American Reacts to Every Country Britain Has Invaded 

sorry if we missed inavding your country, we were probably having tea, so appologies,

"Guy from former British colony learns about British colonialism for the first time" HOW IS THE US EDUCATION SYSTEM THIS BAD?!

“How did Britain do all this”, traditionally by having a Navy that was a class above everyone else, dominating the seas. The industrial revolution started here meaning Britain could out manufacture any other country for a while and being an island has a natural defensive position meaning more soldiers could range out rather than needing to be defending our shores. At one point it was estimated Britain ruled over 25% of the world’s land and the saying “The sun never sets on the British Empire” came about because it was always daytime somewhere in the Empire.

The phrase "the sun never sets on the British Empire" came about because it was always daytime somewhere in the empire. You said at the end about Antarctica, we have land there too.

Most Hong Hong people would still prefer they were under British rule than Chinese rule.

Basically British companies showed up to a lot of poor countries on ships and said ‘hey it looks like you have some things that we would like to buy. It appears you dont have the infrastructure to get these things to us. How about we put some infrastructure in place then trade with you.‘ The countries were like ‘yeah that sounds cool. ‘ So they set up trading colonies and infrastructure. These British companies figured out that they don't have to conquer anyone by force, they just buy the people already in charge, and as long as the people already in charge also get rich they just did what these British companies like. Often at the expense of everyone else there. But as far as the colonists were concerned the warlords can rule their own people how they like with a few exceptions. Such as widow burning. Just as long as the goods keep flowing. However, some other European empires basically decided that they also wanted in on the gig and decided to do the same thing. But they did so in places that these British companies had defacto control over and the British colonies didn't like it. So these British companies either went to the government or the crown and said ‘hey, the French are meddling in our highly prosperous thing we got going. Can you send the Navy over for some diplomacy? ‘ So they would. Kick out the French. Then they would turn to the local warlords and say ‘Im not a fan what you was doing with the Frenchies there, you're only going to trade with us from now on, or we will replace you with some rival warlords.’ So they obliged. That's basically how the British Empire was built. A bit like a mafia rather than an invasion. Britain has only ever had a large army during the last couple of of years of WW1 and during WW2. They could never have conquered 1/4 of the world by force. China is doing the exact same thing in Africa today.

12:53 "Hong Kong was a British colony?" Bro you CANNOT BE SERIOUS. They have fucking red double decker buses????

Poor France?! My arse.

Britain was so successful because of the Navy. Britain also incorporated the countries into the empire and put things in place there. Like trial by jury, trains, infrastructure, etc. Their armies fought along side, as part of the british army.

Lad you have to be trolling at this point "The British were in Africa?" you either know literally nothing about world history, or you're trying to piss people off.

"Did Brits know Britain invaded all these places" uh yes that's why it was called the British Empire Tyler.....and of course we were in Africa....why do many African countries speak English as their 1st language ?

Britons are told these days that we should be ashamed of the empire. I am not. It was nothing to do with me. The video makes me smile at how extraordinary was the confidence and the ability to invade, conquer and control so much of the world. Even doing so much to try to end slavery. Of course there were bad things done in the process but there were good things too. Britain and many of its former colonies are formed into the Commonwealth for mutual advantage and that is a good thing. Some would criticise Britain for this but it was just what all countries and tribes were doing around the world. It's just that the British were better at it than the others.

Tyler exemplifies the failure of the American education system.

"how are Britain doing this?" Practice, dear sir, practice.

"England has invaded France a lot" In fairness...the French started it.

Yet another reason that we Canadians can't stand to be lumped in with the Americans. For a country that thinks so highly of themselves, they really know nothing at all about anything.

Portugal was never invaded by the British, and that's only because we we're and have been their ally for a very long time.

I say old bean, the term 'invaded' is SO unfair! We kindly accepted the challenge of helping these places develop and prosper (mostly). All jolly good stuff.

What the frick did he think the British empire was. Not knowing about India, Australia, AFRICA, is just ignorance of world history. Ridiculous.

