From vast frozen expanses to isolated island nations, if you were looking to invade a country,
which nation would be the easiest? Some might seem obvious,
but others may surprise you. Let’s just hope your country isn’t on this list.
Greenland is the largest island on the planet,
yet it is surprising just how easy this nation would be to invade. The country technically
governs itself, but still has close ties to Denmark. The interesting thing is that Denmark
is responsible for the defense of the island as Greenland doesn’t have its own military.
Now to be fair, Greenland is covered by one of the world’s largest glaciers and most of the
country sits in the arctic, so there aren't a lot of reasons why someone would want to invade the
island. But if they did, the invading force would practically be able to walk right in.
The border of Greenland is so massive that even if there was an active military
presence in the country there would be no way to defend all of the coastline.
Once on the mainland of Greenland, there would be some unique challenges in getting around.
But an invading force that planned ahead for cold, snowy, conditions would do just fine.
Greenland actually just recently passed its Self-Government Act in 2009, so the country itself
is still relatively young in terms of making its own major decisions. This would also make
invading the country easier as it has never had to make its own choices during wartime. And when
fighting a war, one of the most important assets is experience, which Greenland has very little of.
Denmark still has control over several aspects of the government in Greenland. This includes foreign
and financial policies as well as strategic defense. If an invading force were to land
on Greenland, Denmark would need to mobilize and send troops to aid in the fighting of the enemy
threat. The two countries aren’t super close together, so this would take time. And since
Greenland is so massive, it’d be hard for Denmark to decide where to even begin sending troops.
Basically, if anyone wanted to invade Greenland they wouldn’t meet much resistance. That being
said, holding the country once the invasion was complete would be a different matter. The
landscape can be brutal. Not to mention that at some point NATO would step in and help Greenland.
So, invading the nation would be easy, but holding it indefinitely would be next to impossible.
Haiti is located in the Caribbean on an island it shares with the Dominican Republic. For various
reasons, this country would also be easy to invade. The weather here poses much less of a
challenge than in Greenland as long as it isn’t hurricane season. If an invader wanted to land
their forces on the beaches of Haiti, there would be very little the country could do to stop them.
For many years Haiti’s own military interfered with elections and threw coups. Therefore, the
Haitian military was disbanded in 1995. The army was reestablished in 2017 and consists of roughly
500 soldiers, which combined with the 15,000 people who make up the Haiti National Police
would be the only resistance the invading force would encounter as they swept across the nation.
Once the National Police and the small group of soldiers were taken care of the invading
force would be free to subdue any uprisings in their newly conquered territory and lay claim to
whatever they wanted. Unfortunately, Haiti still has some corruption in their political systems,
so it is not out of the realm of possibility that people within the government would see
an opportunity and help the invading force just to make a profit or bolster their power.
Most Haitians would fight for their country, but there is actually a bigger problem than having no
military and corrupt officials if Haiti needed to fend off an invasion. In recent years the country
has been ravished by natural disasters such as earthquakes and hurricanes. In fact, Haiti
is still recovering from these tragedies. This means that they do not have the infrastructure
to fight off an invading force even if they could somehow mobilize an impromptu military.
And as we’ve seen from the responses of other countries during times of crisis,
help can be slow. Most of the time it is nonprofit organizations that provide relief,
and in times of war, they wouldn’t be much help. The UN presence in Haiti has diminished over the
years even though they were the main peacekeeping force in the nation. Sometimes it seems that other
countries and organizations tend to forget about Haiti and its people in times of need.
We like to think that powerful countries in the region would come to their aid,
but since Haiti doesn’t have an abundance of resources or wealth,
it is a very real possibility they would have to fight off an invading force on their own.
Since they have no military and very limited law enforcement, Haiti would be an easy country to
invade. And perhaps more importantly, one that could be held for an extended period of time.
For our next easily invadable country we will head further south to Costa Rica.
This country hasn’t had a military since 1949, which is a long time when you think about it.
Yet, they haven’t had to worry too much about being invaded
as the country has some very powerful friends, most notably the United States.
Nevertheless, if another country did decide to invade Costa Rica, it wouldn’t be too
difficult at first. The country is straddled by the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea,
meaning that if an invading force planned it right, they could invade both sides of
the country simultaneously and then meet in the middle. Since Costa Rica doesn’t
have a Navy there would be nothing to stop the invaders from coming by sea.
And Costa Rica’s police force is even smaller than Haiti’s with only around 10,000 officers.
This means that once an invading force makes its way onto the mainland of the country,
there will be very little resistance encountered. And as long as the
invaders make arrangements with Nicaragua and Panama first to ensure they don’t intervene,
it would be a long time before Costa Rica received any help from their allies.
