Uninvaded

[steepholm]

What do the following countries have in common?

Andorra
Belarus
Bolivia
Burundi
Central African Republic
Chad
Congo, Republic of
Guatemala
Ivory Coast
Kyrgyzstan
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Mali
Marshall Islands
Monaco
Mongolia
Paraguay
Sao Tome and Principe
Sweden
Tajikistan
Uzbekistan
Vatican City

According to Stuart Laycock, they hold the distinction of being the only countries never to have been invaded by Britain. I'm sure there's some room for argument about this, but still - what a pugnacious lot we are, and have been. (I realise this is not a very original observation, but there you go.)

Comments

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

We are pugnacious, but I'm not sure that other places have a particularly fantastic track record either: maybe someone will do a world guide to invasion.

Also, is it accurate? When did we invade Kazakhstan? Have we actually invaded Russia per se? Finland?

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Indeed - I suspect that much of the book must be spent finessing the meaning of "invasion". But taken as a broad brush picture, it's arresting.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I don't recall us ever invading Korea or Thailand? And what about places like Canada, Australia and New Zealand? I know we colonised them, but that's not quite the same as invading. How are they defining "invading"?

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

From the article I linked to, it seems they're defining invasion as "having a military presence in", which would certainly include Korea. I don't know enough about Thailand to say, as to that. And well, I think Canada and Australia and New Zealand probably did seem very much like an invasion from the point of view of the people we took them from!

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure that it would include Korea. The Korean war was fought by UN troops, so though there were British soldiers there, they weren't actually British, if you see what I mean.

Also, if you use "having a military presence in" then, by that definition, the US has invaded the UK! I think that is definitely stretching the meaning well beyond what the ordinary person in the street would accept as "invading".

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think it's a fairly latitudinous definition - I say without having read the book. Attacks by government-approved pirates also count, apparently.

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

I can't believe we never invaded Luxembourg! We should do it now, just on principle.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

No, no! Vatican City first!

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

I was going to say that Luxembourg has better wine but that probably isn't true.

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

I think you should launch terribly miniature invasions (maybe assisted by Lego cannons) of all these countries, just to make it all even. Or you could add cultural invasion to the list of invasion techniques and be left with very few indeed.