Not only Britains know, but this is taught all over European schools (and most school systems all over the world, I guess, especially in those former invaded countries). Actually considered common knowledge… It is really uncanny to see just HOW LITTLE Americans know of world history… Your education system is a big fail!

It started as a pub crawl and it got out of hand

Do Brits know about all these places they've invaded? Yes Tyler, we go to a place called school, we learn things there. It's a hell of a concept, you should try it one day....😂

Now you understand why the French were so happy to help the US in their War of Independence against the British! The funniest thing I think in our long-running rivalry with France was recently after the "AUKUS" deal where the UK and US snatched a huge submarine deal with Australia that France was just about to win - France recalled its ambassadors to the US and Australia in outrage and lodged major diplomatic protests with each country calling it "a stab in the back" and "unacceptable between allies", but when asked why they didn't recall their ambassador to the UK they said they were familiar with Britain's "permanent opportunism" and that it was to be expected 😂

It is also worth noting that the British Empire was so large by the 1920s that some of Britain's colonies... had colonies. After WW1, the Australian Government had effective control over ALL of East Papua (modern day Papua New Guinea) Samoa was a colony of New Zealand. Namibia was a colony of South Africa. And all 3 of these countries were considered Colonies of Britain. Though technically at the time they were Dominions with nominally independent foreign policies and so on.

Tyler: "I had no idea that Britain ever had anything to do with Asia." Seriously? Not even India? Are you insanely ignorant? (Yes)

I once wished my friend from the US a happy Independence Day. He replied by saying thankyou but then asking me if i minded that the US celebrated Independence Day. I then replied to him saying "Of course not, the US is just one of 65 countries that celebrate an independence day from the British empire". This genuinely shocked him. He didn't know this because all he had ever been taught was that the US got it's independence from the British. He had never been taught how big the British empire was and how the American war of Independence is only a tiny part of our history here in the UK.

War has been Humanity's favourite game since pre history. We British have been playing for a long time and we are very good at it.

This is why when the yanks try to show off about their country and how great it is and think they're a powerhouse it falls on deaf ears... *sips tea

At the time Britain was fighting the American war of independence Great Britain was also fighting France, Spain, the Dutch Republic, Jamaica, Gibraltar and even India. If the British had not been involved in these broader conflicts, the outcome of the American war of independence might very well have been different,

The secret was the Royal Navy and wherever we went we built infrastructure to support trade. Considering the popularised version of Britain under siege from the German U-boats and big scary ships like Bismarck, Tirpitz, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau it's easy to forget that at the time the Royal Navy was still the largest naval force on the planet spread out all over the world going into WW2. The threat of the KM was in merchant raiding. As mighty and impressive as Bismarck was, she was outnumbered by a lot and even out gunned by the Nelson Class of which the RN had 2 of btw(HMS Nelson and Rodney) and that's before we even get to how many aircraft carriers RN already had. Bismarck's true threat was if she could break out and stay hidden to strike merchant convoys, not take on the Royal Navy directly. We also had HMS Warspite wandering around doing what Warspite did best, blow stuff up and NOT get sunk so not as famous as HMS Hood 😂 It took the economic and industrial jugernaught of a pissed off USA after Japan messed with their boats to overtake Royal Navy in strength at sea and the burden of debt after WW2 was the final death nail for an already declining British Empire.

As North America was part of the British Empire it would make sense for American schools to teach what that meant.

We get bored very easily, so invading other counties gives us something to do

The British invaded and or colonised not because they wanted to but found these places and decided we want it... the British were explorers and wherever they found land they seem to find something they wanted there... the other reason was and actually the fundamental reason is to impress the kings and queens... there was honour bestowed on explorers if they returned from their voyage with good news.. and finally the decree at the time was anything found by explorers must be given to or belongs to the monarchy... and the monarchy will send a representative to govern or take care of the monarchs property.... there are still a handful of Caribbean nations still under British control with representatives of the King... the commonwealth is a clear indication of the countries which in one form or the other were colonised by Britain... not invaded but colonised... finally I think the narrator didn't mention Cyprus.... 😀

Many Americans are shocked the 4th of July means nothing to us Brits, and that we don't commemorate Independence day, but now you can see why.

