computers. The release of several relational data-
bases led to an improved way of handling data, and
further research done in the 1980’s marked the be-
ginnings of the concept of a data warehouse.
Further Reading
Campbell-Kelly, Martin, and William Aspray.Com-
puter: A Histor y of the Information Machine. New
York: Basic Books, 1996. Short but engrossing his-
tory of computers.
Hiltzik, Michael.Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and
the Dawn of the Computer Age. New York: Harper-
Collins, 1999. Thorough coverage of the develop-
ments at the Xerox PARC labs.
Ralston, Anthony, Edwin D. Reilly, and David
Hemmendinger, eds.Encyclopedia of Computer Sci-
ence. 4th ed. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, 2003. One of
the standard reference works in its field. Very ac-
curate articles cover all areas related to comput-
ers, including many aspects of computer history
in the 1980’s.
Rojas, Raul, ed.Encyclopedia of Computers and Com-
puter Histor y. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2001.
Contains more than six hundred articles about
computers, including those made during the
1980’s, from scholars in computer science and
the history of science.
Wurster, Christian.The Computer: An Illustrated His-
tor y. Los Angeles: Taschen America, 2002. A
history of computers, interfaces, and computer
design that includes pictures of nearly every com-
puter ever made.
George M. Whitson III
See also Apple Computer; Information age; Micro-
soft.
Conch Republic
Definition Fictional country created as a publicity
stunt
Place Key West, Florida
On April 23, 1982, the city council of Key West, Florida,
staged a fictional secession from the United States and cre-
ated the Conch Republic. While this was mostly just a stunt,
it built tourism for the area and helped gain a measure of
governmental acknowledgment for an area of the countr y
that was largely ignored.
In 1982, the U.S. Border Patrol was looking for ways
to control the flow of illegal drugs and illegal immi-
grants into the United States through Florida. It de-
cided to set up roadblocks on the main road to and
from Key West, Florida, and to search every car that
went through. This strategy had an unintended
consequence: It interrupted the flow of tourists to
the island city. Jets began to fly to Key West as a re-
sult of the roadblocks, but they still represented a
problem for the city. The city council of Key West
asked the Border Patrol to remove the roadblocks,
petitioned the federal government, and sued in
court to have them removed. None of these tactics
succeeded. Finally, the council, in conjunction with
Mayor Dennis Wardlow, declared the city’s inde-
pendence.
The new “nation” took its name from a common
term for the inhabitants of Key West, Conches, and
the Conch Republic was born. Wardlow became the
prime minister of the republic. He adopted a strat-
egy that was a variation on the plot of Leonard
Wibberley’s novelThe Mouse That Roared(1955): He
declared war on the United States, immediately sur-
rendered, then applied for foreign aid from the U.S.
government as a conquered enemy nation. As could
be expected, these actions created a great deal of
publicity for Key West. There was a great outpouring
of support for the city’s people, and this support
caused the government to rethink its roadblocks.
They were soon removed, giving Key West what it
had originally sought.Impact The staged secession of Key West brought
the island a great deal of free publicity, increasing
the popularity of the area as a tourist destination. It
also caused the government to pay closer attention
to the effects of its actions on Key West’s inhabitants.
Thus, despite its apparent absurdity, the strategem
proved successful.Further Reading
Gannon, Michael.Florida: A Short Histor y.Gaines-
ville: University Press of Florida, 1993.
King, Gregory.The Conch That Roared.Lexington,
Ky.: Weston & Wright, 1997.
Michael S. FrawleySee also Immigration to the United States; Slang
and slogans.The Eighties in America Conch Republic 241