All the Countries We've Ever Invaded

by Stuart Laycock

  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

  This is an island country in the Caribbean with Saint Vincent as the main island and the Grenadines being a chain of islands stretching down to, yes, Grenada.

  When Europeans turned up they found Saint Vincent populated by Caribs. And as Europeans began to bring slaves into the Caribbean, the Caribs were joined by escaped slaves.

  There was an English claim to control the island, but in the end the French became the first Europeans to establish a permanent settlement there when they founded Barrouallie in 1719. In 1762, after attacking Martinique, General Robert Monckton sent a detachment to take Saint Vincent, which it promptly did and the Treaty of Paris in 1763 confirmed our control of the island.

  The locals, though, had other ideas, resulting in the First Carib War. The war ended in a stalemate in 1773, in which we conceded control of a large part of the island to the locals under their leader Joseph Chatoyer.

  The French had not given up either. In June 1779, French forces landed, and with help from the locals rapidly took control of the island.

  In 1780, it was us who were invading to reclaim the island. This wasn’t one of our more successful invasions. Admiral George Brydges Rodney decided from information he had received that the hurricane season had been so bad that the defenders of the island would not be in good shape to resist him. It turned out to be an erroneous interpretation of the situation. Two hundred and fifty British troops under General John Vaughan landed on the island, only to find that they were seriously outnumbered and, after just one day, the invasion was called off and Vaughan’s force re-embarked.

  We eventually got the French troops off the island through the Treaty of Versailles in 1783. That still left the issue of how Britain would deal with opposition from the locals.

  In the Second Carib War, which started in 1795, Chatoyer was joined by another local leader, DuValle, and by French supporters of the French Revolution. Chatoyer, though, was killed at Dorsetshire Hill by Major Alexander Leith and eventually the rebellion was crushed. Mass deportations followed.

  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines finally became independent on 27 October 1979.

  Samoa

  Samoa is one of those places that sounds so peaceful you almost think that surely we can’t have invaded it, but we have been involved in at least two wars here. And we didn’t even take control of Samoa at the end of them.

  In 1722, Dutchman Jacob Roggeveen became the first European to set eyes on the islands. By the late nineteenth century, Britain, Germany and the US all had trading posts and were locked in a struggle for power here, a struggle which expressed itself by the different Western powers backing different local factions fighting each other.

  The First Samoan Civil War took place between about 1886 and 1894. In March 1889, Britain, Germany and the US all sent warships to Apia harbour and there seemed a likelihood of serious trouble until on, 15 March, a massive storm hit and left the crews of the warships with even more serious problems to deal with.

  In the Second Samoan Civil War, the Germans were backing the Mataafans. The British and the Americans were backing Prince Tainu. In January 1899, the Mataafans forced Tainu out of Apia and in March we and the Americans landed in Apia. The Cruiser HMS Porpoise and the Corvette HMS Royalist landed sailors and marines.

  While land forces skirmished in Apia, our ships shelled boats and the outskirts of Apia. Eventually, the cruiser HMS Tauranga arrived to assist and we advanced south out of Apia to attack and defeat a rebel force there. Finally, after a series of battles at Vailele, hostilities were brought to an end and the Samoa Tripartite Convention was signed which split the islands between Germany and the US. In return for Britain giving up our claims to Samoa, the Germans gave us control of territory elsewhere.

  It probably wasn’t the best of bargains for the Germans in the sense that, in August 1914, a New Zealand expeditionary force captured the German-controlled part of Samoa without a fight. The German cruisers Gneisenau and Scharnhorst (confusingly, Germany in the Second World War also had major ships called Gneisenau and Scharnhorst, but they were different ones) turned up shortly afterwards and could, no doubt, have recaptured the islands, but Admiral Von Spee decided he wouldn’t be able to hold them if he did take them then. He didn’t get much of a chance later because by the end of 1914 he was dead and the First World War versions of the Gneisenau and Scharnhorst had been sunk at the Battle of the Falkland Islands (yes, there’s been one of those before as well).

