Historically, all empires either fall
or morph into some other empire
and then fall.
We don't use the term empire to describe nation-states
that much anymore.
Regardless of what we call some countries,
they are still able to project power outside their borders,
whether globally, like the United States,
or regionally, like Iran.
But when it comes to having to defend their home turf,
some countries are just not gonna roll over for any reason.
These are those countries.
For this list, we looked at countries whose people,
geography, sheer size, populations, and culture
would never allow an invader to conquer them.
But we also included smaller countries who took on
great powers as the underdog and came out on top.
Number 10, the Philippines.
The Philippines have been resisting invaders
since Filipinos killed Ferdinand Magellan in 1521.
For over 300 years,
people of the Philippines resisted Spanish rule,
which led to a number of insurrections, mutinies,
and outright revolts against their invaders.
This revolution continued until the Spanish-American War
when the Americans wrested the island nation away,
much to the chagrin and surprise of the Philippines.
Meanwhile, the Philippines created a government anyway
and immediately declared war on the United States,
who would remain in the Philippines until 1913,
attempting to subdue guerrillas in the jungles
and outlying islands.
Until, that is, Japan invaded.
So, even though the actual Armed Forces of the Philippines
might be a little aged and weak,
anyone trying to invade and subdue the Philippines
can pretty much expect the same level of resistance
from the locals.
Number nine, Japan.
One of the world's oldest civilizations,
Japan was able to keep its culture and history
relatively intact over the centuries
because mainland Japan has never successfully been invaded
by an outside force.
Mongol invaders were able to land on some
of the Japanese islands, but after a few victories
and a couple of stunning defeats,
the Japanese exhausted the Mongols
and they were forced to retreat back to their ships.
Once Japan threw off its feudal system and unified,
it became a force to be reckoned with.
Japan shattered the notion that an Asian army wasn't able
to defeat a Western army in a real war,
soundly defeating the Russians both on land and at sea
in 1905, and setting the stage for World War II.
During that war, the Japanese made sure
the Americans knew that any invasion of Japanese territory
would cost them dearly,
and they made good on that promise,
mostly by fighting to the death.
The United States got the message,
opting to drop nuclear weapons on Japan to force a surrender
rather than attempt an invasion.
Even still, Japan was not a conquered country.
The United States left Japan after seven years of occupation
and the understanding that Communism was worse
than petty fighting.
Since the end of World War II,
Japan's booming economy has allowed the country to meet
the threats raised by Chinese power in the region,
boosting military spending by $40 billion
and creating the world's most technologically advanced,
and fifth largest, air force,
making any approach to the island that much more difficult.
Number eight, Israel.
Just imagine how effective a makeshift militia force
would be if every single citizen was also a trained soldier.
That's Israel, with 1.5 million
highly-trained reserve troops capable
of defending their land against invaders.
Israel has had mandatory military service
for all its citizens, men and women, since 1949,
and for a good reason.
Israel is in a tough neighborhood
and most of their neighbors don't want Israel to exist.
This means the Jewish state is constantly fighting
for survival in some way, shape, or form,
and they're incredibly good at it.
In almost 70 years of history,
Israel earned a perfect war record.
Not bad for any country,
let alone one that takes heat
for literally anything it does.
As far as invading Israel goes,
the last time an invading Army was in Israel proper,
it was during the 1948-49 War of Independence.
Since then, the farthest any invader got inside Israel
was into areas seized by the Israelis during a previous war.
More than just securing their land borders,
Israel keeps a watchful eye on Jewish people worldwide,
and doesn't mind violating another country's sovereignty
to do it.
Just ask Uganda, Sudan, Argentina, Germany,
Norway, France, Italy, UAE, Tunisia.
Get the point?
If a group of Jewish people are taken hostage
or under threat somewhere,
the IDF or Mossad will come and get them out.
Number seven, Finland.
Though not much about early Finnish history is known,
there are a few Viking sagas that mention areas of Finland
and the people who inhabit those areas.