Our secret was The Royal Navy.

The saying ‘the sun never set on the British empire’ holds a lot of weight. We owned so much of the globe at one point that the sun was always shining somewhere in the empire

There's a good reason why (even prior to the internet age) so many countries speak English and many of them drive on the left.

Tyler: "I had no idea!" There's a surprise...

From the rule of Elizabeth the first in the 1500's until 1945 , Britain became THE global superpower , all achieved by our mastery of the sea and the right men , being in the right ships at the right time . Not since the Roman Empire , has one country had such an impact , negative and positive on millions of peoples across the world .

The fun part is to look at how many countries still have a UK flag in their flag.

Your lack of knowledge on this speaks volumes of the serious failures in US education.

It's worth keeping in mind that most of this was done via free trade and cultural forces, not the army. The English had relatively few troops across this entire period (other than WWI and WWII, of course). Even if they had millions of troops, that doesn't explain how you hold a nation for 200 years. That's really not how the real world works. It's said that the British Empire was the most peaceful and beloved out of all the great empires (e.g. French, Dutch, German, Russian). The reason the English had so much power was exactly due to their culture and laws and systems, as opposed to military might. Of course, it still had a major slave trade along with the other empires for much of this time period, as well. If you want to see a less successful and more militaristic empire, see the Dutch Empire, French Empire, and/or Russian Empire. Even dating back to the 11th century, England is characterised more by law and order than tyranny, relatively speaking. There are many reasons for this, and it largely stuck, which massively aided the British Empire's direction by the 17th century. Sea power and natural island protection were key, of course. But, more important was English Law and culture, I believe. By the late-18th century through the 20th century (with some history back to the Romans, but more so, the 17th century), we saw the British Empire invent and/or innovate just about everything, from the computer to trains to the modern factory to modern roads to modern human rights to modern schools to modern policing to child rights to worker rights to modern sewer systems to modern water systems to modern bookshops and novels. The shorter list would be the modern inventions not by the British. These would include the plane, modern digital computer, modern traffic systems (though they played a part, and it was actually still via a Commonwealth nation of Canada), lightbulb (disputed, some say Americans, some say British), and the Internet (co-created by England and others, actually). Many other older inventions come from the Middle East and otherwise, naturally. Video games were invented by Canada and America, and England, depending on how you define such things. Film-making was invented and perfected by the French, British, Americans, and Soviets between about 1880 and 1930. Not much new was created after 1930 outside of technology and certain tricks. The Nazis did well with sheer scope, funding, and projection, but didn't really invent anything. Hitchcock helped created modern film-making, along with Stanly Kubrick, circa 1940-1960. Obviously, modern architecture, philosophy, and science are a mixed bag. If we start in the 1930s, then it's mostly the Nazis, British, and Americans. We do have Newton, so there's that. Germany has Nietzsche, on the other hand. France has post-modernism in general and all late-modernism, along with England. America has William James. America and France crushed with Art Deco for some years, and America massively brought forth their iconic Neo-Classical style. There is much more to say, but I'll leave it here.

No-one, not even an American as charming as Tyler, can be as thick as he pretends to be (I hope)! What happened to Malta in this video? Tyler jokingly mentions Antarctica. The British claims vast swathes of Antarctica to this day but by an international treaty of 1959 those claims are in abeyance. And what of Hawaii? It may be part of the United States now, but it wanted to be British first. AMerica was second choice. Take a look at the state flag which still has the Union Jack in the top left-hand corner (as did the United States itself for the first year of its declared independence. Here is what remains of the British Empire on which the suns still never sets! Akrotiri, Anguilla, Bermuda, British Antarctica. British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dhekelia, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar,Montserra, Pitcairn Islands, St Helena, Ascension & Tristan da Cunha, South Georgis, Turks & Caicos.