  New Zealand then administered the territory until it became independent in 1962.

  San Marino

  San Marino is one of those countries that some people don’t think exists, except when it makes a brief appearance in international football. Did it cease to exist at about the time of the Borgias, or does it only exist to issue stamps? Neither. It is tiny, admittedly, but it is a proper country nevertheless, nestling on the eastern side of the Apennines, surrounded by Italy. Its official name is the rather charming ‘Most Serene Republic of San Marino’. Impressively, its official foundation date is AD301, the point at which Saint Marinus himself is said to have left the (now) Croatian island of Ran and established a small church in what is now San Marino.

  There was little serene about the situation in the republic as war raged around it in 1944. Until that year, San Marino had remained neutral in a world in flames. There had, it’s true, been a slight misunderstanding in 1940, when it was reported to have declared war on Britain and then had to deny it, but apart from that things had been pretty peaceful, that is, until September 1944 when the war reached the Most Serene Republic’s doorstep. Perhaps it was just as well for San Marino that things had been peaceful up until then, since its army (with the Crossbow Corps established in 1295) was unlikely to play any decisive role in a world of tanks, heavy bombers and vast armies. Germans, retreating in the face of the Allied troops who were advancing up the Italian peninsula, occupied the country, in spite of helpful large signs at the border stressing the country’s neutrality. And then we went in to liberate it.

  After bitter fighting the Cameron Highlanders finally took San Marino city on 20 September 1944.

  São Tomé and Principe

  The country of São Tomé and Principe consists, perhaps not surprisingly, of one island called São Tomé and one island called Principe. They are located in the Gulf of Guinea, about 150 miles off the coast of Gabon. Both islands used to be run by the Portuguese, and with Portugal having long been friends with us, we haven’t really invaded São Tomé and Principe. Though, on occasions, the Royal Navy has used the islands as a base.

  However, one lot of Brits did launch their own unofficial invasion of Principe.

  Captain Howell Davis was a Welsh pirate. He had succeeded in deceiving the commander of a Royal African Company fort in the Gambia into thinking he was a privateer and, as a result, he was able to capture the commander at dinner and demand a ransom.

  Encouraged by this, in 1719 Howell decided to try a similar plan to kidnap the Portuguese governor of Principe. So, with this in mind, he sailed into the harbour flying the flags of a British man-of-war. Howell must have thought his plan was working because he was invited to the fort for a drink. But instead of a drink, Howell, much to his (brief, since he didn’t survive the day) disappointment, was ambushed and killed.

  The pirates then elected another Welsh pirate, Bartholomew Roberts, as their leader and he subsequently launched a revenge raid on Principe, looting and killing.

  Saudi Arabia

  With Saudi Arabia we are back to the great Arab Revolt (see Jordan) and, of course, along with the Arab participants, T.E. Lawrence and a cast of assorted Brits.

  Lawrence arrived in the area in the autumn of 1916 and already by December he had brought ships of the Royal Navy’s Red Sea Patrol to help fend off an Ottoman attack on the port of Yanbu, now in Saudi Arabia. In January 1917, the Royal Navy again helped Arab forces, this time in their capture of Wejh, with assistance that included a
Royal Navy landing party. And 1917 also saw Lawrence and other British officers help with the Arab campaign against the strategically vital Damascus–Mecca Hejaz railway.

  By 1918, the British and the French were stepping up support for the Arab rebels with more advisers being sent, plus substantial amounts of weaponry, including some heavy weapons. In the period after the Turkish defeat in the First World War, Hussein became established as the King of the Hejaz, a region bordering the Red Sea. Subsequently, Ibn Saud took control from Hussein and became king. In 1927, we signed the Treaty of Jeddah, recognising him as ruler of the Hejaz and Nejd, and in 1932 Ibn Saud declared the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with himself as king.

