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Everybody knew that the British loved to conquer lots of countries for their precious empire. It's not until somebody sits down and actually counts all of them that we realize just how many. Historian Stuart Laycock was happy to volunteer for the job and presents his findings in a new book All the Countries We've Ever Invaded: And the Few We Never Got Round To. The book stays true to its title and finds in a survey of 200 of the world's countries through that, in one shape or form, Great Britain has invaded all but 22 of them. That amounts to about 90 percent of the world's countries.

It's easy to scratch your head at this figure. In fact, it's encouraged. How on Earth could the Brits even have time to invade all those countries? We know that "sun never sets on the British Empire" slogan, but this is ridiculous. In a review, The Telegraph's Jasper Copping walks through Laycock's methodology, and it sounds like the author took some liberties with the definition of "invasion." Or at least, he defined it pretty broadly. In order to count for an invasion in Laycock's book, the British only needed to achieve "some sort of military presence in the territory -- however transitory -- either through force, the threat of force, negotiation or payment," Copping explains."Incursions by British pirates, privateers or armed explorers have also been included, provided they were operating with the approval of their government."