When Was Each European Country Last Occupied?

europe most of it has been at peace since the second half of the 20th century in fact many of us europeans are living through the longest period of peace that our continent has ever known from antiquity to the romans the barbarian invasions the middle ages the time of the discoveries and even the modern world war was something europe always knew as somewhat of a permanent reality but thankfully that seems to no longer be the case at least for now not only in europe but in the world in fact the u.n charter reads in article 2 all members shall refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state with the most recent conflict in europe in most countries being at least some or even several decades into the past now the topic of this video isn't the most recent war each country was involved in in a lot of cases countries have been involved in foreign conflicts sending their troops abroad to take part in them usually in other continents or in some cases countries have had their own conflicts but which did not involve their home territory like the british with the falkland malvena islands or the portuguese with their colonial war in the 1960s this video isn't about that it also isn't about the last time each country was invaded although i can also make videos with each of those topics if you want russia for instance was invaded by napoleon's friends or by 20th century germany who did in fact occupy some of their territory but not to a point where the full administration of the state and territory was under that foreign powers control so that is what this video is about the last time a country's territory was in its majority occupied by foreign power who took direct or indirect control of the regime and country's administration for a significant period of time let's get started with portugal because that's my own country and i'm biased the last time portugal was occupied by foreign force was in 1808 this was the time of the napoleonic invasions at one point during his reign napoleon declared a continental blockade of the british essentially a trade embargo by all of continental europe who were directly or indirectly under napoleon's rule or influence but there were some who resisted the last alliance of portuguese and british stood against the armies of napoleon and on the slopes of portugal they fought for the freedom of the country essentially portugal's alliance with the british made them refuse the blockade and so they were invaded by french troops in 1807 the portuguese royal family headed by queen maria the first took their fleet and fled to brazil the french quickly occupied much of the country and appropriated or disbanded almost all of the portuguese army but not for long and in the year 1808 the portuguese people revolted against their occupiers with the aid of newly arrived british reinforcements and french occupation effectively came to an end since then despite taking part in world war 1 and having their own colonial war portugal's mainland has not been occupied by foreign power since spain was similar also invaded by napoleon although with somewhat of a different story spain initially sided with napoleon helping him invade portugal but then disagreements and ultimately napoleon's betrayal led to him also invading spain turning it into a client state and placing his brother joseph bonaparte as his puppet spanish king eventually the spanish people revolted as well and in part joined with the portuguese and british in pushing out the french armies and the puppet regime through the iberian peninsula wars since the end of this war in 1814 spain's territory has never been occupied by a foreign nation switzerland is known as the country which is always neutral but its current permanent neutrality only became a reality after 1815. in 1798 switzerland was completely overrun by the french and was renamed the olvetic republic and being another napoleonic french puppet it became involved in the wars against austria who also invaded them from the east switzerland essentially became a battle zone between the french austrian and imperial russian forces eventually in 1815 the congress of vienna re-established swiss independence and the european powers agreed to permanently recognize swiss neutrality and the country has not only not been occupied but also not invaded and not at war since then the country which has not been fully occupied for the longest time it's technically turkey only being under the rule of the mongols until 1335. however this is a little bit of a stretch for two reasons one at the time it wasn't really turkey and two it stretches the definition of occupied a little by any reasonable definition turkey was occupied after world war one in fact the ottoman empire lost most of its territory because of the peace deals and constantinople itself was occupied by british french italian and greek forces however this occupation was a consequence of the armistice of mudros which ended ottoman participation in the war and not a consequence of direct invasion as was the case with napoleon spain a puppet regime was not in stored and most of turkish territory was not effectively under external rule so i think the argument that this was not a full occupation despite being very flawed is somewhat understandable while the mongol occupation mentioned in the map was more direct the mongol invasions of anatolia took place over a large period of time from 1231-1335 real control over anatolia was exercised by the mongols after the seljuk sultanate surrendered to them in 1243 the anatolian territory was ruled by baliks which were small principalities and these reported to the seljuk sultan which in turn during his time reported to the mongols although it's important to note that at this time the empires of nikaya and trebizond as well as the latin empire also controlled much of the current turkish territory and the concept of the ottoman slash turk state was not really a thing at the time and then russia russia has also technically been occupation free since a successor to jinja's khan's empire the golden horde was thrown out in 1480. like i mentioned we must mandatorily take into account the invasions of napoleon and germany which did initially successfully occupy a large portion of the territory especially in germany's case but there was effectively no full-on occupation where the entire state was under the control of a foreign power since these golden horde mongols arrived and subjugated the kiavan rules and even then local russian princes were allowed to keep most of their authority in their own principalities but they were subjects to the mongols and needed a stamp of approval to be able to remain the prince arriving in around 1237 and successively conquering much of eastern europe for the following around 200 years all of the rules states submitted to mongol rule eventually taking advantage of moscow's rise in power and internal golden horde troubles russia recovered its independence and throughout the mongols with a great stand on the ugra river in 1480 and this was the last time russia was fully under the control of a foreign power sweden comes in third place on this ranking of longest-running non-occupied countries sweden was invaded and arguably conquered many times in early history in 1363 by albert of mecklenburg's germanic army and by denmark several times but if we only look at the modern swedish state created in 1523 after the end of the calmer union the current swedish territory has never been occupied don't get this wrong they lost territory throughout time in wars against russia and poland lithuania losing land in the baltic region finland amongst other places but what we know today is sweden not so much i would say they managed to do so through three main reasons one their location is reasonably isolated and partly inhospitable in the north too the other powers of england spain and the netherlands saw it as a good power balance against russia and denmark and three they were in fact pretty strong during this period managing to fight off potential invasions all other european countries were last occupied sometime within the 20th century all of them