Map Of Every Colonial Battle Fought By UK, France, Spain, Portugal & The Netherlands

Map created by reddit user
Longjumping_Care989The map above shows: “Every battle in a “colonial campaign”, according to Wikipedia, fought outside Europe by selected countries, c.1400 to date.”

Here are the major colonial battels fought by each country:

UK

Here is a list of major colonial battles fought by the United Kingdom:

17th Century

1. Battle of Plassey (1757) – India
2. Battle of Buxar (1764) – India

18th Century

3. Siege of Louisbourg (1758) – North America
4. Battle of Quebec (1759) – North America
5. Battle of Wandiwash (1760) – India
6. Battle of Pondicherry (1778) – India
7. Battle of the Saintes (1782) – Caribbean

19th Century

8. Battle of Trafalgar (1805) – Naval battle, off the coast of Spain
9. Battle of Waterloo (1815) – Belgium
10. First Anglo-Burmese War (1824-1826) – Burma
11. First Anglo-Afghan War (1839-1842) – Afghanistan
12. First Opium War (1839-1842) – China
13. Battle of Meeanee (1843) – India (Sindh)
14. Battle of Ferozeshah (1845) – India (First Anglo-Sikh War)
15. Second Anglo-Sikh War (1848-1849) – India
16. Crimean War (1853-1856) – Crimea
17. Indian Rebellion of 1857 (1857-1858) – India
18. Second Opium War (1856-1860) – China
19. Battle of Rorke’s Drift (1879) – South Africa (Anglo-Zulu War)
20. Battle of Isandlwana (1879) – South Africa (Anglo-Zulu War)
21. First Boer War (1880-1881) – South Africa
22. Mahdist War (1881-1899) – Sudan
23. Second Boer War (1899-1902) – South Africa

20th Century

24. Battle of Gallipoli (1915-1916) – Turkey (World War I)
25. Battle of Jutland (1916) – Naval battle, North Sea (World War I)
26. Battle of El Alamein (1942) – Egypt (World War II)
27. Burma Campaign (1942-1945) – Burma (World War II)
28. Malayan Emergency (1948-1960) – Malaya
29. Mau Mau Uprising (1952-1960) – Kenya
30. Suez Crisis (1956) – Egypt
31. Falklands War (1982) – South Atlantic

This list includes significant battles and conflicts that involved British forces during their colonial expansions and imperial wars.

France

Here is a list of major colonial battles fought by France:

17th Century

1. Battle of Fort Caroline (1565) – Florida, USA (with Spain)
2. Battle of Quebec (1629) – North America (with England)

18th Century

3. Battle of Plassey (1757) – India (with the British East India Company)
4. Battle of Wandiwash (1760) – India (with the British East India Company)
5. Battle of Pondicherry (1761) – India (with the British East India Company)
6. Siege of Louisbourg (1758) – North America (with Britain)
7. Battle of the Plains of Abraham (1759) – North America (with Britain)
8. Battle of Quiberon Bay (1759) – France (naval battle with Britain)
9. Battle of Chesapeake (1781) – North America (naval battle with Britain, supporting American Revolution)
10. Battle of Yorktown (1781) – North America (with Britain, supporting American Revolution)

19th Century

11. Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815) – Various locations in Europe and beyond
12. Battle of Waterloo (1815) – Belgium (with Britain and allies)
13. French conquest of Algeria (1830-1847) – Algeria
14. Crimean War (1853-1856) – Crimea (with Russia)
15. Second Italian War of Independence (1859) – Italy
16. Cochinchina Campaign (1858-1862) – Vietnam
17. Franco-Mexican War (1861-1867) – Mexico
18. Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) – France and Germany
19. Tonkin Campaign (1883-1886) – Vietnam
20. First Madagascar Expedition (1883-1885) – Madagascar
21. Second Madagascar Expedition (1894-1895) – Madagascar
22. Conquest of Chad (1899-1914) – Chad

20th Century

23. World War I (1914-1918) – Various locations worldwide
24. Battle of Gallipoli (1915-1916) – Turkey (with the Allies)
25. Battle of Verdun (1916) – France (with Germany)
26. Rif War (1920-1926) – Morocco
27. World War II (1939-1945) – Various locations worldwide
28. Battle of France (1940) – France (with Germany)
29. First Indochina War (1946-1954) – Vietnam
30. Battle of Dien Bien Phu (1954) – Vietnam
31. Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962) – Algeria
32. Suez Crisis (1956) – Egypt (with the UK and Israel)

This list includes significant battles and conflicts that involved French forces during their colonial expansions, imperial wars, and global conflicts.

Spain

Here is a list of major colonial battles fought by Spain:

15th Century

1. Battle of Granada (1491-1492) – Spain (Reconquista)

16th Century

2. Battle of Cajamarca (1532) – Peru (with the Inca Empire)
3. Battle of Mactan (1521) – Philippines
4. Battle of Tenochtitlan (1521) – Mexico (with the Aztec Empire)
5. Battle of Cuzco (1533) – Peru (with the Inca Empire)
6. Battle of Muros Bay (1543) – Spain (naval battle with France)
7. Battle of St. Quentin (1557) – France (with France)
8. Battle of Lepanto (1571) – Greece (naval battle with the Ottoman Empire)
9. Battle of Manila (1574) – Philippines (with Chinese pirates)
10. Battle of San Juan de Ulúa (1568) – Mexico (with English privateers)
11. Battle of Pavia (1525) – Italy (with France)

