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Lists of wars involving the United Kingdom

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 29, 2026
Entity authorityQ6644955 ↗
Source-derived summary

This is a list of conflicts involving the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and its predecessor states (the Kingdom of Great Britain (and Ireland)). Notable militarised interstate disputes are included. For a list of wars before the Acts of Union 1707 merging the Kingdom of England and Scotland, see List of wars involving England & List of wars involving Scotland. For a list of wars involving the predecessors of both states and a broader list of wars fought on the Island of Great Britain, see the list of wars in Great Britain.

Historically, the United Kingdom relied most heavily on the Royal Navy and maintained relatively small land forces. Most of the episodes listed here deal with insurgencies and revolts in the various colonies of the British Empire.

During its history, the United Kingdom's forces (or forces with a British mandate) have invaded, had some control over or fought conflicts in 171 of the world's 193 countries that are currently UN member states, or nine out of ten of all countries.

Lists

See also

List of wars involving England

List of wars involving Scotland

List of wars in Great Britain

Military history of the United Kingdom

Declaration of war by the United Kingdom

Notes

References

Citations

Further reading

Barnett, Correlli. Britain and her army, 1509–1970: a military, political and social survey (1970).

Black, Jeremy.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Lists of wars involving the United Kingdom” as wikimedia list article. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Lists, wars and involving.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1707, 1509, 1970—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Lists, wars and involving providing the first useful test.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6644955. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1707, 1509 and 1970.

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This entry incorporates text from “Lists of wars involving the United Kingdom” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.