During and after World War 2, large areas of the world were conquered and successfully occupied for many years. However, conquering countries and territories has become very rare since 1970.
Cambridge studies and other academic studies observe that territorial conquest declined sharply after 1945 and virtually subsided after 1975. However, using new and more comprehensive data on territorial conquest attempts, a study presents a revised history of conquest after 1945. Unlike attempts to conquer entire states, attempts to conquer parts of states remained far more common than previously recognized. More than conquest declined in frequency, its relationship with war evolved. Challengers attempting conquest before 1945 often initiated a war, then sought to occupy large territories. Today, challengers more often seize small regions, then attempt to avoid war.
The German War machine that conquered most of Europe had about 4 million soldiers. The Soviet War Machine that defeated Germany and then conquered half of Europe had 11-12 million personnel and 60,000 tanks. The Soviets maintained force levels at about 5 million throughout the occupation.
Japan and the United States (and its allies) were the only forces that were able to capture contested islands or major amphibious military operations.
The Soviets were able overwhelm with ten to one to a hundred to one odds in land invasions in Europe. China will not be able to transport an invasion force five to ten times larger than the D-Day invasion onto Taiwan. The air operation alone would be larger than anything done since WW2. The Naval operation would be larger than any since D-day and would be larger than D-day. Taiwan is more populated by orders of magnitude than any successful contested island invasion during WW2.
The US and Israel have been the main air forces involved in sizable air combat after 1970. There as also the Iran-Iraq War and the Indo-Pakistan war. The post-WW2 to 1969 period had the Korean War and the Vietnam war with significant air battles.
In terms of conquered, the invasion of Iraq could be considered last country that was conquered and Russia has annexed Crimea and is now occupying part of Ukraine.
The last unsuccessful annexation would be Kuwait, while the last successful annexation would be South Vietnam.
Here is a list with some from prior to 1970.
India
Hyderabad State
French India
Jammu & Kashmir
Portuguese India (Goa)
Sikkim
Pakistan:
Kashmir
Turkey:
Northern Cyprus
Russia:
Crimea
South Ossetia
Abkhazia
China:
Tibet – Tibet came under the control of the Qing dynasty of China in 1720 after the Qing expelled the forces of the Dzungar Khanate from Tibet. It remained under Qing suzerainty (or protectorate) until 1912. The succeeding Republic of China claimed inheritance of all territories held by the Qing dynasty, including Tibet. 1951 China took Tibet again.
Aksai Chin
Hong Kong
Israel:
West Bank
Gaza
Golan
Lebanon
North Vietnam:
South Vietnam
It should be noted that the Indian and Pakistan war also had the Bangladesh Liberation war and Bangladesh genocide. Members of the Pakistani military and supporting paramilitary forces killed an estimated 300,000 to 3,000,000 people and raped between 200,000 and 400,000 Bangladeshi women in a systematic campaign of genocidal rape. Pakistan’s religious leaders openly supported the crime by labelling Bengali freedom fighters Hindus and Bengali women the booty of war. In fact, more than 80 percent of the Bengali people were Muslims at that time.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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