British Have Invaded 193 Countries: Make 26 January ( Australia Day,
Invasion Day) British Invasion Day
By Dr Gideon Polya
23 January, 2015
Countercurrents.org
In the last 2 millennia the British have invaded 193 out of 203
present-day countries (195 UN-recognized nations and 8
non-UN-recognized self-governing countries) as compared to the French
80, the US 70 and Apartheid Israel 12. However the British invasion
of Australia on 26 January 1788 ultimately destroyed as many as 600
unique Indigenous Australian tribes and a comparable number of
languages and dialects (it is estimated that in 1788 there were 300
distinct Aboriginal language groups and 750 dialects of which only
150 survive) [1, 2], this making the Australian Aboriginal Genocide
qualitatively the worst genocide in human history. Australia ‘s
quantitatively worst genocide was the WW2 Bengali Holocaust in which
the British with Australian complicity deliberately starved 6-7
million Indians to death for strategic reasons ( Australia withholding
food from its huge wartime grain stocks) [3, 4].
26 January is commemorated as Invasion Day by Indigenous Australians
but celebrated as Australia Day by White Australians as the day when
White Australia began. In 2015 the British, having invaded all but 10
out of the world’s 203 countries, are still invading other
countries. Indeed Great Britain is currently into Britain ‘s Third
Syrian War and Britain ‘s Sixth Iraq War. These appalling statistics
make a compelling case for the whole British`devastated world
marking 26 January as British Invasion Day.
Before the British Invasion of Australia on 26 January 1788,
Indigenous Australians had been living in Australia for about 60,000
years. There were about 750 different tribes, 300 language groups and
750 dialects, of which only 150 survive today and of these all but
about 20 are endangered [1, 2]. After the British Invasion, the
Aboriginal population dropped from about 1 million in 1788 to about
0.1 million in the first century through introduced disease,
dispossession, deprivation and genocidal violence. The last massacres
of Aborigines occurred in the 1920s but no Treaty has ever been
signed. Indigenous Australians were only counted after a referendum in
1967 and were finally given some protection by the 1975 Racial
Discrimination Act. In the 20th century up to 1 in 10 Aboriginal
children were forcibly removed from their mothers, the so-called
Stolen Generations. Forcible removal of Aboriginal children from their
mothers is continuing today at a record rate. Indigenous Australians
are far worse off than White Australians in relation to housing,
health, wealth, social conditions, imprisonment, deaths in custody,
forcible removal of children, avoidable death and life expectancy
[5-7] .
Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention states: `In the present
Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with
intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or
religious group, as such: a) Killing members of the group; b) Causing
serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c) Deliberately
inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about
its physical destruction in whole or in part; d) Imposing measures
intended to prevent births within the group; e) Forcibly transferring
children of the group to another group.’
In 2000 about 9,000 Aborigines out of an Aboriginal population of
500,000 died avoidably every year (the avoidable death rate as a
percentage of population of 1.8% pa was the highest in the world and
1.8 times that for non-Arab Africa) but by 2011 this had declined to
about 2,000 annual avoidable deaths out of a population about 670,000
(an avoidable death rate of 0.4%, the same as for impoverished South
Asia but occurring in one of the world’s richest countries). The
Australian Aboriginal Genocide and Australian Aboriginal Ethnocide is
continuing [8].
UK author Stuart Laycock in his book `All the Countries We’ve Ever
Invaded: And the Few We Never Got Round To’ covered the 193 UN member
states plus the Vatican City and Kosovo and concluded that the
British had invaded all but 22 (all but 23 if one includes the UK
itself) [9, 10] . However Stuart Laycock’s list of 22 non-invaded
countries shrinks to 10 on careful inspection as listed below:
1. Andorra (sovereignty restored by British victory against France
in the Spanish Peninsular War in 1813 but technically not invaded).
2. Belarus (part of Russian Empire invaded by Britain in 1918-1920 but
technically not invaded).
3. Central African Republic .
4. Kyrgyzstan (part of Russian Empire invaded by Britain in 1918-1920
but technically not invaded).
5. Marshall Islands .
6. Mongolia .
7. Tajikistan (part of Russian Empire invaded by Britain in 1918-1920)
but technically not invaded).
8. Uzbekistan (part of Russian Empire invaded by Britain in 1918-1920
but technically not invaded),
9. Vatican City .
10. Sao Tome and Principe .
On careful inspection one finds (as summarized below with invasion
dates in parentheses) that 13 countries in Stuart Laycock’s
`non-invaded list’ must be added to the `British invaded list’, with a
14th addition being the UK itself on account of genocidal attacks of
the English Establishment on Anglo-Saxons, and thence the Welsh and
Scots after 1066:
1. Bolivia (1879-1884; British support for and British sailors in the
Chilean Navy in the Pacific War against Bolivia ).
