The British Empire was the largest empire in history in terms of landmass, as well as one of the most formidable military powers in the world at its peak. From Napoleonic France to southeast Asia to the Americas, Great Britain was known for its spectacular successes on the battlefield, often against much larger, better-armed enemies. 

Of course, you can’t win every battle you fight. Like every other powerful empire in history, the grand story of the British Empire also contains quite a few accounts of massive, catastrophic military upsets. 

10. Battle Of Isandlwana

The Battle of Isandlwana was the first engagement of the Anglo-Zulu war – a major conflict in the south-eastern part of South Africa involving the Zulu kingdom and Great Britain. Fought on January 22, 1879, it would be one of the bloodiest defeats suffered by British forces at the hands of a native army, despite their considerable superiority in military technology. 

Armed with rockets and state-of-the-art breech loading rifles – compared to old school melee weapons like pikes and spears on the Zulu side – the British forces were caught off guard by the sheer number of the Zulu army. Lord Chelmsford, who led the attack, vastly underestimated their will to fight, too, and by the end of the day, a big chunk of the British force was decimated. 

It was the first battle of the Anglo-Zulu war, and while the Zulus were eventually defeated after a six-month campaign, the battle at Isandlwana is still counted as a major British defeat in colonial-era Africa. It was a part of the larger British efforts to form a South African confederation in the region, directly challenging the autonomy of multiple, ethnically-diverse African states like Zululand. 

9. First Anglo-Boer War

The First Anglo-Boer War – also known as the First Transvaal War of Independence, or the Transvaal rebellion – could be seen as an extension of the global British-Dutch rivalry at the time, though the Boers weren’t actually Dutch citizens. While they did predominantly come from a Dutch lineage and spoke Dutch as their first language, Boers included descendants of settlers from all over Western Europe. 

British incursions into Boer territory started long before the war, though it was the annexation of Transvaal in 1877 – one of the territories governed by the Boers – that really triggered it. The war – or more accurately the rebellion – began in December 1880, pitting the British empire against an equivalently armed and well trained enemy. 

As you can guess from the general theme of this list, it didn’t go too well for the British. The Boers turned out to be much better at fighting in that terrain, as they regularly used firearms for hunting. They had much better weapons and tactics, too, and the British forces were regularly faced with mobile, mounted groups of riflemen. 

The war ended with the decisive battle of Majuba Hill in February 1881, when the Boers successfully stormed the British position of Majuba Hill manned by over 400 soldiers. More than 22,000 British soldiers lost their lives throughout this campaign, with over 6,000 casualties on the Boer side. 

8. Siege Of Kut

The Battle of Kut was fought during the Mesopotamian campaign of the First World War. About 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, Kut was then a strategically crucial town due to its proximity to oil – a resource that would change warfare forever. 

On December 7, 1915, the Ottoman army laid siege to the town, garrisoned by a British force of about 10,000 soldiers. While it was later strengthened by a relief contingent of about 30,000 soldiers, the siege would still end in a disaster for the Brits.

In an almost five-month-long siege, Ottoman forces – despite being overwhelmingly outnumbered – killed more than 30,000 British soldiers, making it one of the deadliest military engagements in British history. More than 13,000 soldiers were taken prisoner by the end of it, including six generals and 476 officers. 

7. Battle Of Tug Argan

The East African campaign of WW2 is a largely forgotten phase of the war, and perhaps rightly so, too. Mostly controlled by the British, the region had little strategic value for either side, though it still saw some of the heaviest fighting of the war outside the main European and Pacific theaters. 

The Battle of Tug Argan was an early fight during the campaign, fought between Italian and British forces on August 11, 1940. It was a lightly defended position, as they didn’t expect Italian forces to venture so far into British-controlled territory for an outpost that could at best be described as ‘occasionally hospitable’. It was, however, great for morale among Italian troops, which could come in handy elsewhere. 

Despite their heavy fortifications, the British forces were overrun within less than five days, though at a high cost for Italy. Despite their numeric advantage, the Italian force lost over 2,000 soldiers that day. British casualties numbered around 250, as they successfully managed to retreat from the position before it was stormed. 

6. Battle Of Gazala

The Gazala line refers to a heavily fortified Allied position that had developed west of Tobruk – a port city in Libya – during the North African campaign of WW2. Its primary purpose was to hold the city, which had been put under siege by German and Italian forces during the earlier phases of the campaign. By May 1942, the line was manned and defended almost entirely by the British Eighth Army; a formation especially trained for combat and reconnaissance in the desert, even if that would do little to stop the Axis war machine. Well, at first, anyway.  

