Have the British really invaded 90% of the countries in the world?

did you know that Great Britain have invaded 90% of the countries in the world of the near 200 and dependent 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 every corner of the globe it's no wonder that the Sun never set on the British Empire but as interesting as as fact as there is one important question is it really true well the factor resonates from a 2012 book by Stuart Leacock entitled all the countries we've ever invaded and the few we never got rain - but you may have seen it mentioned in an article by The Telegraph that came out shortly afterwards with a map that has become internet famous the book has a section for every country in alphabetical order talking about each country's experience with the British Armed Forces so being somewhat scared to go but also intrigued I decided together the book a read so just how true is this well-insured not very is pretty sensationalized the books 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 occasioned when the British entered the country in order to help them for example to help lavery a country from Nazi occupation during World War two 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 clearly have been invaded to the fury never got rain - and everything in between so let's start with the first and probably most agreeable category countries that Brennan have unambiguously invaded as sovereign entities and their own rate so there are several obvious countries the first two that come to Maine are France and Germany of course the British were at war with most of the great powers of Europe our various tanks throughout the years so there's also Spain Russia Austria Italy and Turkey now Seyed of europe there's the United switch although gainers and the pandas from the Russian Empire was later invaded by Britain in the war of 1812 there's also China the opium wars North Korea the Korean War and the more recent years of course has been military intervention in the Middle East with the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq and 2001 and three respectively so that's probably all of the most well known invasions but of course is plenty more we all know the Iraq was invaded but whatever Iran in 1941 there was a joint British Soviet invasion despite the fact that Iran were neutral during World War two moving closer to home now and her good friend Ireland of course Ireland used to be part of the United Kingdom 150 years before when Ireland was ruled an a personal Union by the king of England they were invaded by Cromwell and 1649 now 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 have been invaded are Denmark Norway Serbia Montenegro and Bulgaria and the Americas there's not many more countries that have been invaded while they were an independent nation by my count there's Nicaragua in 1895 and Venezuela and 1902 who wrongly assumed the US would have their back now moving on to Africa probably the most well known example from Africa as the Suez Crisis and West British and French forces assisted ezreal and their invasion of Egypt and Ethiopia although managed to escape colonization did not manage to escape British Invasion the Ethiopian King had taken horses 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 as a few you may not expect Bhutan lost a five-month war to Britain in 1865 primarily due to having no sounding army Burma fought three wars against Great Britain in the 19th century resulting in them being an ace to British India Nepal's modern-day borders were defamed and the peace treaty of a lost war with the British and 1816 the British took the island of Sri Lanka Atlit a known as salon from the delightfully named kingdom of candy but it was a better sweet ending for them as they came under British occupation in eighteen 17 the brunei empire came to an end in 1888 at hands of the british becoming part of the north borneo potater thailand joined the Axis powers in World War two and the country came under temporary British occupation after the Japanese surrender and the aftermath of World War two the Communists of Vietnam declared themselves an independent nation leading to British troops assisting the French and trying to regain control of end of China the situation in Indonesia gave hand in the post-war period as well when British troops invaded the archipelago fighting against pro-independence movement the Dutch were trying to restore the rule after the Japanese surrendered the islands the British and Indonesian armies later clashed again in 1962 moving on to 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 well 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 and the Americas apart from the already mentioned Canada and of course the 13 colonies that would become the United States there's also believes formally known as British Honduras and Guyana now those are the only four countries on the mainland Americas that were part of the British Empire but there were several more in the Caribbean most notably Jamaica which was taken from the Spanish in 1655 although is 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 Saint Lucia st. Kitts and Nevis infants 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 may expect there's not a lot here Europeans were generally the ones doing the colonizing rather than being colonized 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 decide to stay because the locals requested so the åland 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 worship great got taken hostage by the local Byzantine ruler so Rachel just decides 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 were suddenly less inclined keeper as normally 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 Cowan colonies that were inherited after worlds were 1 & 2 respectively as well as those that gained their independence since the decolonization 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 Tanganyika and later merge with the British protectorate Zanzibar becoming the modern-day country of Tanzania and 1964 as well as the previously mentioned involvement in the Middle East in recent years has also been plenty of not so recent involvement along with the countries that I've already talked about there's also Azrael Jordan Kuwait Qatar Yemen and in a stout of amorous whose territories were all aggressive protectors or mandates and have all seen British trees 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 is also Pakistan after the partition of India the eastern part of which would later become Bangladesh in Southeast Asia there's Malaysia which was made up of Hades crown colonies on the peninsula I was later joined with North Borneo Singapore very