Only 22 countries have never been invaded by Britain
statista.com
statista.com
Norway is on the list. Why? Perhaps because the Royal Navy invaded Copenhagen (without setting foot on land), and the Danish king at the time considered Norway part of his domain. But Norwegians didn't quite see it the same way (the declaration of independence was already being drafted).
Chile is on the list. Why? Perhaps because the Royal Navy beat the Spanish Armada, and then invaded Cadiz without setting food on land, and the Spanish king at the time considered Chile part of his domains? Or one of the other wars that didn't involve British soldiers marching on Madrid. I wonder what the Chileans thought and how many of them ever heard of the hostilities at Cadiz.
For Norway, it starts with the Battle of Bergen (1665) - which was while the Danes controlled Norway, but is today Norwegian territory. Continues through various naval encounters during the Napoleonic wars, and into attacks on german-held Norwegian territories during WW2 - ending with 1st Airborne landing at Oslo and Stavenger.
While very few of these are actually actions against Norway, they are on what is today Norwegian soil, which is the general theme of the book.
Chile is similar, in that while there's very little against Chile as a nation, there's plenty of attacks against the Spanish territory that became Chile, starting with the sacking of Valparaiso in 1578, and ending with british fighting with chile to establish their independence from Spain.
The general theme of the book isn't "we've attacked every country on this list" - it's more that if you put a pin on the map for every british military action listed through the book, a good 90% of today's countries will find a pin within their territory.
Edit: Perhaps what I really dislike is that that map draws the actions of the Royal Navy on land. Which isn't entirely untrue, people on land are affected by e.g. a blockade, but it does look like yet another infographic that aims to infuriate rather than inform.
eg, Poland was part of Russia during the 1850s Crimean War, and a little poetic license could stretch that a long way.
Having found further references, it seems most the book's claims for Poland hinge on actions in & around Danzig while it was part of Prussia - now being Gdansk, part of Poland.
(Given the scarce information, this could still be a hoax, but if so, I fell for it)
> Mac McAleer: The author deliberately stretches the definition of "invaded" to include short military interventions and actions by pirates, privateers and armed explorers.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/glasgow_and_west...