Rule Britannia!

[Deleted]

Only 22 countries in the world have never been invaded by Britain.

This article from The Telegraph has all of the details.

[onlymark]

I could have sworn blind I posted the same thing a few weeks ago. Never mind.
Anyway, the criteria for 'invasion' does seem fairly wide ranging, but in a strange though bad way it does make me a little bit proud.

[mossie]

It was the only way they became civilised ;D ;D

[bjd]

I, for one, would really like to see the list of countries with an explanation of the "invasion". I can't think of many British invasions of countries in central Europe, the Baltic states, let alone countries whose history I know nothing about.

More chest pounding about their history to make themselves feel important -- just like the French.

[nautiker]

what a sad anachronism - what other state (to be more pecise: what more or less respectable newspaper from another state) would bother compiling/publishing such a map nowadays? and given the generous interpretation of 'invading', I fail to see any relevance beyond the crackerbarrels

[onlymark]

The Guardian didn't compile the map, it just repeated it from a book " All the Countries We've Ever Invaded: And the Few We Never Got Round To." It has published it though.
From a previous article I understand the author was asked by his son a question about how many countries the British had invaded. This got him thinking and did a load of research resulting in the book.

bjd, as stated, the criteria for viewing it as an 'invasion' is very wide, including an incursion by pirates (pirates though working under the authority of the Queen/King).

[nautiker]

thanks for pointing out the Guardian, onlyMark, from the Telegraph link above by kerouac I couldn't quite make out the books intended satirical appeal (mind you, it's still lost on me). I was aware the map wasn't compiled by the newspaper but a historian (I admit I didn't make this clear in my post), I was merely wondering in what other countries a major paper would publish a map like this with so little reflection alongside...

[patricklondon]

Doesn't appear to have anything to do with The Guardian. It's just a filler piece about the bloke's book about an historical factoid. I suspect it may be stretching a point to call the book's author an historian, too - doesn't sound like much more than a loo-book for the Christmas market.

[onlymark]

Hang on a minute. I opened this tread then came back to it later and mistook the two newspapers. The Telegraph I should have said, not the Guardian.

[Deleted]

I think it's kind of ridiculous to claim never to have invaded Andorra, Monaco and Vatican City -- those places live under the total domination of the surrounding invaded countries.

[bjd]

And for the non-invaded ones -- Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kirghizistan were never "countries". There were a series of states and regions dominated by various tribes and ruled by tribal leaders. They were incorporated into the Russian Empire in the 19th century and became official "stans" in the USSR.