2. Burundi (1914-1918).
3. Chad (1940, Long Range Patrol reconnaissance to Tekro).
4. Guatemala (19th century onwards dispute over Belize ) .
5. Ivory Coast (1942-1943).
6. Liechtenstein (1945; British forces repatriated imprisoned
German-collaborating Soviet soldiers from Liechtenstein to the USSR
).
7. Luxembourg (1918, 1944).
8. Mali (2013).
9. Monaco (1815).
10. Paraguay (1859, British Navy seized the Paraguayan warship
Tacuari; Britain financed the disastrous 1865-1870 Triple Alliance
War of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay against Paraguay in which the
Paraguyan population was reduced from 525,000 pre-war to 221,000 ) .
11. Republic of Congo (1914-1916).
12. Sweden (1808 ` The King of Sweden objected to 10,000 allied
British troops making port at Gothenburg and these British forces
subsequently left Sweden).
13. United Kingdom (genocidal attacks of the English Establishment on
English Anglo-Saxons after the Norman Invasion of 1066; 13th century
onward invasions of Wales and Scotland ).
There are now about 195 UN-recognized independent states in the world
(193 UN members plus Palestine and the Vatican) with this list
extending to 203 with a further 8 de facto states with limited or no
recognition, namely US-backed and recognized Kosovo, US-backed and
recognized Taiwan, Russia-backed and recognized South Ossetia,
Russia-backed and recognized Abkhazia, Russia-backed but unrecognized
Transnistria, Russia`backed but unrecognized Eastern Ukraine, the
Nagorny Karabakh Republic, and Western Sahara.
The British notoriously conquered Palestine in WW1 and then enabled
Zionist colonizers to ultimately take over all of the former
Mandatory Palestine and indeed ethnically cleanse 90% of Palestine of
its Indigenous Palestinian inhabitants. The British have technically
also invaded Taiwan (shelled by the British Navy in WW2), Kosovo
(technically part of Serbia that was bombed by the British in WW2 and
during the Balkans War ), South Ossetia and Abkhazia (parts of
Georgia, invaded by the British in WW1), Nagorny Karabakh Republic
(part of Azerbaijan, invaded by the British in WW1), Eastern Ukraine
(Ukraine was invaded by Britain in the 1853`1856 Crimean War) and
Moldova and the Moldovan break-away state of Transnistria (during the
1853`1856 Crimean War, the British Navy invaded the lower reaches of
the Danube River that borders on Moldova and attacked the Russian-held
Moldavian north bank) and Britain invaded both Mauritania and Morocco
from which Western Sahara derives.
The list of countries that have not actually seen British national or
mercenary forces, been invaded by British forces, bombed by the
British air force or shelled by the British navy totals 10 out of 203
and hence the number of UN-recognized countries and other
self-administering countries on the `British invaded list’ is 203-10
= 193. By way of comparison, France has invaded 80 countries [11],
the US has invaded 70 countries [12] and UK-, France-, US- , Canada-
and Australia-backed Apartheid Israel has invaded 12 (namely Egypt,
Sudan, Libya, Tunisia, Uganda, Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria,
Iraq, Turkey and the US, if one includes deadly attacks on planes and
ships of other countries outside Apartheid Israeli airspace and
waters) [8].
The consequence of British invasion was typically genocide of
Indigenous peoples, as exampled by the Australian Aboriginal Genocides
and American Indian Genocides through violence, dispossession,
deprivation and introduced disease. However in India and China , while
there were just too many Indigenous inhabitants for total
extermination, Indigenous deaths were enormous. Thus 20-100 million
Chinese died in the 19th century Tai Ping rebellion precipitated by
British imperialism and the Opium Wars, and Indian avoidable deaths
from imposed deprivation totalled 1.8 billion over 2 centuries of
British rule [4, 8]. In Africa slavery, dispossession, exploitation,
dislocation and relocation killed scores of millions and the impact of
colonialism world-wide continues under neocolonial hegemony. Thus
`annual avoidable deaths as a percentage of population’ is presently
1.0% for non-Arab Africa and 0.4% for South Asia as compared to 0.0%
for `White’ overseas European colonies (Australia, Canada, New
Zealand, Apartheid Israel and the US) [8].