Those sagas usually involve Vikings getting murdered
or falling in battle.
The same goes for Norwegians, Swedes, Danes,
and virtually anyone else who had their eyes set on Finland.
In the intervening years, Finns allowed themselves
to be dominated by Sweden and Russia.
But after receiving their autonomy in 1917,
Finland wasn't about to give it up.
They eventually became a republic
and were happy with that situation
until around the time World War II began.
That's when the Soviet Union invaded.
The invasion of Finland didn't go well for the USSR.
It lasted all of 105 days and the Winter War,
as it came to be called,
was the site of some of the most brutal fighting
the world has ever seen.
Finns were ruthless and relentless
in defending their territory.
For example, the Raatteentie Incident involved
a 300-Finn ambush of 25,000 strong Soviet forces,
and the Finns destroyed the Russians almost to the last man.
The Finnish sniper Simo Hayha killed 505 Russians
without losing a moment's sleep.
The Winter War is also where Finnish civilians perfected
and mass-produced the Molotov Cocktail.
Finns showed up in whatever they had to wear
with whatever weapons they could muster,
men and women alike.
In short, Finns are happy to kill any invader
and will do it listening to heavy metal music while shouting
the battle cry of, "Fire at their balls!"
Number six, Vietnam.
Vietnam has historically been thought of
as one of the most militaristic countries in the region,
and for good reason.
Vietnam has been kicking invaders out since the 13th century
when Mongol hordes tried to move in from China.
Kubali Khan's Yuan Dynasty tried three times
to subdue the Vietnamese.
In the last invasion, Khan sent 400 ships and 300,000 men
to Vietnam, only to see every ship sunk
and the army harassed by the Vietnamese
all the way back to China.
Vietnam maintained its independence from China
for 900 years after that.
In more modern times, Vietnam was first invaded
by the French in force in 1858,
and it took 29 years and thousands of French lives
to subdue them.
The Japanese invasion during WWII awakened
the Vietnamese resolve toward independence,
and they immediately started killing Japanese invaders,
and not out of love for the French.
They famously gave France the boot,
invaded Laos to extend their territory,
and then invaded South Vietnam.
That's where the Americans came in.
The American-Vietnam War didn't go so well for either side,
but now Communist Vietnam's dense jungle
and support from China and the Soviet Union
gave the North Vietnamese the military power
to match their will to keep fighting,
a will which seemed never-ending,
no matter which side you were on.
North Vietnam was able to wait out the U.S.
and reunite Vietnam,
an underdog story that no one believed possible.
Number five, India.
India has proven to be a formidable place to invade.
Just ask Pakistan.
To the north and east lay harsh Himalayan mountain passes,
the height of which make air support difficult.
Dry deserts makes up roughly half
of India's northwest regions.
And in the southwest, India is wet and tropical,
limiting the best places to land
an ocean-born invasion force,
if they ever get to land, that is.
Part of India's major naval strategy is to flood
her territorial waters with enough submarines
to sink both enemy warships and enemy landing craft
while strangling sea lanes of enemy shipping.
Since the British left India in 1947,
they've had to deal with Pakistan on a few occasions
and even went to war with China once before.
Ever since, China and Pakistan have only grown closer,
so India's entire defense strategy has to be predicated
on the idea of fighting a war on two fronts,
and they're ready for it.
India has made a habit of accepting any tech or gear
that helps them win that war.
As such, their near-limitless manpower, religious fervor,
and billion-plus population would make them
a formidable opponent on any front.
Also Gurkhas, they have Gurkhas, so...
Number four, China.
Did your invading army plan on fighting one billion people?
Because that is what is likely to happen invading China.
The most populous country in the world now boasts
over 1.3 billion people.
For the uninitiated, that means they have almost
the entire population of the United States plus a billion.
While it's unlikely that these one billion Chinese people
have their own arms, it wouldn't take long
for the planned central bureaucracy to start handing out
weapons to form a unified front against an invader.
