# Any Country Never Taken Over? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 23, 2018, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-country-never-taken-over/809389 "2018-02-23T03:38:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2018, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-country-never-taken-over/809389/41 "2018-02-23T17:12:22Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#): > > The United States is not the only country where a more powerful power came in, and took it away from the original inhabitants. It holds true for almost every country! > > My question is simply this: Is there **any** country, \*\*\*anywhere \*\*\* that wasn’t simply taken over at some time in their history, by an invading force? And I guess implicit in that, is that one people always occupied the same land. Or maybe they moved out, and it’s vacant now. I don’t know. But my first question certainly is enough, to understand what I am getting at. > > 🙂 🙂 🙂 The United States has never been invaded in the sense of “a more powerful power came in, and took it away from the original inhabitants”. In fact, pretty much, go to any list of nations after WW2 and most have never been invaded (_most_, a few have). Now if your are asking whether or not any large section of land has always been settled by one people and only one people, obviously the answer is no. Cro-magnon pusshed out Neandertahls. Tribes would constantly go back and forth, areas devasted by famine, plague, war would be re-settled by others, and so forth. A few islands, etc may qualify. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2018, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-country-never-taken-over/809389/42 "2018-02-23T17:19:09Z")
> [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](#): > > I was going to say Thailand. Looking at the history, it seems like the Thai people were not the original inhabitants. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2018, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-country-never-taken-over/809389/43 "2018-02-23T18:29:47Z")
But the OP was asking specifically about countries. I thought. Was it a country then? Was it another country? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2018, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-country-never-taken-over/809389/44 "2018-02-23T18:34:16Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > …and the Romans, don’t forget the Romans! Though I’m reliably informed that they did very little for us. I thought that some of their roads were still in use. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2018, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-country-never-taken-over/809389/45 "2018-02-23T18:39:59Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > …Obviously Japan suffered a military defeat in 1945 (and quite possibly at other times) but that didn’t result in the country being “taken over”. Being occupied by a foreign army for years and compelled (after free and fair elections, to be sure) to write a new constitution that reduces the role of your head of state sure seems like “taken over” to me. > [@UDS](#): > > …You could quibble, I suppose, over whether Bermuda is a “country”… I would. It’s designated a British Overseas Territory, is on the UN list of “non-self-governing territories,” and is not fully independent. It’s not a country. > [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > …and the Romans, don’t forget the Romans! Though I’m reliably informed that they did very little for us. Bloody Romans. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2018, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-country-never-taken-over/809389/46 "2018-02-23T18:45:38Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Being occupied by a foreign army for years and compelled (after free and fair elections, to be sure) to write a new constitution that reduces the role of your head of state sure seems like “taken over” to me. Agreed. > [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Bloody Romans. They made some nice roads, but nothing ran on time. ---
**Author:** ![Yask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Yask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yask)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2018, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-country-never-taken-over/809389/47 "2018-02-23T18:47:43Z")
Side note: [Here is a pretty entertaining synopsis of Japan’s political history](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh5LY4Mz15o). From what I understand it’s not perfect, but I don’t think it includes glaring errors. Gives a good sense of why they might fit the OP. Plus it’s a fun watch. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2018, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-country-never-taken-over/809389/48 "2018-02-23T18:49:02Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > But the OP was asking specifically about countries. I thought. Was it a country then? Was it another country? How are you defining countries? Serious question. Are we counting Cambodia as the entity that once controlled a large chunk of southeastern Asia, including much of what is now eastern Thailand? Or are we only talking about the rump state created after French colonialism? If so is there a difference between monarchical Cambodia and Khmer Rouge Cambodia? If we define “countries” as only being those states that have existed since, say, the formation of the U.N. _most_ have never been taken over, because the incidence of conquest has drastically declined in the world. The OP referenced “Great Britain”( which doesn’t really work as a country per se ) and everything from the Celts to the Normans. And the Celtic migrations/invasions really doesn’t line up with pre-Angle England ;). So I assumed he was just using country as a euphemism as any populated region. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2018, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-country-never-taken-over/809389/49 "2018-02-23T19:49:46Z")
> [@Yask](#): > > Side note: [Here is a pretty entertaining synopsis of Japan’s political history](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh5LY4Mz15o). From what I understand it’s not perfect, but I don’t think it includes glaring errors. Gives a good sense of why they might fit the OP. Plus it’s a fun watch. That is very cool, thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2018, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-country-never-taken-over/809389/50 "2018-02-23T20:04:46Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > … The OP referenced “Great Britain”( which doesn’t really work as a country per se )… That’s certainly become clear in all the Brexit hair-pulling and jumping about. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2018, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-country-never-taken-over/809389/51 "2018-02-23T20:09:50Z")
It is easier to get a handle on the British Empire rather than the British Commmonwealth. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2018, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-country-never-taken-over/809389/52 "2018-02-23T20:52:04Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > de Gama, or Núñez de Balboa? I meant just the region. I’ve seen some documentaries where the Basques claim 25,000 years of ancestry in their region, they have an ancient language spoken nowhere else… I suppose it doesn’t qualify, though, I am sure that the Romans and Spanish kings ruled over them…but it is a uniquely homogenized culture that seems to have been around a very, very long time without a lot of change. I for one would LOVE to visit San Sebastian someday. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-country-never-taken-over/809389.md?page=2)