as consequences of world war ii or the cold war save three of them bulgaria finland and ireland bulgaria was last occupied by the ottomans until 1908 year when they got their independence bulgaria had been from 1878 until 1908 a principality but a vassal state of the ottomans therefore under indirect occupation in 1908 they regained their independence ending the occupation however in 1944 the soviets occupied the north part of bulgaria and the people's republic of bulgaria was then declared being heavily influenced by the soviet union finland's last full occupation was by the russian empire until 1918. from 1809 to 1917 finland existed as a grand duchy an autonomous part of the russian empire but under russian rule since russia's victory against sweden in the war of 1808 and after over a hundred years of indirect occupation the russian revolution in 1917 ignited hope for the finish after the abdication of tsar nicholas ii russian rule over finland technically lost its legal base if the tsar had abdicated his royal titles then he was no longer grand duke of finland either and so finland achieved independence never again being fully occupied or ruled by foreign power they are part of their land occupied by the soviet union later on but not the entire country ireland has a similar story as far as i know their only occupier ever with the united kingdom first through the norman invasions in the 12th century you can see the extent of the occupation in these maps this was the land ownership map in 1014 and this was the change in 1300 with norman controlled throughout the english therefore established a lordship over ireland by this time eventually there was a gaelic resurgence and by the end of the 15th century english authority was pretty much gone also due to the ongoing war of the roses in england from 1536 the english decided to reconquer ireland and throughout many wars a union eventually took place in 1801 creating the united kingdom of great britain and ireland but the resistance of the native irish against the normans and their heirs continued throughout history culminating in the easter rising and war of independence in the early 20th century by 1921 the republic of ireland became independent effectively ending the norman english and british occupation that lasted on and off for around seven centuries the remaining countries in the continent of europe have simpler and more to the point stories about their last occupations because like i previously said they are divided into two main events world war ii and the cold war france and the benelux were last occupied by germany in world war ii as the war began with germany's invasion of poland and honoring their guarantee of poland's borders great britain and france declared war on germany having successfully conquered poland germany moved to the western front to take on france invading the benelux countries as a way of getting to it upon conquest and capitulation these nations were occupied by the germans only recovering their independence with the allied liberating forces invasions in 1944 and 45 as was the case of denmark and norway operation vezero bung was what the germans called their invasion of these two countries its main purpose was to secure the iron ore supply that shipped from the norwegian coast also extending their sea defense network danish liberation came in 1945 with the surrender of german forces in the area to the allies and in norway the advance of soviet troops was significant for german withdrawal since then these nations have lived at peace without being occupied by any other country and down south greece serbia and albania were occupied by the axis powers as well greece and serbia mostly under german control and albania existing as an italian puppet and protectorate by the end of the war allied forces were able to liberate the countries along with the many locals who always resisted throughout the years germany italy and austria themselves were also last occupied in 1945 but by the victorious allied powers after the war germany is arguably different being separated into east and west with the east not being really occupied but existing as sort of a ussr protectorate until later on iceland's last occupation date is also set in 1944 but this is debatable 1944 is their date of independence from denmark but associating this with the end of an occupation might be wrong i'm unsure of how much of iceland's population at this time was native to the region or if they share a common origin or even identity with the danish so was this really the end of a foreign occupation or simply the separation into a new country if you know leave a comment telling me poland became free of occupation in 1945 but was heavily influenced by the soviet union existing almost in a puppet regime type situation so this time label is in my opinion somewhat inaccurate and we could choose 1991 as a more accurate date as is the case with the three baltic nations plus belarus and ukraine who only saw their full sovereignty restored after the collapse of the soviet union hungary has 1956 and romania 1958 as the dates in which they were last occupied and while their dependence on soviet control was smaller than their eastern neighbors like poland and their territory not being occupied and technically their own i still find these dates somewhat misleading as their full authority over their own country was only partial and only fully restored with the collapse of the soviet union in 1991 a more accurate example is czechia in 1968 with the forces of the varsa pact the soviet's response to nato invading czechoslovakia but the result of this was an even closer approximation of the czech regime to the soviets resulting in a more accurate date also being 1990 for the end of indirect occupation slash foreign rule if you follow iceland's criteria for slovakia then they would also have been occupied by the czechs until 1993 with that being the date when they got their independence but i disagree with this way of looking at it i think these separations and independences are different cases the same happens back in the balkans with many of the old yugoslav countries being pointed as last being occupied in 1991 the year in which yugoslavia was dissolved and they became independent were 2006 with the separation between serbia and mountain but these countries weren't occupied by yugoslavia they were a part of yugoslavia maybe you can argue that like the soviet union where russia took real control yugoslavia also had some countries hold more power within the union but i don't think you can consider these yugoslav ones as an occupation however a different logic might apply to kosovo who did in fact have conflicts with serbia to become independent instead of a simple process of separation and last but not least a quick mention of the united kingdom who have no date for their most recent occupation since england wales and scotland merged to form the modern united kingdom in 1707 the country has never been occupied being the only european nation today for which that is true although i guess being an island helps a lot the last successful invasions would arguably be those of the danes and then of the normans in 1066 a very long time ago so that was a very quick overview of the last time each european country was occupied a concept which is difficult to define but in this case i defined as the last time a country's territory was in its majority occupied by foreign power who took direct or indirect control of the regime and country's administration and not taking into account partial occupations from the mongols to napoleon germany the ussr and other individual cases some simply being of independence processes in which that specific concept of occupation is debatable did you like this video leave a comment below letting me know subscribe if you want to catch future videos i post and i will see you next time for more general knowledge

Channel: General Knowledge

Views: 432,561

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Keywords: generalknowledge, funwithflags, countriesthatdon'texist

Id: C-fscOIaR84

Length: 15min 25sec (925 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 16 2021