Which country has declared war the most times?

Factual Questions
1

Meaning against anyone.

2

Also, how many times have the won the war they declared?

3

Aslan2, I doubt that any objective answer to your question is possible. We can tell how often the United States has declared war because there is an overt constitutional process that involves both the legislative and executive branches and of which scrupulous records have been kept. But “declaring” war is an ancient concept; Hugo Grotius, the “father of international law,” writes in his treatise On the Law of War and Peace,

Ch. 3, “On Just or Solemn War According to the Law of Nations on Declarations of War.”

There is simply no way of tracking how often many ancient nations, and probably several modern ones, declared war. Defining what international disputes amounted to a “war” raises some problems: was Vietnam a “war”? was the Korean conflict? They were never formally declared as wars. Another problem arises from figuring out whether and how any given “war” was declared, since a declaration need not take any particular form, and many comminications amounting to formal declarations that are older than the last century are probably irretrievably lost.

There is also the problem of defining what “country” is declaring war. Does a war declared by Prussia in the 19th century count toward the total for 21st-century Germany? or does a war declared by the Bourbon dynasty count for modern France? What about a war declared by the Ptolemy family–does it count for modern Egypt? or even for the pre-Ptolemy dynasties of ancient Egypt? You can see the definitioanl problems that arise (some of which are also hashed out in the thread Oldest country??).

4

Well, America decares war by getting the president and congress to agree to it. So, similarly, what country has done something like that to declare it an “official war”?

5

It doesn’t have to be exact, either. It can be something like “The Spanish have officially declared war 15 times since 1834”.

6

Okay: The Spanish have officially declared war 15 times since 1834. Here’s the cite.

7

I would guess Germany-they had what, 5 wars alone in the 19th century!

8

I’m guessing England. Particulary since they would go to war with france, declare peace, then go back to war after a couple of years, for a while during the middle ages.

9

I would have to totally agree with brianmelendez. I mean, you could have Communist Russia in an undeclared state-of-war with the US, but then 25 years down the road have a CIS declare war on the US for infringement rights on Alaska. Where do you draw the line?

Just because a nations’ physical borders stay the same doesn’t mean the political structure does. I would rephrase your question to say, “What nation and political structure has declared war the most times?”

Didn’t Rome have a bazillion ongoing wars without declaring them over a millenia? If so, then the US has 'em beat by a handful or so over 200-and-change years. . .

Tripler
Nitpicking? Um, yeah. Sorry.