  Senegal

  From the point of view of British and French history, the history of Senegal is closely linked to that of the Gambia in the sense that in the competition for power between the two European powers in this region, the French-controlled region became Senegal and the British-controlled region became the Gambia. Just as we and other Europeans, particularly the French, fought for control of the Gambia, so we fought for control of Senegal and for control of trade there – the slave trade being one of the major elements.

  The island of Gorée in Senegal was a particularly hotly contested area. The Portuguese had settled it as early as 1444. We came along and took it from the Dutch in 1664. The French took it and then we took it and eventually the French gained long-term control of it. St Louis was another place that had a similarly varied history and that we held on assorted occasions.

  In 1758, a British expedition of two warships and 200 troops, with a plan devised by American merchant Thomas Cumming, took Senegal in a surprise attack. We joined it with the land we already controlled in the Gambia to form British Senegambia. It doesn’t look like they thought too long and hard about that name. In 1779, the French were back and in 1783 the Treaty of Versailles once again separated out British and French-controlled areas in the region.

  In the Napoleonic Wars we were back, yet again, taking Gorée in 1803 and St Louis in 1809. In the end, we gave them back to the French in 1816 after Napoleon’s unlamented (by us) final departure from power.

  As the nineteenth century proceeded, things between us and the French settled down in the region, but still there was another invasion of Senegal to come in the twentieth century, or at least an attempted invasion. In September 1940, a British and Free French task force, including the carrier HMS Ark Royal and the battleships HMS Barham and HMS Resolution, arrived at Dakar with orders to try to persuade the French forces there to switch from Vichy to the Free French. The French in Dakar refused to come over to De Gaulle and fighting broke out, with the coastal forts and British ships exchanging fire, and with Free French troops trying to get ashore south-east of Dakar. Fighting between the fleet and Vichy forces continued for some time until eventually the attempt to persuade Senegal to switch to the Free French was abandoned.

  Vichy was to hang on to control of Dakar for quite a while longer.

  Serbia

  In one of those episodes of the First World War that deserves to be much better known, a British naval mission under Rear Admiral Troubridge in the early months of the war advanced into Serbia to help the Serbs resist the Austro-Hungarians. They took with them batteries of guns, a mining section and a torpedo section to help defend the Danube, and they took a picket boat from Malta to Salonika and then put it on the railway to Belgrade.

  The mission then proceeded to fight a little war on the Danube against bigger Austro-Hungarian boats. It became affectionately known as the Terror of the Danube – affectionately known by us, that is. No doubt the Austro-Hungarians had other less affectionate terms.

  On 22 April 1915 the picket boat, in a daring raid, sank the monitor Kersh with a torpedo, for which Lieutenant Commander Kerr was awarded a DSO and each of the crew received a DSM. Eventually, the Austro-Hungarians attacked in force and after bravely defending Belgrade, the survivors of the British naval mission retreated south with the Serbian army on an epic march under appalling conditions.

  During the Second World War, Brits, including Fitzroy Maclean, were involved with assorted resistance operations in Serbia. Maclean helped to organise attacks on the Salonika–Belgrade railway to hinder the retreating Germans, and he was present when the Russians and partisans liberated Belgrade from the Germans.

  On 24 March 1999, in response to Slobodan Milosevic’s actions in Kosovo, NATO launched a bombing campaign against targets in Serbia and in Kosovo. It lasted until 10 June 1999. RAF units played an important role in the campaign and the Royal Navy also fired cruise missiles.

  Seychelles

  These days the islands of the Seychelles are mostly known by Brits as a gorgeous place to go on holiday. So it’s perhaps appropriate that we have invaded them in a comparatively gentle and rather leisurely way.

  The French were the first European power to focus on the Seychelles. In the eighteenth century, the French intendant of nearby Mauritius took an interest in the idea of growing spices here. The intendant’s name was, strange but true, Pierre Poivre or ‘Peter Pepper’.

  In 1794, irritated by French raids on our shipping, we turned up in force. Commodore Henry Newcome arrived with three ships and gave the locals an hour to surrender. Which they duly did. That accomplished, in a rather leisurely manner, we didn’t do much more to impose our rule.

  In 1801, a French frigate carrying prisoners sent into exile by Napoleon turned up, and then HMS Sybille arrived and captured it. After brief negotiations with the locals, things were smoothed over and the modus vivendi continued. Later that year, there was a battle between the French ship La Flêche and the British ship Victor, which the Victor won – appropriately, having a name like that. And still the Seychelles’ semi-capitulated status continued.

  Finally, in April 1811, after the capture of Mauritius, one Captain Beaver arrived at the islands on board HMS Nisus to solemnify British rule. He left behind Royal Marine Lieutenant Bartholomew Sullivan, who tried to combat slave trading with varying degrees of success. And British rule was more extensively imposed.

  The Seychelles became independent in 1976.

  Sierre Leone

  Many readers will be aware of recent British military operations in Sierra Leone. By contrast, many readers won’t be aware that the origins of the modern state, as with neighbouring Liberia, are to be found in freed slaves settling in the area. While it was American freed slaves who laid the foundations of Liberia, it was British freed slaves who laid the foundations of the nation of Sierra Leone.

  We had been actively involved in the slave trade in the area, setting up trading posts at Bunce and York Islands in the seventeenth century. In 1787, things took a different turn. In that year, the Province of Freedom was established, with Granville Town, which is now Cline Town in Sierra Leone.

  The new inhabitants of Granville Town (named after Granville Sharp, the British anti-slavery activist who played a major part in establishing the settlement) included many black loyalists from America, who had been given their freedom by the British Army in return for service with the army during the American Revolution, and Londoners.

  The settlement was not a huge success. Disease took a toll and in 1789 the local Temne people burned the settlement down.

  Shortly afterwards another attempt was made, this time much more successfully. The venture included freed black slaves who had originally settled in Nova Scotia, before making for the much warmer climate of Sierra Leone. In 1792 they founded Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. Then in 1794 the French came along and burned Freetown, but the settlers rebuilt it and in 1800 hundreds of Jamaicans also arrived in Sierra Leone. In 1807 we abolished slavery and in 1808 we established a naval base in Freetown for anti-slaving operations. When the Royal Navy captured slaving vessels and freed the slaves, often they would take them to Sierra Leone to settle.

  The locals did not always view the expansion of British control with enthusiasm. In 1898, opposition to a Hut Tax led,
you guessed it, to the brief but violent Hut Tax War.

  In 1961 Sierra Leone became independent.

  In 2000, in Operation Palliser, British forces intervened in what had become a terrible civil war in Sierra Leone. Originally, the mission was aimed at safeguarding foreign nationals, but it expanded into an operation that helped defeat the rebels and end the civil war.

  Singapore

  Not much of an invasion to begin with. Brits and the Dutch were competing for influence in the region at the time. So Stamford Raffles persuaded the local ruler to allow the East India Company to establish a base at Singapore in 1819 and soon there was a settlement there with soldiers and so on. In 1826, Singapore was incorporated in the Straits Settlement Colony when it was established.

  By 1941, Singapore had grown to be a hugely important commercial and strategic military base. Its rapid fall to the Japanese that year was a disaster for Britain of staggeringly large proportions.

  During the war we conducted assorted incursions into Singapore. In the highly successful Operation Jaywick, British and Australian commandos aboard a Japanese fishing boat, renamed the Krait, made their way to Singapore and a team then paddled into the harbour to sink seven ships with limpet mines. The Krait and its crew returned safely. Which was sadly not the result of the follow-up attack, Operation Rimau, in which three ships were sunk in Singapore Harbour, but at a terrible cost in terms of team members killed in battle or executed afterwards by the Japanese.

  In 1945, we launched Operation Tiderace to retake control of Singapore.

  Japan formally surrendered on 15 August. On 31 August, Allied troops set sail from Trincomalee and Rangoon. On 5 September, British warships disembarked British and Commonwealth troops who were cheered with wild enthusiasm by Singaporeans as they marched through the city. A week later, Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten accepted the surrender of the Japanese military command in Singapore at Singapore City Hall.