Look Out, World: Brits Have Invaded 90% of Nations

Only 22 countries have been exempt: book
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 5, 2012 11:57 AM CST
Look Out, World: Brits Have Invaded 90% of Us
The 315-foot-high clock tower which houses the Big Ben bell is framed by a tree on Parliament Square opposite the Palace of Westminster, London, Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2012.   (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

If you're part of planet Earth, there's a really great chance that British forces have invaded your homeland at one time or another: Some nine out of 10 countries have suffered such a fate throughout history, a new book finds. Indeed, just 22 countries haven't seen a British invasion, the Telegraph reports. The majority of the countries in the analysis, in Stuart Laycock's book All the Countries We've Ever Invaded: And the Few We Never Got Round To, were never part of the British Empire—but they all endured a military presence in some form.

France has been the target of the highest number of British invasions, but it's also in second place for conducting invasions of its own. "I was absolutely staggered when I reached the total" after two years researching, says Laycock. "Other countries could write similar books—but they would be much shorter ... although the Americans had a later start and have been working hard on it in the twentieth century." Either way, "the book is not intended as any kind of moral judgment on our history or our empire. It is meant as a light-hearted bit of fun." Head to the Telegraph for a list of those countries not invaded. (More Britain stories.)

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