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: http://www.atnf.csiro.au/people/rnorris/papers/n287.pdf .
[2]. “Australian Aboriginal languages”, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Aboriginal_languages .
[3]. Gideon Polya, “Australia And Britain Killed 6-7 Million Indians In WW2 Bengal Famine”, Countercurrents, 29 September, 2011:
http://www.countercurrents.org/polya290911.htm .
[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: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya290911.htm .
[5]. Gideon Polya, “ Ongoing Aboriginal Genocide And Aboriginal Ethnocide By Politically Correct Racist Apartheid Australia ”, Countercurrents, 16 February 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya160214.htm .
[6]. “Aboriginal Genocide” : https://sites.google.com/site/aboriginalgenocide/ .
[7]. Gideon Polya, “Film review: “Utopia” by John Pilger Exposes Genocidal Maltreatment Of Indigenous Australians By Apartheid Australia ”, Countercurrents , 14 March, 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya140314.htm .
[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: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/body-count-global-avoidable-mortality_05.html .
[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: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/9653497/British-have-invaded-nine-out-of-ten-countries-so-look-out-Luxembourg.html .
[11]. Gideon Polya, “President Hollande And French Invasion Of Privacy Versus French Invasion Of 80 Countries Since 800 AD”, Countercurrents, 15 January, 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya150114.htm .
[12]. Gideon Polya, “US has invaded 70 nations Since 1776 – make 4 July Independence From America Day”, Countercurrents, 5 July 2013: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya050713.htm .
[13]. “Iraqi Holocaust Iraqi Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/iraqiholocaustiraqigenocide/ .
[14]. “Muslim Holocaust Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ .
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: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ); see also his contributions “Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality” in “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics” (edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/australian-complicity-in-iraq-mass-mortality/3369002#transcript
) and “Ongoing Palestinian Genocide” in “The Plight of the Palestinians (edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London , 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ). He has published a revised and updated 2008 version of his 1998 book “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History” (see: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ) 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: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/social-economic-history/listen-the-bengal-famine ). 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: http://sites.google.com/site/artforpeaceplanetmotherchild/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/ .