briefly became a state of Malaysia but quickly became independent itself in 1965 moving a lot to further east and we found Papa New Guinea comprising the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and surrounding islands the southeast portion of the alien was a British colony while the northeast was a German colony the British colony was transferred to Australia and when Germany lost his colonies after World War one the entire eastern half of the alien was under Australian gaining 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 alien nations that exist today have been under British rule two of which still display the Union Jack on the flag to this day as well as of course Australia and New Zealand of course we still haven't even considered the countries whose territory Britain invaded before they became independent to start with and the Americas there were plenty of conflicts with the Spanish many Latin American countries have been invaded by Britain or England well para Spain's colonial empire arguably Mexico has been invaded in its own way in 1861 the British Spanish and French landed their navies on Mexico's Atlantic coast demanding payment of days the French went on to launch a full-scale invasion and even colonization attempt so the British and Spanish just sort of let them go on with him and left regardless of whether that came - no it certainly has been invade well under Spanish rule as have and Judis panama colombia peru argentina uruguay and just about all of the caribbean that wasn't actually under direct British control chelley was invaded by Francis Drake in 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 manor objections are thrown meanwhile in Europe Finland Latvia Estonia and Ukraine were all engaged in this case well part of the Russian Empire an addition was today Belgium has been invaded many times before they actually became a country Slovenia was invaded well part of austria-hungary and a Croatian Island and the Adriatic Sea was taken well under French control in the Bosnian war of the 1990s there was an invasion of the republic of 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 invaded well 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 insulin rate that you may not expect is a cellent there are three manor wars in the 1970s the cod wars in which there was just one casualty and engineer but also Breton technically invaded Iceland during World War two fearful of Nazi control of an a land so close to home the British came they offered their military protection when Iceland politely refused the British just ignored them and turned up anyway now Japan of course were 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 a demilitarization of the country and that's about it for that category and for me these are the countries that have invaded by Great Britain about 65% of the countries in the world the next category is a little bit more tricky in this cache we have included countries that really could go either way I probably would class them as I know personally but I recognize that good cause could be made in this category have 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 fought alongside each other on many occasions like wise old man has been supported by Britain and various Wars throughout the last two centuries the Democratic Republic of Georgia was supported by the British and the Russian Revolution in 1918 but I soon became part of the Soviet Union there's also Poland who were helped in World War two albeit a little late other countries are held during World War 2 include the Czech Republic Macedonia neither of which existed at a time of course Albania Simon Reno 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 decided to include in this cathegory after a diplomatic dispute the Royal Navy blockaded Rio de Janiero for six 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 hungry despite being on opposing sides of both world wars the Royal Air Force dead operate in their airspace and some British spies carried out some unsuccessful missions during World War two but that's a boat air likewise while Romania wasn't invaded either its capital Bucharest was bombed by the RAF there are some other examples of British troops faking conflicts and other countries territory but nothing that could be classed as an invasion in my opinion for example the British dead briefly occupies Laos and Cambodia after the Japanese surrender in World War two supporting the French as they re-established the control of an end of China the countries that are remaining these are the countries that have not been invaded these include the 22 countries that I mentioned at the start of the video and also the countries that I personally feel the author is clutching at straws to justify and really should not be counted for example Moldova where British armored cars just sort of passed through was the modern-day country's territory during World War one or Lithuania when King Henry the fourth of England led some nights on an unsuccessful siege of Vilnius in 1390 or the to field settlement attempts on an island I stood a part of guinea-bissau and 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 and exchanged the British got New Amsterdam or as the British called it New York so in conclusion half Britain really invaded ninety were saying of the countries in the world no of course not but it is still incredible to the extent to which the British Empire has influenced the world and the lanes that the British military have traveled 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 these countries and West Kathy's I've placed them N and that's okay is an interesting topic and evokes an interest discussion this video is brought to you by scale share scale share is an online learning community with over 20,000 classes and design business technology and so much more Premium Membership gives you unlimited access to high-quality classes on so many different topics you can improve your skills and unlock new opportunities I would personally recommend their classes on video editing for anyone looking to upload content on YouTube I wish I had these classes when I first started I joined the millions of students already learning on scholarship today with a special offer just for my viewers the first 500 people get two months of Skillshare for free just click the link in the description to get started thanks to 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Channel: WonderWhy

Views: 1,755,872

Rating: 4.7930794 out of 5

Keywords: Great Britain, United Kingdom, British Empire, 90% of countries, invaded

Id: t86J_zZjjq4

Length: 16min 20sec (980 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 30 2018