This is a list of wars and humanitarian conflicts involving the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and its predecessor states (the

Kingdom of Great Britain The Kingdom of Great Britain (officially Great Britain) was a sovereign country in Western Europe from 1 May 1707 to the end of 31 December 1800. The state was created by the 1706 Treaty of Union and ratified by the Acts of Union 1707, wh ...

Kingdom of England The Kingdom of England (, ) was a sovereign state on the island of Great Britain from 12 July 927, when it emerged from various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, until 1 May 1707, when it united with Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain. On ...

Kingdom of Scotland The Kingdom of Scotland (; , ) was a sovereign state in northwest Europe traditionally said to have been founded in 843. Its territories expanded and shrank, but it came to occupy the northern third of the island of Great Britain, sharing a l ...

and generally the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isl ...

). Notable

militarised interstate dispute Militarized interstate disputes (MIDs) are conflicts between states that do not involve a full-scale war. These include any conflicts in which one or more states threaten, display, or use force against one or more other states. They can vary in int ...

s are included. For a list of wars that have been fought on the United Kingdom mainland, see the

list of wars in Great Britain This is a list of wars occurring on the island of Great Britain. See also * List of wars in Ireland * List of wars involving England * List of battles involving the Kingdom of Scotland *List of wars involving the United Kingdom * List of Englis ...

. Historically, the United Kingdom relied most heavily on the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

and maintained relatively small land forces. Most of the episodes listed here deal with insurgencies and revolts in the various colonies of the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...

. During its history, the United Kingdom's forces (or forces with a British mandate) have invaded, had some control over or fought conflicts in 171 of the world's 193 countries that are currently

UN member states The United Nations member states are the sovereign states that are members of the United Nations (UN) and have equal representation in the UN General Assembly. The UN is the world's largest intergovernmental organization. The criter ...

, or nine out of ten of all countries. : : : :

England, Scotland and Wales to 1707

* List of battles between Scotland and England *

Anglo-Scottish Wars The Anglo-Scottish Wars comprise the various battles which continued to be fought between the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland from the time of the Wars of Independence in the early 14th century through to the latter years of the ...

* Anglo-Welsh Wars *

Tudor conquest of Ireland The Tudor conquest (or reconquest) of Ireland took place under the Tudor dynasty, which held the Kingdom of England during the 16th century. Following a failed rebellion against the crown by Silken Thomas, the Earl of Kildare, in the 1530s, ...

Wars of the Three Kingdoms The Wars of the Three Kingdoms were a series of related conflicts fought between 1639 and 1653 in the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, then separate entities united in a personal union under Charles I. They include the 1639 to 1640 Bi ...

, 1639–1660

Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1801)

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801–1922)

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (1922–present)

Notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

* *

* Barnett, Correlli. ''Britain and her army, 1509–1970: a military, political and social survey'' (1970). * Black, Jeremy. ''A military history of Britain: from 1775 to the present'' (2008). * Bradford, James C. ed. ''International Encyclopedia of Military History'' (2 vol. 2006). * Brownstone, David and Irene Franck. ''Timelines of War: A Chronology of Warfare from 100,000 BC to the Present'' (1996), Global coverage. * Cannon, John, ed. ''The Oxford Companion to British History'' (2003) * Carlton, Charles. ''This Seat of Mars: War and the British Isles, 1485–1746'' (Yale UP; 2011) 332 pages; studies the impact of near unceasing war from the individual to the national levels. * Chandler, David G., and Ian Frederick William Beckett, eds. ''The Oxford history of the British army'' (Oxford UP, 2003). * Cole, D. H and E. C Priestley. ''An outline of British military history, 1660–1936'' (1936)
online
* Dupuy, R. Ernest and Trevor N. Dupuy. ''The Harper Encyclopedia of Military History: From 3500 B.C. to the Present'' (1993). * Fortescue, John William. ''History of the British Army from the Norman Conquest to the First World War'' (1899–1930), in 13 volumes with six separate map volumes
Available online for downloadingonline volumes
The standard highly detailed full coverage of operations. * Haswell, Jock, and John Lewis-Stempel. ''A Brief History of the British Army'' (2017). * Higham, John, ed. ''A Guide to the Sources of British Military History'' (1971) 654 page
excerpt
Highly detailed bibliography and discussion up to 1970; includes local and naval forces. * James, Lawrence. ''Warrior Race: A History of the British at War'' (Hachette UK, 2010)
excerpt
* Johnson, Douglas, et al. '' Britain and France: Ten Centuries'' (1980) * Mulligan, William, and Brendan Simms, eds. ''The Primacy of Foreign Policy in British History, 1660–2000'' (Palgrave Macmillan; 2011) 345 pages * timeline pp xix to xxxi * Otte, T.G. ''The Makers of British Foreign Policy: From Pitt to Thatcher'' (2002) * Ranft, Bryan. ''The Oxford Illustrated History of the Royal Navy'' (Oxford UP, 2002). * Rodger, N. A.M. ''The safeguard of the sea: A naval history of Britain, 660–1649'' (Vol. 1. 1998)
excerpt
** Rodger, N.A.M.''The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1649–1815'' (vol 2 2006
excerpt
* Sheppard, Eric William. ''A short history of the British army'' (1950)
online
* Ward, A.W. and G.P. Gooch, eds. ''The Cambridge History of British Foreign Policy, 1783–1919'' (3 vol, 1921–23), old detailed classic
vol 1, 1783–1815

vol 2, 1815–1866vol 3. 1866–1919

Historiography

* Messenger, Charles, ed. ''Reader's Guide to Military History'' (2001) pp 55–74 etc.; annotated guide to most important books. * Schroeder, Paul W. "Old Wine in Old Bottles: Recent Contributions to British Foreign Policy and European International Politics, 1789–1848." ''Journal of British Studies'' 26.01 (1987): 1–25. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wars Involving The United Kingdom

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

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