17th Century

12. Battle of Rocroi (1643) – France (with France)
13. Eighty Years’ War (1568-1648) – Various locations in Europe (with Dutch rebels)
14. Battle of San Juan (1625) – Puerto Rico (with the Netherlands)
15. Battle of Santo Domingo (1586) – Dominican Republic (with English privateers)
16. Battle of Cádiz (1596) – Spain (with England and the Dutch Republic)

18th Century

17. War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714) – Various locations in Europe
18. Battle of Cartagena de Indias (1741) – Colombia (with Britain)
19. Battle of Havana (1762) – Cuba (with Britain)
20. Battle of Pensacola (1781) – Florida, USA (with Britain)
21. Siege of Gibraltar (1779-1783) – Gibraltar (with Britain)

19th Century

22. Battle of Trafalgar (1805) – Spain (naval battle with Britain)
23. Peninsular War (1808-1814) – Spain (with France)
24. Mexican War of Independence (1810-1821) – Mexico
25. Battle of Carabobo (1821) – Venezuela (with independence forces)
26. Battle of Ayacucho (1824) – Peru (with independence forces)
27. First Carlist War (1833-1840) – Spain (civil war)
28. Spanish-American War (1898) – Various locations (with the USA)
29. Battle of Manila Bay (1898) – Philippines (naval battle with the USA)
30. Battle of San Juan Hill (1898) – Cuba (with the USA)
31. Philippine Revolution (1896-1898) – Philippines

20th Century

32. Rif War (1920-1927) – Morocco (with Berber tribes)
33. Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) – Spain (internal conflict)

This list includes significant battles and conflicts that involved Spanish forces during their colonial expansions, imperial wars, and internal conflicts.

Portugal

Here is a list of major colonial battles fought by Portugal:

15th Century

1. Conquest of Ceuta (1415) – Morocco
2. Battle of Alfarrobeira (1449) – Portugal (internal conflict)
3. Battle of Toro (1476) – Spain (with Castile)

16th Century

4. Battle of Diu (1509) – India (naval battle with the Gujarat Sultanate and Mamluk Sultanate)
5. Battle of Cochin (1504) – India (with the Zamorin of Calicut)
6. Conquest of Goa (1510) – India
7. Battle of Swally (1612) – India (naval battle with the British East India Company)
8. Siege of Malacca (1511) – Malaysia
9. Conquest of Ormuz (1515) – Iran
10. Battle of Chaul (1508) – India (with the Mamluk Sultanate and Gujarat Sultanate)
11. Battle of Cannanore (1506) – India (with the Kingdom of Cannanore)
12. Battle of Elmina (1482) – Ghana

17th Century

13. Battle of Guararapes (1648-1649) – Brazil (with the Dutch)
14. Battle of Mbwila (1665) – Angola (with the Kingdom of Kongo)
15. Dutch-Portuguese War (1602-1663) – Various locations (with the Dutch)
16. Siege of Malacca (1641) – Malaysia (with the Dutch)
17. Battle of Matanzas (1628) – Cuba (naval battle with the Dutch)

18th Century

18. Battle of Rio de Janeiro (1711) – Brazil (with France)
19. Battle of Mombasa (1698) – Kenya (with the Omani Arabs)

19th Century

20. Invasion of Goa (1812) – India (with the British East India Company)
21. Luso-Brazilian War (1822-1824) – Brazil
22. Portuguese Civil War (1828-1834) – Portugal (internal conflict)

20th Century

24. Battle of Naulila (1914) – Angola (with Germany)
25. Portuguese Colonial War (1961-1974) – Various locations in Africa (Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique)
26. Operation Vijay (1961) – India (annexation of Goa by India)

This list includes significant battles and conflicts that involved Portuguese forces during their colonial expansions, imperial wars, and internal conflicts.

The Netherlands

Here is a list of major colonial battles fought by the Netherlands:

16th Century

1. Battle of Heiligerlee (1568) – The Netherlands (part of the Eighty Years’ War against Spain)
2. Battle of Gembloux (1578) – Belgium (part of the Eighty Years’ War against Spain)

17th Century

3. Battle of Gibraltar (1607) – Spain (naval battle with Spain)
4. Battle of the Downs (1639) – England (naval battle with Spain)
5. Dutch-Portuguese War (1602-1663) – Various locations (with Portugal)
6. Battle of Jakarta (1619) – Indonesia (conquest of Batavia from the Sultanate of Banten)
7. Battle of Mbwila (1665) – Angola (with Portugal)
8. Capture of Malacca (1641) – Malaysia (with Portugal)
9. Battle of Colachel (1741) – India (with Travancore)
10. Battle of Matanzas (1628) – Cuba (naval battle with Spain)
11. Battle of Sheerness (1667) – England (part of the Second Anglo-Dutch War)
12. Battle of Texel (1673) – The Netherlands (naval battle with the Anglo-French fleet)
13. Siege of Recife (1630-1654) – Brazil (with Portugal)

18th Century

14. Battle of Dogger Bank (1781) – North Sea (naval battle with Britain)
15. Fourth Anglo-Dutch War (1780-1784) – Various locations (with Britain)
16. Capture of Trincomalee (1782) – Sri Lanka (with Britain)

19th Century

17. Java War (1825-1830) – Indonesia
18. Padri War (1821-1837) – Indonesia
19. Aceh War (1873-1904) – Indonesia

20th Century

20. Dutch East Indies Campaign (1941-1942) – Indonesia (with Japan, part of World War II)
21. Indonesian National Revolution (1945-1949) – Indonesia

This list includes significant battles and conflicts that involved Dutch forces during their colonial expansions, imperial wars, and global conflicts.

What do you think the most significant colonial war or battle? Please leave your comments below: