kottke.org"Of the current 200 nations in the world, the British have invaded all but 22 of them." https://kottke.org/12/11/britain-has-invaded-all-but-22-countries
RolloTreadway@kottke This comes up fairly often, and it's absolute horseshit. Apparently Britain 'invaded' Portugal because an English army once went there to *help* the Portuguese defend themselves against Spanish invasion. And Britain 'invaded' Switzerland because a military plane crashed there once.
Roger Sen@RolloTreadway @kottke and at that time Spain was occupied by the French. British troops fought with Portuguese and Spanish troops to free Spain from the French invasion.
Roger Ap Gwillian@RolloTreadway @kottke That still leaves 196. 👹
What "Invasion" means in the context of the claim is actual invasion or occupation. The estimated number is 171 to 178.
The source of the claim is this book:
https://thehistorypress.co.uk/publication/all-the-countries-weve-ever-invaded/
All the Countries We've Ever Invaded
Out of 193 countries that are currently UN member states, we’ve invaded or fought conflicts in the territory of 171. That’s not far off a massive, jaw-dropping 90 per cent. Not too many Britons know that we invaded Iran in the Second World War with the Soviets. You can be fairly sure a lot more […]
@ausgroucho @kottke It's still horseshit. Even if you limit it to actual attacks, it still includes countries like Belgium and Ukraine, which were centuries away from existing when they were 'invaded'. Britain attacked France and Russia on territory that much later became Belgium and Ukraine, this does not mean that Britain invaded Belgium and Ukraine. And that's true of many countries on the list.
My problem with this, though, aside from a basic objection to dishonesty, is that it's really quite harmful. Britain *has* attacked and invaded a huge range of peoples around the world, including a great many nations that are not currently recognised sovereign states so wouldn't be included on the horseshit list.
Creating a false equivalence between Britain's genocidal conquest of Australia and Britain sending troops to fight the Nazis in Norway serves to diminish the atrocities perpetrated in the name of empire. It adds support to the apologists, who claim that the empire 'wasn't that bad', that Britain was just fighting against other tyrants.
We should never muddy the waters of British imperial crimes, such as the murderous suppression of Kenyan opposition, by tying it to British efforts to help the Greeks free themselves from Ottoman occupation. They are absolutely, critically not the same.
@RolloTreadway @kottke
I think we're in furious agreement about a lot here.
There were over 250 language groups in "Terra Nullius" prior to 1788. England's boots were crushing anyone not them on every continent in the world, other than Antarctica. And even then they got pissed-off when beaten to the pole.
Naming countries that didn't yet exist is merely locating the English Imperialism for a modern audience. The geographical maps give an instant overview of just how much of the world map was at one time or another pink.