The British has always had an excellent navy and map making was something they were very good at.

I find it hilarious that people underestimate us. Just because we live on a tiny island doesn't mean we don't kick arse. Do Americans only get taught about America! The British Empire was the largest empire ever. We don't mess about. Stop underestimating us.

iceland, was to stop the germans coming round from the north, or if they took russia, we covered all bases, its not our first rodeo

For the people insulting him for "not knowing history", how about you give the man credit for actually going out and learning something new? That is a damn sight more than what most are willing to do.

This is why Britain got rich for 250 years and at front of industrial revolution, steam power , Royal Navy aand inventing 40% of the worlds inventions. Plus English language over the planet

We did all this with a very small army, and he leaves out the colonies in the Pacific.

light red was invaded, darker red was conquered, flags were attacks

Personally I think it's more impressive that britain did all this and yet hasn't been counter invaded since 1066. People tried but never succeeded

There's a reason why the saying "The sun does not set on the British Empire," exists.

Don't the Americans learn ANY world history?? I'm constantly baffled by how general world knowledge of this type is a surprise to Americans. And this video doesn't cover it all.

1st in technology 1st in navy 1st in transport 1st in economics 1st at controlling landmass 1st at sipping tea British Empire > USA for it's time

American: "I'd travel 100 miles for some good food" Brit: "Hold my beer"

Its a sad state of being that when the intro is "i am just a typical, average American" is so spot on. As an US citizen myself, it hurts me that world knowledge is ignored in favor of our self-centric yet skewed history as well as current affairs. Truly depressing having everyday conversations where my international friends pity me for living here because the average American they talk to is so clueless about everything and they want me 'rescued' from the ignorance of my countrymen.

fun fact in the battle of towton in the wars of the roses around three percent of England's entire population took part in the battle as well as one of its kings and three quarters of its nobility. also we technically invaded ourselves when king Steven usurped empress/queen matilda (she was the first ruling queen of england and the former empress consort of the holy roman empire). also the king of England at one point was also the king of france and we fought for around 113 years to keep it

I am shocked that even after over 18 months of running this channel devoted to learning about Britain he’s only just finding out about this.

By late wife, a Canadian, and I both worked (and met one another) while working in Hong Kong while it was a colony. Our two oldest children were born there, and technically could seek Chinese citizenship today. They prefer being Kenyan/Canadian and Kenyan/Australian, respectively. I'm shocked you didn't know about HK, a city founded as a trading city by the Brits. The title of British monarchs up to Charles's grandfather was King Emperor, with the emperor bit referring to the Empire of India.

there is a reason the world language is English! if you are from separate countries and want to communicate its most likley going to be english

Think of it this way, Tyler. Britain considered that one of the major duties of its government was to enable merchants and traders to do business; many "invasions" were made to support trading when it was being threatened by local pirates, European rivals, or by the other parties not wanting to trade (such as China not wanting to import British opium in exchange for Chinese goods we wanted to buy). India (including what became modern Pakistan and Bangladesh) was mostly 'conquered' and initially 'ruled' (with the local monarchs of its over 500 separate states doing what they were told) not by British government forces, but by the mercantile British East India Company, which had its own army and navy. It was only when the Company became inefficient and corrupt that the British Government took over.

I used to think that this was a parody channel. Still not convinced it isn't. Surely, nobody can know so little about everything

@Tyler Rumple , The main reason Britain was so advanced in travelling is because we invented time travel and just didn't tell anyone 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Just joking , it's because Britain had over 120 ship building ports and could produce 500 to 800 ships a year . The former British colonies of India & Hong Kong their first language is English . Infact Britain gave them their names , before Britain landed in India the country was known as Bharat . Hong Kong was all one word Hongkong until the name was split in 2 in 1926 . The country of Israel only got it's name in 1948 . Under British rule it was called Mandatory Palestine and before that it was called Canaan . Quite a few Middle East Countries were renamed by the British , Iraq used to be called Mesopotamia .