1950-2005 avoidable deaths from deprivation in countries occupied by
Britain in the post-1945 era total 727 million – as compared to 147
million (French`occupied), 82 million (US-occupied) and 24 million
(Apartheid Israel-occupied) ` with the breakdown being as follows
(1950-2005 avoidable deaths/ 2005 population (both in millions, m)
and expressed as a percentage (%), the asterisk (*) below indicating a
major occupation by more than one country in the post-WW2 era) : UK
[4.411m/59.598m = 7.4%] – Afghanistan* [16.609m/25.971m = 64.0%],
Bahamas [0.007m/0.321m = 2.3%], Bahrain [0.054m/0.754m = 7.2%],
Bangladesh* [51.196m/152.593m = 33.6%], Barbados [0.015m/0.272m
5.5%], Belize [0.014m/0.266m = 5.3%], Bhutan [0.908m/2.392m = 38.0%],
Botswana [0.443m/1.801m = 24.6%], Brunei [0.020m/0.374m = 5.3%],
Cameroon* [6.669m/16.564m = 40.3%], Cyprus [0.054m/0.813m = 6.6%];
Egypt* [19.818m/74.878m = 26.5%], Eritrea* [1.757m/4.456m = 39.4%],
Ethiopia [36.133m/74.189m = 48.7%], Fiji [0.054m/0.854m = 6.3%],
Gambia [0.606m/1.499m = 47.6%], Ghana [6.089m/21.833m = 27.9%],
Greece* [0.027m/10.978m = 0.2%], Grenada* [0.018m/0.121m = 14.9%],
Guyana [0.086m/0.768m = 11.2%], Hong Kong [0.125m/7.182m = 1.7%],
India [351.900m/1096.917m = 32.1%], Iraq* [5.283m/26.555m = 19.9%],
Israel [0.095m/6.685 = 1.4%], Jamaica [0.245m/2.701m =9.1%], Jordan*
[0.630m/5.750m = 11.0%], Kenya [10.015m/32.849m = 30.5%], Korea*
[7.958m/71.058m = 11.2%], Kuwait* [0.089m/2.671m = 3.3%], Lesotho
[0.951m/1.797m =52.9%], Libya [0.785m/5.768m =13.6%], Malawi
[6.976m/12.572m = 55.5%], Malaysia [2.344m/25.325m = 9.3%], Maldives
[0.015m/0.338m = 4.4%], Malta [0.019m/0.397m = 4.8%], Myanmar
[20.174m/50.696 = 39.8%], Nepal [10.650m/26.289m = 40.5%], Nigeria
[49.737m/130.236m =38.2%], Occupied Palestinian Territories
[0.677m/3.815m = 17.7%], Oman [0.359m/3.020m =11.9%], Pakistan
[49.700m/161.151m = 30.8%], Qatar [0.029m/0.628m = 4.6%], Saint Lucia
[0.012m/0.152m = 7.9%], Saint Vincent & Grenadines [0.018m/0.121m
=14.9%], Sierra Leone [4.548m/5.340m = 85.2%], Singapore
[0.113m/4.372m = 2.6%], Solomon Islands* [0.050m/0.504m = 48.5%],
Somalia* [5.568m/10.742m =51.8%], Sri Lanka [0.951m/19.366m = 4.9%],
Sudan [13.471m/35.040m = 38.4%], Swaziland [0.471m/1.087m = 43.3%],
Tanzania [14.682m/38.365m =38.3%], Tonga [0.020m/0.106m = 18.9%],
Trinidad & Tobago [0.052m/1.311m = 4.0%], Uganda [11.121m/27.623m
40.3%], United Arab Emirates [0.087m/3.106m =2.8%], Vanuatu
[0.037m/0.222m = 16.7%], Yemen [6.798m/21.480m = 31.6%], Zambia
[5.463m/11.043m = 49.5%], Zimbabwe [4.653m/12.963m =35.9%], total
727.448m/2247.711m = 32.4%. [8].
Conclusions.
The British have invaded 193 countries out of the total of 203
countries that are UN-recognized (195) or not UN-recognized (8). In
comparison, France , the US and Apartheid Israel have invaded 80, 70
and 12 countries , respectively. The consequences of British invasion
for greed-based conquest (as opposed, for example, to invasion for
the purpose of liberation from Nazism in WW2) ranged from total or
near-total dispossession and extermination of hundreds of unique
Indigenous peoples in the Americas and Australia to the active and
passive mass murder of scores of millions in Africa and China and the
avoidable deaths from deprivation of1.8 billion Indians under the
British Raj [3, 4, 8].