On May 26, the 50-mile-long line came under heavy attack from Italian and German forces led by Erwin Rommel, also known as the Desert Fox for his achievements in this theater. By even conservative estimates, the British formation – made up of soldiers from its colonies and the Free French Republic – numbered close to 175,000, outnumbering Rommel’s force by more than 2:1. 

While the defenders proved to be stubbornly resistant, the Eighth Army was eventually unable to maintain its supply lines, unlike Rommel, who was regularly supplied by the Italian command centers in Libya and across the Mediterranean. Tobruk fell on June 21, and the remaining Allied forces were surrounded and forced to retreat across the Egyptian border. Over 50,000 soldiers lost their lives throughout this battle, and about 35,000 were taken captive, compared to a loss of about 3,300 soldiers for Germany and Italy.

5. The Medway Raid

The Dutch raid on the Medway dockyards in 1667 came at the worst time possible. Just on the heels of the Great Fire of London and a devastating outbreak of the bubonic plague that killed upto 100,000 people, the country was also engaged in an increasingly intense war with the Dutch. The raid, however, would prove to be its most intense and devastating phase. 

Unlike the latter years of the empire, this was a time when other maritime empires – like the Dutch and Portuguese – posed a considerable challenge to the Royal Navy. The raid started on June 12, when Dutch ships passed the defensive chain on British shores and proceeded to lay waste to the entire docks. Many fortifications, smaller boats and canon batteries were destroyed, in exchange for minimal losses for the Dutch. The destruction was so massive that it looked like the sea was on fire, and by the end of it, the Dutch had captured four ships, including HMS Royal Charles. It was easily the largest British defeat on home soil, and it would take years before the Royal Navy was restored to its full capacity. 

4. Battle Of Carillon

The Battle of Carillon was a part of the larger French and Indian War, which was in turn a part of the larger Seven Years’ War between Britain and France. Fought at Fort Carillon – a well defended French position between Lake George and Lake Chaplain in New York – it would see some of the heaviest fighting of the war.

The battle began on July 6, 1758. Despite the overwhelming numerical superiority of the British contingent, it would hardly take a couple of days for the French – allied with various native groups in the region – to drive them away. By even the most conservative estimates, the fort was stormed by at least 15,000 British soldiers, compared to about 3,600 French defenders. 

While the British troops were well-trained and battle-ready, the attack was made without the use of artillery, resulting in heavy losses and a quick defeat. By the end of it, more than 2,000 British soldiers were killed or wounded in the attempt, compared to just over 300 casualties on the French side. 

3. First Anglo-Afghan War

British forces from India invaded Afghanistan in March 1839, marking the beginning of the first Anglo-Afghan War. It was a part of a larger cold war brewing between Russia and Britain for much of the 19th century. If Afghanistan was invaded by Russia, they feared that it could be then used to launch an invasion of British-held India – by then one of the most lucrative colonial enterprises in the world. 

The invasion force was made up of 20,000 soldiers, along with a caravan of about 38,000 civilians hoping to resettle the country after it was smoothly taken over, like it usually went for the Brits. That’s what happened, too, at least during the first phase. The British war machine was able to topple the existing emir – Dost Mohammad – with relative ease by August 1839, replacing him with the puppet, pro-British ruler, Shuja Shah. 

While it was an easy place to conquer, Afghanistan would prove to be an impossible territory to hold. For more than two years, British forces in Kabul fought a violent insurgency on all sides, including murders of a few high profile British officers inside Kabul. With a vastly outnumbered force – as most of the initial members of the caravan had already moved back home to India – the British force began a retreat in January 1842 with a total of about 16,000 people. It would turn into a massacre, as the whole column was harrassed and attacked by Afghan fighters until they reached Jalalabad. By ‘they’, we mean ‘him’, as only one British officer was able to survive this ordeal, as the entire column was decimated on the way.

2. Gallipoli Campaign

The Gallipoli campaign during WW1 aimed to strike at the heart of the Ottoman empire – Istanbul. The allied force was massive – over 480,000 troops took part in the campaign, though most of them would never make it back. A bulk of it was British troops, along with smaller contingents from Australia, New Zealand, Russia and other allied countries. 

The overall objective was to achieve complete allied superiority over the Gallipoli peninsula, which could then be used as a base for direct attacks on Istanbul. Despite heavy losses of the Royal Navy under the command of Winston Churchill – then the First Lord of Admiralty in the British Navy – the allies managed to capture a few positions on the beach in February, 1915, which would soon be turned into a network of trench lines similar to those in Europe. 