Its probably easier to just tell you the countries we haven't invaded.

How on Earth can you not know some of this. Hong Kong has been in the news a lot. Apparently also not aware of the USA invasion of Iraq. I guess a lot of these reaction videos are about how little Americans know and are taught. In this case it's clearly not a lot.

The empire the sun never sets on may give you an idea of how big the British empire was.

As a Canadian, my history education - along with Canadian history - included world history - which encompassed Britain, the USA, Europe, Aus/NZ and some smattering of Africa and Asia. Granted this was quite some time ago, and I'm not sure its the same these days. But, it strikes me that the US educational "system" is woefully lacking.....

Even the Hawaiian flag still has the Union Jack symbol to this very day.

At its height in 1922, the British Empire covered about 25% of the world's landmass and ruled over 458 million people, which was about 23% of the world's population at the time. The empire

The British empire was a quest to find decent weather.

One thing to note is alot of these countries that hes listed were not even countries during the times of the invasion, alot of these countries came into existance after the decolonization. For example saying britain invaded belgium is technically not true, saying britain CREATED belgium would be more accurate.

Britain became battle hardened from constant European conflicts, we were invaded and occupied many times, notably by romans, vikings, Saxons but ultimately had the advantage of being an island nation with a natural defence, a large moat of seas and oceans around us, this forced us to become a sea fairing nation for both trade and defence which led to the Royal Navy being formed and becoming the most powerful naval force for many centuries. Exploration, trade and extensive combat experience led to advances in science, technology, ship building, canons, the Industrial Revolution and political systems such as democracy. Allowing Britain to discover, invade and hold lesser prepared nations who put up with it because of our soft power in sharing of science, tech, industry, politics etc. Britains strategic geographical positioning also meant it was easier to defend so could focus on extending its reach. Britain was drawn into WW1 and WW2 however, which dramatically weakened the British empire as we depleted man power, resources and wealth so could no longer maintain colonial reach. Interestingly most historians suggest America gained its independence from the British not by weight of force but because Britain was militarily overstretched and had to choose on retaining America or India, we chose India because it was deemed to be more resource rich than America.

The most amazing thing about the British empire is the architecture - all over South Africa today are very British looking town halls and churches that literally appear as though they were picked up from England and placed in the Africas. Hong Kong also still looks VERY British - modern British - the HSBC bank headquarters were built when still under British rule. And today unlike mainland China Hong Kong STILL drive on the left of the road as in Britain. The old government buildings of India and Burma look as though lifted from London’s Whitehall. Very beautiful - the same in Jamaica.

S.A.S and Navy Seals were working on a mission together. Seals put up a sign that on their baracks that said "Navy Seals bested by no-one" the SAS put their own sign saying, "No-One."

How Britain built the modern world. If you are wondering how control was maintained. The majority of the territories appreciated and thrived under British rule. To call all of these conflicts ''invasions'' is disingenuous. A vast amount of Britain's time and resources was dedicated to helping resolve conflicts in other countries and keeping shipping routes open to trade.

Tyler you've been reacting to UK related videos for a while now, so I'm genuinely very surprised that most of the history surrounding the British Empire is a surprise to you?

It's easier to name the countries we haven't invaded 😂

Ireland was under colonial rule, when the British were leaving Dublin, Michael Collins was late arriving for the handover of the Military Barracks. The Brits were not impressed with his lateness, to which he replied " We have waited 800 years for this, a few minutes makes no difference.

It shows how very different the US and UK are when Tyler says he never knew that the UK ruled over India when as a British child growing up a here in the UK, I was sat down next to my two older sisters by my father and he would spin a big globe he had and point to a random place on it. We would have to name the country my father had his finger on, name it's capital city, the main religions of that country etc. The average US citizen is very inwardly focused on what is happening in the US whereas the average UK citizen is much more outwardly, more worldly focus.

