Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Countries that Britain has attacked

Countries that Britain has attacked

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I don't quite think this list is encyclopedic in scope, due to the very elastic (and POV-fraught) definition of "attack" and, to a lesser extent, "Britain". How, for instance, are the following "attacks" by "Britain"?

155. The Romans begin to abandon Hadrian's Wall.
866. The Danes conquer the Kingdom of Northumbria.
1605. English explorers visit New Hampshire.
1620. The English abandon Run to the Dutch.
1639. Connecticut's first constitution, the Fundamental Orders, is adopted.
1795. Mungo Park [a private individual with peaceful intentions] enters Mali from Senegal.
1915. During the First World War Britain through the Treaty of London awards Italy the protectorate of Albania [without any British troops setting foot there].
2009. Rwanda joins the British Commonwealth.

Second, what are the sources? I have a sneaking suspicion this is based on All the Countries We've Ever Invaded: And the Few We Never Got Round To. Of course, that's a work of entertainment and has not been peer-reviewed by academics. It isn't serious history. Due to the media buzz it's generated, the book may deserve an article of its own, but let's not present its conclusions as somehow authoritative.

We have a List of wars involving England and a List of wars involving Great Britain, and that is as it should be, but this starts to veer distinctly into original research territory. - Biruitorul ^Talk 16:09, 26 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

This article was begun long before I had heard of the book you mention see User:Davroche for dates. I have not seen the book.

I am happy to discuss the the use of the word "attack" please suggest a better word or phrase as a heading for the article. The purpose of the article is to list by country all the military effects that Britain has had on the world - the wars, armed conflicts, skirmishes fought and lands occupied or administered by or within the sphere of influence of Britain.

I agree that it needs a lot of tightening but that does not mean that it should be deleted. I can remove the attacks on Britain - especially those not directly in response to or causing an attack by Britain itself.

Your second point is about sources. Every reference has been taken from Wikipedia itself. I plan to iteratively improve the references to more specific pages. For example, instead of Britain I would moved to History of the United Kingdom or more specifically War_in_Vietnam_(1945–1946). When I began this in January 2012, I did not consider the importance of very specific links but the later entries are linked directly to a page section.

The two articles that I linked to run by time and war whereas my article runs by country first. Both approaches are useful. Davroche (talk) 18:42, 26 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Delete - the name of the article is quite frankly incorrect, just for starters - secondly, this is a totally unnecessary article due to the two articles the nominator linked to. Thirdly, a lot of things simply don't fit in the article. Lukeno94 (talk) 17:56, 26 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I am happy to discuss the the use of the word "attack" please suggest a better word or phrase as a heading for the article. I can remove the attacks on Britain - especially those not directly in response to or causing an attack by Britain itself.Davroche (talk) 18:52, 26 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Delete Material better covered in other articles. Plus many items were not attacks by British forces, but peaceful visits or in some cases other nations were attacking Britain. Besides the island Britain never attacked anybody, it was people living there under many different governments. Kitfoxxe (talk) 18:36, 26 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I can modify the article to take on board your observations. Please indicate what articles show the military impact that Britain has had on the world country by country? I thought I had defined "Britain" in the opening paragraph is that not sufficient?Davroche (talk) 18:52, 26 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Delete Concur on basis of other articles dedicated to serious study of this topic. Book may warrant own page, but not this "spin-off". This article was begun long before I had heard of the book you mention see User:Davroche for dates. I have not seen the book. Please indicate an article in Wikipedia that summarises the dominion of Britain better than this article. I cannot find one. Davroche (talk) 18:53, 27 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Delete - topic is already (much) better covered by existing articles. An obvious delete. Chiswick Chap (talk) 19:45, 26 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Which articles address this issue better - please name one Davroche (talk) 18:53, 27 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Delete List of wars involving England might be modified to include a list sorted by opposing country in addition to a list sorted by date but the current article does not do this - it conflates modern countries with the states that existed on the same territory hundreds of years ago and it stretches the meaning of the word "attack" to the point of absurdity. GabrielF (talk) 20:52, 26 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your more constructive criticism. I am interested in your suggestion to have more than one list. I think the word "attack" should be changed but what to? Davroche (talk) 18:53, 27 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

SNOW Delete POV and nonencyclopedic --Sue Rangell ✍ ✉ 21:06, 26 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Comment This list appears inspired by or drawn from British author Stuart Laycock's recent book All the Countries We've Ever Invaded: And the Few We Never Got Round To[1]. That book might be notable based on the controversy it created; but the list isn't. --Colapeninsula (talk) 09:28, 27 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

This article was begun long before I had heard of the book you mention (10 January 2012) see User:Davroche for dates. I have not seen the book. Davroche (talk) 18:53, 27 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Merge with List of wars involving England, leaving a redirect behind. AutomaticStrikeout (Evidence) 17:45, 27 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

This is not a list of wars - it is a list of countries that have had a war with Britain Davroche (talk) 18:53, 27 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]