History ignored yields history repeated. Britain in the 21st century
is still invading and devastating other countries ( Mali , Libya ,
Iraq , Afghanistan ) in the Zionist-promoted US War on Muslims. Not
satisfied with Britain ‘s First Syrian War (WW1) and Britain ‘s Second
Syrian War (WW2) , the UK is now presently engaged in Britain ‘s Third
Syrian War. Similarly, not satisfied with Britain’s First Iraqi War
(1914-1932), Britain’s Second Iraqi War (1941-1948) , Britain’s Third
Iraqi War (the 1990-2003 Sanctions War in which 1.7 million Iraqis,
half of them children, died avoidably from imposed deprivation),
Britain’s Fourth Iraqi War (the 1990-1991 Gulf War in which 0.2
million Iraqis were killed) , and Britain’s Fifth Iraqi War (2003-2011
in which 2.7 million Iraqi died, this including 1.5 million violent
deaths and 1.2 million avoidable deaths from war-imposed
deprivation), the UK is now engaged with its war criminal Western and
other allies in Britain’s Sixth Iraqi War (2014- onwards, with
thousands of Iraqis killed and thousands more to die from war-imposed
deprivation in what seems to be an endless war for oil and hegemony)
[13, 14].
Britain invaded Australia on 26 January 1788 and this is celebrated
as Australian Day by White Australians. However Indigenous Australians
commemorate this event as Invasion Day in remembrance of the
continuing Australian Aboriginal Genocide and Australian Aboriginal
Ethnocide in which 600 unique Indigenous groups and dialects
disappeared, with only 150 remaining and of these all but 20 severely
endangered. Britain has invaded 193 countries – all but 10 of the
world’s 203 countries – and continues to illegally and criminally
invade other countries for oil and hegemony. Invasion is the most
powerful expression of racism. Decent, anti-racist, pro-peace people
around the world should (a) inform everyone they can, (b) apply
Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against the serial invader,
nuclear terrorist, exceptionalist and still invading British rogue
state, and (c) make 26 January British Invasion Day worldwide.
References.
[1]. Ray P. Norris and Duane W. Hamacher, `Australian Aboriginal
Astronomy: overview’, 1 February 2013:
.
[2]. `Australian Aboriginal languages’, Wikipedia:
.
[3]. Gideon Polya, `Australia And Britain Killed 6-7 Million Indians
In WW2 Bengal Famine’, Countercurrents, 29 September, 2011:
.
[4]. Gideon Polya, `Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History.
Colonial rapacity, holocaust denial and the crisis in biological
sustainability’, now available for free perusal on the web:
.
[5]. Gideon Polya, ` Ongoing Aboriginal Genocide And Aboriginal
Ethnocide By Politically Correct Racist Apartheid Australia ‘,
Countercurrents, 16 February 2014:
.
[6]. `Aboriginal Genocide’ :
.
[7]. Gideon Polya, `Film review: `Utopia’ by John Pilger Exposes
Genocidal Maltreatment Of Indigenous Australians By Apartheid
Australia ‘, Countercurrents , 14 March, 2014:
.
[8]. Gideon Polya, `Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since
1950′, this including an avoidable mortality-related history of every
country since Neolithic times and now available for free perusal on
the web:
.
[9]. Stuart Laycock , `All the Countries We’ve Ever Invaded: And the
Few We Never Got Round To’ (The History Press, 2014).
[10]. Jasper Copping, `British have invaded nine out of ten countries
` so look out Luxembourg’, The Telegraph, 4 November 2012:
.
[11]. Gideon Polya, `President Hollande And French Invasion Of Privacy
Versus French Invasion Of 80 Countries Since 800 AD’, Countercurrents,
15 January, 2014: .
[12]. Gideon Polya, `US has invaded 70 nations Since 1776 ` make 4
July Independence From America Day’, Countercurrents, 5 July 2013:
.
[13]. `Iraqi Holocaust Iraqi Genocide’:
.
[14]. `Muslim Holocaust Muslim Genocide’:
.
Dr Gideon Polya has been teaching science students at a major
Australian university for 4 decades. He published some 130 works in a
5 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological
reference text “Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds” (CRC
Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London , 2003). He has published
`Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950′ (G.M. Polya,
Melbourne, 2007: ); see also his
contributions `Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality’ in `Lies,
Deep Fries & Statistics’ (edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney,
2007:
) and `Ongoing Palestinian Genocide’ in `The Plight of the
Palestinians (edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London ,
2010:
). He has published a revised and updated 2008 version of his 1998
book `Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History’ (see:
) as biofuel-, globalization- and
climate-driven global food price increases threaten a greater famine
catastrophe than the man-made famine in British-ruled India that
killed 6-7 million Indians in the `forgotten’ World War 2 Bengal
Famine (see recent BBC broadcast involving Dr Polya, Economics Nobel
Laureate Professor Amartya Sen and others:
). When words fail one can say it in pictures – for images of Gideon
Polya’s huge paintings for the Planet, Peace, Mother and Child see:
and
.