trying. Where Wardlow’s efforts did succeed was in getting the roadblock removed. The Conch Republic might’ve been a tongue-in-cheek creation, but it certainly got the job done. Nowadays, the “republic” is described as “a sovereign state of mind” rather than an actual sovereign state, but its “Independence Day” is nonetheless still celebrated every April, standing as a reminder that even secession doesn’t have to be serious – you can achieve a lot by being silly.