h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Saddam did a good job on Kuwait until we re took it

There must be plenty of African countries this has happened to.

Since my last post this seems to have drifted onto what countries have suffered military defeats or unusual resolutions to territorial disputes.

I take it that Scotland, Wales etc are too old to qualify (seeing as they were not seperate countries for quite some time...)

England didn't did conquer Scotland. We bailed them out of their last banking bubble.

There were a number of states conquered in WW2, both in Europe and Asia. One of my favourites is the Free City of Danzig, invaded and conquered by Germany in 1939 and never independent since.

I think you'll find that Scotland conquered England in 1603, when the new country called Britain was created.

We also beat you last time we played at footie

I doubt it. I don't play footie.

Aside from that. I'm Welsh, isn't it.

The Kingdom of Tavolara is an interesting one as well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Tavolara

in 1962 a NATO station arrived on the island. Does that count as conquering?

Diego Garcia

by the USAF with the approval of the UK

I think we need to apply some dates. The Wikipedia page was interesting (and quite a cool resource for place names to use in fiction, methinks) but not quite organised in the way I'm looking for.
If you're not sure whether it counts, or id the most recent, try formulating your response as follows:

Was: Western Sahara
Is Now: Morocco
Date Taken: 1975 (after a quick Wikipedia-check)

Wikipedia reckons there have been fairly recent negotiations to make Western Sahara independent again, but it isn't currently, so it counts.

north Cyprus invaded 1974, declared independence 1983

So are secessionist states that have little or no international recognition to be counted?

Chechnya only had recognition by the Taliban before it was annexed back by Russian forces in rather bloody mess 1999 onward.

What about Hawaii.

Culturally conquered.

What about the Lisbon Treaty? Dozens of countries losing their sovereignty at a stroke.

~*~What about Hawaii.
Culturally conquered.~*~

Was not.

So was there any consensus achieved here?

It's a tricky question as the modern nation state has only really existed since the mid 19th century and the various duchies, grand duchies, principalities and such were always in a very complex mire of entanglements. Often places would disappear then reappear in a new form... I think you can go more recent than the conquering of the last vestiges of the Roman empire by the turks. What about the Ottoman empire? That in turn no longer exists and Turkey is only a rump of what was.
You also need to define what qualifies as an independent country to allow it to be included. Would a very temporary country like South Vietnam count?

As a distinct political entity I'd say the most recenty destroyed 'country' was maybe East Prussia as its territory was completely subsumed into The russian Oblast of Kaliningrad, modern Poland and maybe a bit of Lithuania (not sure of the latter).

Of course bits of old Prussia are still inside Germany and Berlin was the capital of Brandenburg Prussia once german unification had taken place. But it's ancient capital of Konigsberg is lost to Russia now. Kaliningrad (as it is now) is the site of much nuclear weaponry and other russian militariness. Not a place they're likely to return lightly - plus of course nearly all the local germans were driven out in 1945.

So that gets my vote. East Prussia and maybe Prussia generally (as someone else suggested).

>>So was there any consensus achieved here?

Don't know...but I still say Western Sahara.

Well looking at wikipedia it seems to be an ongoing dispute so I guess the outcome is still not decided...


Although it does look like a de-facto conquered country on the face of it I'd agree. Certainly it ticks a lot of the boxes.

Sorry missed that one when I went through the backlog.

Yeah, I don't think anything more recent than 1975 has been proposed and found valid. The point about it not being much of a political entity beforehand is a reasonable one, but then I suppose you have to have not much going for you to be completely conquered.