Did you know that Great Britain have invaded 90% of the countries in the world?
Of the near 200 independent nations in the world today, all but 22 have been on the receiving
end of a British invasion!
At its peak, the British Empire was the largest empire in all of human history, with its Royal
Navy reaching ever corner of the globe.
It’s no wonder that the sun never set on the British Empire.
Well… the fact originates from a 2012 book by Stuart Laycock entitled All the Countries
We’ve Ever Invaded and the Few We Never Got Round To.
But you might have seen it mentioned in an article by The Telegraph that came out shortly
afterward, with a map that has become internet famous.
The book has a section for every country, in alphabetical order, talking about each
county’s experience with the British Armed Forces.
So being somewhat skeptical, but also intrigued, I decided to give the book a read.
So just how true is this?
Well in short, not very.
It’s pretty sensationalised.
To the book’s credit, from the back cover it does say “Out of the 193 countries that
are currently UN member states, we’ve invaded or fought conflicts in the territory of 171”.
So obviously with the inclusion of countries which the British military has fought conflicts
in, the number gets somewhat inflated.
The book’s introduction outlines what does and does not constitute an invasion.
The author’s definition of the word “invade” is quite broad, and many countries included
in the list are far from what most people would consider an actual invasion.
One particular inclusion which I found to be quite disingenuous, was occasions in which
the British entered a country in order to help them - for example, to help liberate
a country from Nazi occupation during WWII.
The introduction uses D-Day as an example of an invasion of France… not that France
needs any help in bumping up the numbers…
Anyway, let’s get started.
I went through every country in the book and tried my best to divide them up into different
categories, from the countries that quite cleary have been invaded, to the “few we
never got round to”, and everything in between.
Let’s start with the first and probably most agreeable category: countries that Britain
have unambiguously invaded, as sovereign entities in their own right.
So there are several obvious countries.
The first two that come to mind are France and Germany.
Of course, the British were all at war with most of the Great Powers of Europe at various
times throughout the years, so there’s also Spain, Russia, Austria, Italy, and Turkey.
Now outside of Europe, there’s the United States, which although gained its independence
from the British Empire, was later invaded by Britain in the War of 1812.
There’s also China, the Opium Wars.
North Korea, the Korean War… and in more recent years of course there’s been military
invention in the Middle East, with the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq in 2001 and 3, respectively.
So that’s probably all of the most well-known invasions, but of course there’s plenty
more.
We all know that Iraq was invaded, but what about Iran?
In 1941, there was a joint British-Soviet invasion, despite the fact the Iran were neutral
during WWII.
Moving closer to home and our good friend Ireland.
Of course, Ireland used to be part of the United Kingdom, but 150 years before when
Ireland was ruled in a personal union by the King of England, they were invaded by Cromwell
in 1649.
The Dutch were probably Britain’s greatest maritime rival throughout the years, so there
was plenty of conflict between the two nations.
The other European nations that have been invaded are: Denmark, Norway…
Serbia, Montenegro, and Bulgaria.
In the Americas, there’s not many more countries that have been invaded while they were an
independent nation… by my account, there’s Nicaragua in 1895, and Venezuela in 1902,
who wrongly assumed the US would have their back.
Now moving onto Africa… probably the most well-known example from Africa is the Suez
Crisis, in which British and French forces assisted Israel in their invasion of Egypt.
Now Ethiopia, although managing to escape colonisation did not manage to escape British
invasion.
The Ethiopian king had taken hostage a couple of British government officials in 1867, so
the army was sent in to rescue them, killing some 700 Ethiopians in the process.
Moving over to Asia next, and there’s a few that you might not expect.
Bhutan lost a 5-month war to Britain in 1865, primarily due to having no standing army.
Burma fought 3 wars against Great Britain in the 19th century, resulting in them being
annexed to British India.
Nepal’s modern-day borders were defined in the peace treaty of a lost war with the
British in 1816.
The British took the island of Sri Lanka (at the time known as Ceylon) from the delightfully
named Kingdom of Kandy… but it was a bitter-sweet ending for them as they came under British
occupation in 1817.
The Bruneian Empire came to an end in 1888 at the hands of the British, becoming part
of the North Borneo Protectorate.
Thailand joined the Axis powers in WWII, and the country came under temporary British occupation
after the Japanese surrender.
In the aftermath of WWII, the communists of Vietnam declared themselves an independent
nation, leading to British troops assisting the French in trying to regain control of
Indochina.
The situation in Indonesia got out of hand in the post-war period as well, when British
troops invaded the archipelago fighting against a pro-independence movement.
The Dutch were trying to restore their rule after the Japanese surrendered the islands.
The British and Indonesian armies later clashed again in 1962.