Tyler, you observed that it might be easier to list the countries Britain has never invaded. The book "All the Countries We’ve Ever Invaded: And the Few We Never Got Round To". claims there are only 22 countries Britain never invaded throughout history. Sarcastic question: Where did you think the tea that was dumped into Boston harbour came from? India. How could Britain forcibly tax it? India was part of the British Empire. The British Empire was insanely lucrative. That wealth was used to fund it's control, and fund further expansion. Some of the 'invasions' were by the Royal Navy, but some were by companies with Royal Warrants, Some was skilful politicking, for example, supporting one group of local nobles against other groups, then being invited in to 'help' militarily if war broke out. Best Wishes. ☮

There were a a lot of countries who actually welcomed british rule, britain put into place trains cathedrals proper infrastructure. But most importantly, education, they would pull in some of the best teachers to live abroad in the colonies to teach the locals everything from math, science, language etc. When the british invaded a country and encountered rather significant resistance they conscripted there fighters into the british army, the gurkhas fought with such ferocity against the british to hold there country that the brits were deeply impressed, today you have the gurkha regiment in the army. They become british citizens.

19:02 we've got a British Antarctic Territory too 😂

It shows you how insular America was and still is because they’re the only country in the world didn’t you know. 😂😂

And that's how the English language is known all over the world. There are still 14 countries that make up the commonwealth.

I’m a dane. We were at war with Britain, but not directly invaded. But we invaded them back in the good old Viking days. Skål og skide være med det! 😜

Tyler, you were impressed by "65" Countries. Imagine 117 Countries, which was the next sentence! Some people will complain about anything. All we did was go on our travels, change a few things, and come back with a few mementos and souvenirs from our trips like holidaymakers still do when bringing a stick of rock from Blackpool or Long Island....

It blows my mind that you didn't know the British ruled India and large parts of Africa. Dude, Africa was essentially British and French. How do you not know this?

The things we Brits use to to before the invention of television and football/soccer.

There is plenty to learn in history class in British schools, actually too much. I'm in my late 40's and still find new interesting things to learn about Britain.

Now you understand why the British have a great sarcastic sense of humour. When you invade a country simply to wind up France or Spain! A lot of those countries have of course been scarred but we also left significant long lasting legacy’s. Democracy, law and order.

Iceland is strategically vital. It sits in the middle of the gap between Greenland (owned by Denmark,, and the UK . Russia cannot get ships into the Atlantic without passing through that gap. Iceland doesn't need to contribute troops, it's a profoundly important base

There’s a good reason why they’ve never invaded Norway, considering the Norwegian royal family is close relatives of the British royal family. King Charles is even named after King Haakon who was Queen Elizabeth’s favorite uncle and King Charles’ godfather

The secret is we’ve got an unbreakable spirit.

Can we all be a bit kinder to Tyler please? There are a few comments on here that are pretty personal and harsh. Tyler is simply being honest and I value that - it’s not his fault he was let down by an atrociously poor outdated educational system, and it should also be appreciated by people that unlike most Americans at least Tyler IS looking outward at other countries and cultures and choosing to learn about them - so credit where credits due - from London uk thank you Tyler for another fascinating video - keep up the good work x

No, ENGLAND has been doing this for nearly a thousand years. Britain didn't come into existence until 1707. And I'd say most countries celebrate their independence, from Britain or others.

Being English, I have a small fact for you. Q. Being a small island & all, what's the furthest distance you can go inland from the coast? A. 69 miles! Weird, but true. 🇬🇧✌️🇬🇧

Hi Tyler. This video has left a few countries off the list. Brave little Malta.The Falkland Isles, Create, Asenion Island, Marca Graca, and Mauritius. If the British invaded the moon you will see on a full moon 97% red.

Didn't mention Hawaii, Britain occupied them for 5 months in 1843, hence the Union flag on their State flag

The French started it .They invaded us first so we the British had to teach it a lesson .

Lol why do you think we drink so much tea, because of India.