90% of countries invaded by the British

[alpine_saint]

made me laugh :

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/9653497/British-have-invaded-nine-out-of-ten-countries-so-look-out-Luxembourg.html

[Colinjb]

We invaded Iceland. Never knew that.

 

Their political objection was no match for 750 barely trained soldiers....... puts their economic collapse into context!

[bridge too far]

made me laugh :

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/9653497/British-have-invaded-nine-out-of-ten-countries-so-look-out-Luxembourg.html

 

Shame he couldn't spell 'countries' properly! (in the article, not in the link)

[Whitey Grandad]

It's stretching the term 'invaded' somewhat. They've even included the odd piracy raid.

[latter day saint]

Haha, thats brilliant !

not bad going for a little island of shopkeepers

[anothersaintinsouthsea]

I'm guessing plenty of those countries were under a very different guise when "invaded".

[PhilippineSaint]

Lets get all the Pink bits back Im doing my bit for the Philippines

[Suomi Saint]

Inaccurate....Britain has never invaded Finland. Load of tosh.

[PhilippineSaint]

Inaccurate....Britain has never invaded Finland. Load of tosh.

 

Britain Declared war on Finland in December 1941

[Suomi Saint]

Yes, but Britain did not invade Finland.....study the facts.

[PhilippineSaint]

Yes, but Britain did not invade Finland.....study the facts.

 

After the declaration of war There would have been some military presence if only a few spies and saboteurs which is what the article is calling for not a full blown invasion is required to be included in the list.

[scotty]

Surely even in these straitened times we could have the Marshall Islands and get another one off the "to-do" list?

[Suomi Saint]

There was no military presence in Finland other than a few British stragglers who had actually volunteered to fight for Finland against the Russians. Britain declared War on Finland as a token gesture, because Finland allied with the Germans to reclaim land that they lost in the Winter War (39/40) to the Russians. Churchill ordered one bombing raid where the RAF deliberately dropped bombs in Helsinki harbour. This was to placate Stalin, because the Russians had suffered huge losses fighting the Finns, and by this time were also at War with Germany. Hardly a British invasion don't you think? Christopher Lee of acting fame was one of the volunteers who went to Finland. Probably, spying on the Russians. None of the volunteers saw action as the Winter War was already over when they arrived.

[PhilippineSaint]

Surely even in these straitened times we could have the Marshall Islands and get another one off the "to-do" list?

 

I am pretty certain Henry 8th sent some people to sort the Vatican out as well that could come off

[alpine_saint]

There was no military presence in Finland other than a few British stragglers who had actually volunteered to fight for Finland against the Russians. Britain declared War on Finland as a token gesture, because Finland allied with the Germans to reclaim land that they lost in the Winter War (39/40) to the Russians. Churchill ordered one bombing raid where the RAF deliberately dropped bombs in Helsinki harbour. This was to placate Stalin, because the Russians had suffered huge losses fighting the Finns, and by this time were also at War with Germany. Hardly a British invasion don't you think? Christopher Lee of acting fame was one of the volunteers who went to Finland. Probably, spying on the Russians. None of the volunteers saw action as the Winter War was already over when they arrived.

 

Well, I've just ordered the book, so I will give feedback on how many of the countries sound a bit tenuous. I am having trouble recall when the British invasion of Austria was too.

 

EDIT forget that, its obviously the occupation of Carinthia and Styria after WW2.

[doddisalegend]

Prehaps a more acurate title would have been "Countries the British have got a bit narked with"

[scotty]

I am pretty certain Henry 8th sent some people to sort the Vatican out as well that could come off

 

I reckon the two of us could manage those philippine, when do we start?

[alpine_saint]

Prehaps a more acurate title would have been "Countries the British have got a bit narked with"

 

Maybe the other way round works too.

[alpine_saint]

Didnt we square up to Guatemala in 1972 over Belize ?

[Hatch]

made me laugh :

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/9653497/British-have-invaded-nine-out-of-ten-countries-so-look-out-Luxembourg.html

 

is this a 'To Do' List?

[alpine_saint]

Take away Central Africa and Central Asia, and that is a very short list indeed.

 

Both those areas are land-locked and worthless in terms of trade, which probably explains our lack of interest in them historically.

 

In this context the Ivory Coast's oversight is interesting.

[PhilippineSaint]

Take away Central Africa and Central Asia, and that is a very short list indeed.

 

Both those areas are land-locked and worthless in terms of trade, which probably explains our lack of interest in them historically.

 

In this context the Ivory Coast's oversight is interesting.

 

Ivory Coast was left alone as the French had it and the belligerent locals were giving them a hard time so were basically on our side all the time

[Tokyo-Saint]

When did we invade Japan? Funny, they don't seem to remember British rule.

[WindsorSaint]

When did we invade Japan? Funny, they don't seem to remember British rule.