Moving onto the next category.
Now, I do think these countries should be counted, but for a variety of reasons it’s
not as clear cut as the previous category, or it was an invasion while the territory
was controlled by a larger empire or kingdom.
So starting with countries that were part of the British Empire, the most obvious ones
being Canada, South Africa, India, Australia, and New Zealand.
Of course there are many, many more…
For example, in the Americas, apart from the already mentioned Canada and of course the
13 colonies that would become the United States, there’s also Belize (formerly known as British
Honduras) and Guyana.
Now, those are the only 4 countries on the mainland Americas that were part of the British
Empire, but there are several more in the Caribbean, most notably Jamaica, which was
taken from the Spanish in 1655, although it was actually taken as a “consolation prize”
after a failed attack on Santo Domingo, capital of modern-day Dominican Republic.
And there’s also…
Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and
Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago… all of which have been
in some way invaded by Great Britain.
Now moving over to Europe, and as you might expect, there’s not a lot here…
Europeans were generally the ones doing the colonising rather than being colonised…
so there’s just two countries: Malta and Cyprus.
Malta was taken from France during the French Revolutionary Wars, and the British were supposed
to leave in 1802 but just sort of decided to stay because the locals requested so, the
island officially became part of the Empire in 1814.
Now Cyprus was actually somewhat invaded by England as early as 1191.
During the Third Crusade, Richard the Lionheart and his army got caught in a storm and some
of his men who were shipwrecked got taken hostage by the local Byzantine ruler.
So Richard just decided to go ahead and conquer the whole island.
Anyway, Cyprus came under British administration in 1878, while nominally remaining part of
the Ottoman Empire, but once they found themselves on opposing sides of the First World War,
the Brits suddenly became less inclined to keep it as nominally part of anything, so
Cyprus was officially annexed.
Even to this day, there is British land on the island of Cyprus.
During the Scramble for Africa, the British more than got their fair share.
As well as the countries that were granted to Great Britain during the Berlin Conference,
there were also the German and Italian colonies that were inherited after World Wars 1 and
2 respectively, as well as those that have gained their independence since the decolonisation
of Africa.
These categories are not mutually exclusive.
For example, Tanzania is mostly made up of what used to be German East Africa, becoming
the British territory of Tanganyika, and later merged with the British protectorate of Zanzibar,
becoming the modern-day country of Tanzania in 1964.
As well as the previously mentioned involvement in the Middle East in recent years, there’s
also been plenty of not so recent involvement.
So along with the countries that I’ve already talked about, there’s also Israel, Jordan,
Kuwait, Qatar, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates, whose territories were all British
protectorates or mandates and have all seen British troops on their soil.
Of course I’ve already mentioned India, but British India was much larger than simply
the modern-day country of India.
As well as the previously mentioned Burma, there’s also Pakistan after the partition
of India, the eastern part of which would later become Bangladesh.
In South-East Asia, there’s Malaysia, which was made up of various crown colonies on the
peninsula, and was later joined with North Borneo.
Singapore very briefly became a state of Malaysia but quickly became independent itself in 1965.
Moving a little further east and we find Papua New Guinea, comprising the eastern half of
the island of New Guinea and surrounding islands.
The south-east portion of the island was a British colony, while the north-east was a
German colony.
The British colony was transferred to Australia, and then when Germany lost its colonies after
WWI, the entire eastern half of the island was under Australian rule before gaining its
independence in 1975.
The South Pacific is a region that Great Britain took a great interest in in the late 19th
century.
Many of the island nations that exist today have been under British rule… two of which
still display the Union Jack on their flag to this day (as well as of course Australia
and New Zealand).
Of course, we still haven’t even considered countries whose territory Britain invaded
before they became independent.
To start with, in the Americas there were plenty of conflicts with the Spanish.
Many Latin American countries have been invaded by Britain or England while part of Spain’s
colonial empire.
Arguably Mexico has been invaded in its own right.
In 1861, the British, Spanish and French landed their navies on Mexico’s Atlantic coast
demanding payment of debts.
The French went on to launch a full-scale invasion and even colonisation attempt, so
the British and Spanish just sort of… let them get on with it and left.
Regardless of whether that counts or not, it certainly has been invaded while under
Spanish rule, as have: Honduras, Panama, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Uruguay… and just about
all of the Caribbean that wasn’t actually under direct British control.
Chile was invaded by Francis Drake 1578.
Now although he was a pirate, he was actually under direct orders from the English government.
Africa is a pretty similar story…
although the colonial rivalry was more with France than Spain in this part of the world.
Plus of course the locals themselves, who often had a few minor objections of their
own.