Costa Rica has a decent infrastructure due to its close ties with the United States
and the large number of ex-pats living there. Once the invaders
land on the shore and take care of the small force of state police,
they have a country that is pretty much able to maintain itself. This means they could
use their newly captured resources, lands, and labor supply to prepare for what was to come.
Eventually, the United States would intervene. It may take some time, but Costa Rica and the
U.S. are too close for there not to be a military force sent to aid Costa Rica.
When this happens the invaders are going to be in for a world of hurt. Costa Rica could
be easily invaded, and the invaders would likely have some time to enjoy their spoils.
But in the end, the United States would step in and the enemy would be decimated.
There is one country that has been invaded time and time again, which kind of suggests it is easy
to occupy. Throughout history, Poland always seems to find itself on the wrong end of an invasion.
But why is this? Is the country really that easy to invade? The answer is yes and no.
One of the things that makes Poland so enticing to invaders isn’t necessarily its weak military,
but its location. In the past, Poland always seemed to be in the middle of warring powers,
or next to a country that desired to expand their own lands.
Not only have Poland’s neighbors been less than respectful of the country’s boundaries, but the
nation itself doesn’t really have much in the way of natural defenses. Poland is relatively flat,
and the only major water access is the Baltic Sea. An invading force could ally itself with any of
the countries surrounding Poland and would have easy access into the heartland of the country.
The rude neighbors and power-hungry dictators are in the past for Poland. Today it would be
much more difficult to invade the country because it is part of the European Union and
NATO. However, there may still be a lingering fear of invasion in the back of every Pole’s mind
as a result of hundreds of years of being invaded and occupied by other countries.
However, recently Poland has announced plans to dramatically increase the size of its military-
by as much as twice as big. So check in next year and Poland may not be on this list anymore.
There are pros and cons to being a small island nation when it comes to the threat of invasion.
The pro is the country can be hard to get to, especially if it is in the middle of the Pacific
Ocean. The con is that if an invading force does come to your island, you are pretty much screwed.
Take Tuvalu for instance. This is a nation made up of nine islands
and is about halfway between Hawaii and Australia. When you look at a map it’s
clear there’s not a whole lot going on anywhere near Tuvalu except for miles
and miles of ocean. This means that Tuvalu is a long way from help if they are invaded.
Tuvalu has no military and very limited police presence.
It would likely take only one or two ships full of soldiers to successfully overrun the
country. If the invading force had military training and any sort of armored vehicles,
there would be nothing that the local authorities could do to stop an invasion.
The islands themselves are all tiny, and could easily be occupied by a small group of armed
forces. And since Tuvalu has the smallest GDP in the entire world at just under 50
million dollars in 2020, it would not be able to afford the resources necessary to fight a war.
Again, the main thing that Tulva has going for it is its isolation,
but there are individuals who have enough money to hire an army of mercenaries
that could invade the island if they wanted to. Just to put it into perspective
Elon Musk has over 5 times the net worth as the entire nation of Tuvalu does. We’re not
saying that Elon Musk is trying to invade Tuvalu, but we are saying he could if he wanted to.
There is nothing wrong with having a small GDP,
but if you are trying to fight off an invading force, money does help. All in all, invading and
holding Tuvalu would not be a difficult task for someone with money and access to trained soldiers.
One final nation that would be easy to invade
is made vulnerable by how far away it is from the country that is supposed to protect it.
Aruba is technically under the protection of the Netherlands. The island nation has no military,
and the entire police force consists of around 650 individuals. If an invasion occurred,
help from the Netherlands would be just over 4,900 miles away.
This means that after the 650 law enforcement officers were dealt with, the invading force
would have no one else to stop them—unless they encounter some unruly tourists that is.
One problem with invading Aruba would be the number of foreign citizens that the invaders
would have to deal with. They wouldn’t want to upset other nations by holding their citizens
hostage, so they’d have to find a way to return all of the foreigners to their home
countries to avoid a conflict. After that, the occupation of Aruba would be smooth sailing.
The island already has extravagant hotels and beautiful beaches. And since the military
force responsible for protecting the nation is almost 5,000 miles away,
the invaders would have full access to the island and all its amenities for quite some time.
Now we know that in every one of the invasion scenarios mentioned there
would be an international outcry. This would force NATO, the United Nations,
and others to mobilize forces to help the country being invaded. However, depending on the nation,
this could take time. Costa Rica would receive aid much quicker than Tuvalu would. So,
if you are looking to invade a country and hold it for an extended period of time,
the isolated islands of the Pacific Ocean are probably the way to go.
Now watch “Could The US Defend From An Invasion
of the Homeland?” Or check out “Can China Defend From a US Invasion?”