 

Didn't we send some warships to protect trade in the 17th century?

 

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

[Tokyo-Saint]

I can't find anything on that and certainly not an invasion. The Japanese seem to know nothing of it. This may be a more accurate map http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Empire

[Bearsy]

If I'm reading the article right tokyos, i think people going there on holiday or whatever counts as invasion.

[Deano6]

I can't find anything on that and certainly not an invasion. The Japanese seem to know nothing of it. This may be a more accurate map http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Empire

 

Why don't you buy the damn book and find out, rather than idly speculating

[Tokyo-Saint]

Call me old fashioned but I think if you invade a country they should at least have the decency to know that they have been invaded!

 

Look at Spain, they can tell we invaded them in the 70's because we got rid of all their culture, except for flamenco dancing on Tuesday nights and replaced it with our culture, bingo and Karaoke.

[PhilippineSaint]

Didn't we send some warships to protect trade in the 17th century?

 

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

 

That will all be in the book Shogun by that well known historian James Clavell

[doddisalegend]

When did we invade Japan? Funny, they don't seem to remember British rule.

 

The examples cited seem to show anyone we had a war with counts as an invasion on that basis ww2 would count. I suppose Burma was part of the Japanese empire after they took it off us so when we took back we had technically invaded the Japenese empire...tenous:lol:

[alpine_saint]

Well, I am genuinely curious about some nations and how they have been designated "invaded". So I've ordered the book to read, rather than sneer/speculate.

[Tokyo-Saint]

Britain invented 90% of the food in the world, before we can people just ate grass.

 

Alpine send me £9.99 plus p&p and I will send you the book on it.

[the stain]

Stop sneering, TS.

[Tokyo-Saint]

The examples cited seem to show anyone we had a war with counts as an invasion on that basis ww2 would count. I suppose Burma was part of the Japanese empire after they took it off us so when we took back we had technically invaded the Japenese empire...tenous:lol:

 

Assuming Argentina are coloured pink on that map because of the Falklands, by this logic, we didn't invade them, they invaded us. We simply retook our land.

 

Who remembers argentine rule? Send £9.99 plus p&p and I will send you the book all about it. Snearing comes as a free gift for the first 10 orders.

[doddisalegend]

Assuming Argentina are coloured pink on that map because of the Falklands, by this logic, we didn't invade them, they invaded us. We simply retook our land.

 

Who remembers argentine rule? Send £9.99 plus p&p and I will send you the book all about it. Snearing comes as a free gift for the first 10 orders.

 

Actually we did invade what would become Argentina in 1806 and occupied Buenos Aires for 46 days:D

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_invasions_of_the_R%C3%ADo_de_la_Plata

[alpine_saint]

Assuming Argentina are coloured pink on that map because of the Falklands, by this logic, we didn't invade them, they invaded us. We simply retook our land.

 

Who remembers argentine rule? Send £9.99 plus p&p and I will send you the book all about it. Snearing comes as a free gift for the first 10 orders.

 

Maybe the Argentina issue has more to do with the significant setlling of Welsh people in Patagonia some centuries before. But I dont know, hence it seems the book may be worth a read to follow the author's rationale.

[alpine_saint]

Actually we did invade what would become Argentina in 1806 and occupied Buenos Aires for 46 days:D

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_invasions_of_the_R%C3%ADo_de_la_Plata

 

Lets face it, we#ve been having punch-ups all over the place for centuries, and I doubt any of us have a full grasp of our military history, so it seems a bit previous to scoff at this book.

[Tokyo-Saint]

So we invaded each other. Alps are you saying that settling might be considered invading? Need to know as I would like to put my invasion of Japan down on my CV.

 

Thanks.

[PhilippineSaint]

So we invaded each other. Alps are you saying that settling might be considered invading? Need to know as I would like to put my invasion of Japan down on my CV.

 

Thanks.

 

I have already reclaimed the Philippines we can now safely repaint it pink on the map.

[Tokyo-Saint]

I know you have had a few conquests Phil and a few hairy encounters but I'm not sure you can put it down as a full on invasion.

[PhilippineSaint]

well an intrusion then surely that counts and some of them were pink

[Tokyo-Saint]

An invasion of privacy maybe.

 

But you've served your time for that so lets move on and not dwell on things.

[PhilippineSaint]

When Alps gets his copy of the book is he going to review it a la Bear to find out where we went wrong and missed a few ?

[Tokyo-Saint]

Where we went wrong? Always the pessamist eh?

[PhilippineSaint]

Where we went wrong? Always the pessamist eh?

 

I was being optimistic that we could work out how to get the remaining 22 with little loss

[Tokyo-Saint]

Nah, he would have given up in Calais saying we didn't have the technical ability to go any further and blamed it on the general and the Scots.

[alpine_saint]

You two make a superb double act.

 

 

Post #41 is a work of genius.