Meanwhile, in Europe, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, and Ukraine were all invaded, in this case
while part of the Russian Empire.
In addition, what is today Belgium has been invaded many times before it actually became
a country.
Slovenia was invaded while it was part of Austria-Hungary and a Croatian island in the
Adriatic Sea was taken while it was under French control.
In the Bosnian War of the 1990s, there was an invasion of the Republika Srpska, which
still exists today as one of the two political entities that make up the modern-day country
of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Countries that were invaded while part of the Ottoman Empire include: Greece, Azerbaijan,
Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Syria, and Algeria.
On top of all that, we still have countries that have been invaded, but where the situation
is not as clear-cut as the previous category.
For example, one country that has sort of been invaded in its own right that you might
not expect, is Iceland.
There were 3 minor wars in the 1970s, the Cod Wars… in which there was just one casualty,
an engineer.
But also, Britain technically invaded Iceland during WWII.
Fearful of Nazi control of an island so close to home, the British kindly offered their
military protection.
When Iceland politely refused, the British just ignored them and turned up anyway.
Japan were of course one of our main opponents in the Second World War, and while the country
was never actually invaded as-such, it certainly was on the receiving end of a naval bombing
campaign towards the end of the war.
In early 1946, the British Commonwealth Occupation Force landed in Japan to assist in the demilitarisation
of the country.
And that’s about it for that category.
And for me, these are the countries that have been invaded by Great Britain…
about 65% of the countries in the world.
The next category is a little more tricky.
In this category I’ve included countries that really could go either way.
I would probably class them as a no personally, but I recognise that a good case could be
made.
In this category I’ve included countries that have been invaded in order to help the
country.
So in terms of “friendly” invasions, if such a thing exists…
there’s our good friend Portugal, Britain’s oldest ally, who’ve fought alongside each
other on many occasions.
Likewise, Oman has been supported by Britain in various wars throughout the last 2 centuries.
The Democratic Republic of Georgia was supported by the British in the Russian Revolution in
1918, but they soon became part of the Soviet Union.
There’s also Poland, who were helped in World War II, albeit a little bit late.
Other countries that were helped during WWII include: the Czech Republic, Macedonia, neither
of which existed at the time of course…
Albania, San Marino, as well as Morocco, Tunisia, Djibouti, Gabon, and plenty more, many of
which I’ve already mentioned for other reasons.
During the Korean War, South Korea was assisted by a large coalition of nations, including
the British, against the Communist North, backed by China and the Soviet Union.
I’d also like to give a special mention to Brazil, which I’ve decided to include
in this category.
Ater a diplomatic dispute, the Royal Navy blockaded Rio de Janeiro for 6 days, and diplomatic
ties were broken for several years.
So not quite an invasion, but certainly an unwelcome visit.
One country that surprisingly hasn’t suffered a full-scale invasion is Hungary, despite
being on opposing sides of both World Wars.
The Royal Air Force did operate in their airspace and some British spies carried out some unsuccessful
missions during WWII, but that’s about it.
Likewise, while Romania wasn’t invaded either, its capital Bucharest was bombed by the RAF.
There are some other examples of British troops fighting conflicts in other countries’ territory,
but nothing that could be classed as an invasion in my opinion.
For example, the British did briefly occupy Laos and Cambodia after the Japanese surrender
in WWII, supporting the French as they re-established their control over Indochina.
The countries that are remaining, are those that have not been invaded.
These included the 22 countries that I mentioned at the start of the video, and also countries
that I personally feel the author is clutching at straws to justify and really should not
be counted.
For example, Moldova, where British armoured cars just sort of passed through what is the
modern-day country’s territory during WWI, or Lithuania, when King Henry IV of England
led some knights on an unsuccessful siege of Vilnius in 1390, or the two failed settlement
attempts on an island that is today part of Guinea-Bissau.
In the case of Suriname, it was actually originally part of the British colony of Guyana, but
the Dutch captured it during the Second Anglo-Dutch War, and were allowed to keep it in the Treaty
of Breda in 1667.
In exchange the British got New Amsterdam... or as the Brits called it: New York.
So in conclusion…
have Britain really invaded 90% of the countries in the world?
No, of course not, but it still is incredible the extent to which the British Empire has
influenced the world, and the lengths that the British military have travelled.
Maps like this, and indeed my own map, should be taken with a grain of salt.
The reality is, with such a complex topic as this, it’s always going to be impossible
to have universal agreement due to different interpretations by different people.
Depending on your definition of “invade” or even “country”, the number of countries
invaded is going to vary wildly from person to person.
Of course people are going to disagree with my interpretation of many of these countries
and which categories I’ve placed them in, and that’s okay.
It’s an interesting topic, and evokes an interesting discussion.
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