Meanwhile, China is as massive as the United States,
with a diverse climate and diverse geographical features.
It's surrounded by extreme weather and oceans on all sides,
so invaders will have to be prepared
for the impassable Gobi Desert
and the jungles of Southeast Asia,
not to mention the mountainous, snowy Himalayan regions
which will make air support difficult.
This is just in fighting a conventional war.
The Chinese are the masters of ripping off
foreign technology, so an invading army would have to assume
that the country they're invading will also have
all the technological prowess of the United States.
And with its manpower and strong economy,
they're ready to grind on for a long time.
Number three, Afghanistan.
Despite what every successive American general
would have you believe for the past 17 years,
victory in Afghanistan is not just around the corner.
What makes Afghanistan so difficult to capture
and keep is first and foremost, the terrain.
Any army an invader can't destroy could just fade away
into the mountains and lick their wounds
until the next fighting season came.
But the most important reason no one can conquer Afghanistan
is because any invader
has to completely subdue the population.
Put aside Taliban or Mujaheddin loyalty for a moment
and imagine the life of a regular Afghan man.
Their clan, their tribe, their unit, their sheikh,
their ethnicity, their religion,
maybe their provincial or central government all factor in.
And when you do take into account their loyalties
to extremist groups, you have to factor in the group,
that unit, and the shadow government.
That's 12 potential loyalties right there.
Imagine trying to subdue 34 million of them,
because you have to if you invade Afghanistan.
Defeating those people in pitched battles didn't work.
Just ask the British.
Massacring them also didn't work,
as the Soviets could tell you.
And unfortunately, the American nation-building strategy
isn't coming along either.
Number two, Russia.
Russia projects power regionally,
but its armed forces are not as great
as Putin hypes them up to be.
But if invaded, Russia's legendary toughness
would really bloom,
even in the middle of the freezing Russian winter.
Invading Russia, as any student of history knows,
is a terribly difficult thing.
When Napoleon invaded in 1812,
the Russian people took casualties, to be sure,
but what really suffered were Russia's towns, cities, farms,
and other infrastructure, all destroyed by Russians.
That's right, Russians would rather destroy
their own country than leave it for any invader who,
by the way, would likely be fighting every single Russian,
across 11 times zones.
Did you catch that?
There are 11 time zones in Russia,
the largest country by land mass.
If that wasn't bad enough,
Russia also contains every single climate type there is,
including a rainforest.
Just like the Americans who would take up arms
against any invader, the Russian and pro-Russian people
living in these areas will, too.
These are hardy, gun-toting, skilled hunters
who have no compulsion about killing an invader,
having grown up with their parents'
and grandparents' stories about fighting
the Great Patriotic War against the Third Reich,
which included the deadliest fighting in the history
of human warfare at Stalingrad, a battle the Russians won.
Number one, The United States of America.
Any invader of the United States isn't facing
just the US military.
They're facing all 330 million Americans.
Also, there are more weapons than people in the US,
and that's just considering the guns we know about.
Americans are allowed to design and build their own weapons
in many states, without ever having to register.
This means every American with an arsenal can recruit
and train their own band of Wolverines.
Even if an invader managed to take control
of the civilian population, and that's a big if,
they'd still have to get through the best-trained,
best-equipped military in the world,
recruited from the aforementioned
very violently pro-America people.
Then, they have to hold on to that territory
without getting killed
and without the locals organizing against them.
Many major cities are already organized.
And armed.
And ready to go killing again once the war dies down a bit.
Albuquerque, Houston, Oklahoma City, Detroit, Baltimore,
New York City, whether the invasion moves from east to west
or west to east, there are a lot of pressure points
invaders need to secure before moving on.
Which brings up another point, America is huge.
Just going across the mighty Mississippi River
without a bridge is enough to kill off a good chunk
of an army while the residents of East St. Louis
are using it as target practice.
So that's our list!
Leave us a comment and let us know which countries you think
are impossible to conquer.