For about a year, the allies tried to maintain their positions, though they were no match for the entrenched and well-equipped Ottoman force. Moreover, they were able to reinforce their positions much faster than the allies, who were also suffering from deadly outbreaks of diseases like dysentery.

The allied force capitulated in January 1916, though only after suffering heavy losses. Both sides suffered over 250,000 casualties, though some estimates put that number even higher. 

1. Battle Of Singapore

When WW2 broke out in the east, Singapore was easily one of the most heavily-defended British strongholds in the region. They had spent much of the inter-war period strengthening its defenses, especially in the navy department, as it was vulnerable to attacks from the rapidly-militarizing Japanese empire. When the Japanese did attack, however, all that would do little to stop it.

The assault began on February 8, 1942, when Japanese forces – numbering over 23,000 – landed on the island and established a beachhead. While the British outnumbered them by over 3:1, the Japanese had almost complete air superiority over the region, thanks to their earlier territorial gains in Malaysia. The infantry divisions were no match for the elite Japanese units, either, and by February 15, the entire British-led force was forced to surrender. Over 90,000 allied combatants were taken prisoner that day, many of whom would later succumb to the horrors of a Japanese POW camp.

French efforts to expand its overseas empire go as far back as the 16th century, though it wasn’t until 1605 that a settled outpost was established in what is now Nova Scotia, Canada. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, it would grow to be one of the largest and wealthiest empires in history, with colonies spread across the Americas, Africa, Middle East, Indian subcontinent, and southeast Asia at its peak. Much of that was made possible by military conquest, as the French army was also a potent and formidable military force, often equipped with state-of-the-art technology and made up of conscripts from around the world.

Of course, the French imperial army also went through its fair share of military defeats, much like every other empire in history. Despite its technological superiority and vast numbers, the French empire faced many worthy enemies throughout its existence. That includes two large wars of independence in Indochina – now Vietnam – and Algeria, and the largest slave rebellion ever in Haiti, among other lesser-known conflicts fought around the world.

10. Korea

The French invasion of Korea in 1866 was triggered by the persecution of Christians ongoing across the country at that time. In February, seven French Catholic missionaries were executed on the orders of the imperial regent of Korea, drawing a disproportionate response from the French forces stationed in the Far East.

Fighting was largely limited to Ganghwa island – a strategic location on the Han river en route to Seoul. For six weeks beginning in October, the French forces occupying the island made multiple attempts to advance towards the heavily-fortified capital, though to little success. The Korean army was better-equipped and numerically-superior, with the added ‘home ground’ advantage. The invasion resulted in a humiliating defeat for the French, which massively reduced its influence in the region for years to come. 

9. Austria

The Battle of Neerwinden was fought on March 18, 1793 between France and an Austrian army led by the Habsburg Prince Frederick Josias. While not a major battle on its own, it was an important engagement in the larger French Revolutionary wars – a series of conflicts between post-revolution France and a coalition of European monarchies. 

It was the first French defeat in the otherwise-successful invasion of the Austrian Netherlands, setting the stage for further setbacks against the Habsburgs during the following year. Despite the revolutionary morale and numerical superiority of the French troops, they were no match for the trained, experienced army wielded by Austria. By the end of it, the French army was forced to retreat with losses of over 4,000 soldiers, compared to about 2,000 lives lost on the Austrian side. 

8. China

The 1859 Battle of Taku Forts in China happened in the backdrop of the Opium Wars – a decades-long war that pitted the British and French empire against imperial China. It was a large-scale conflict occasionally involving other European powers, fought primarily over trading rights in China. While the western nations ultimately won the war, the battle at Taku Forts was a huge setback for both Britain and France, forcing them to retreat and return with a much larger force. 

On June 25, allied forces began bombarding the forts – a strategic location on the way to the capital city of Peking, now Beijing. A contingent of soldiers was also sent to overrun the garrison, though the combined attack was soon halted and repulsed by the heavily-fortified defensive positions of the Chinese. Out of 1,100 invading soldiers, 434 were killed or wounded that day, with four of their gunboats sunk.  

7. Mexico

Cinco de Mayo is often confused with Mexico’s independence day, though it’s actually the date of a major Mexican victory against French forces back in 1862. Known as the Battle of Puebla, it was one of the many small and large-scale battles fought during the Second French Intervention in Mexico – an invasion launched by Napoleon III to replace the nascent Mexican republic with a conservative French puppet state. 

At the time, Puebla was the second largest Mexican city, located at a strategic location on the way to the capital. The French – emboldened by earlier victories in the campaign and the overwhelming technological and military superiority of their forces – attacked the city on May 5. While the defending army was made up of volunteers and poorly-trained militias armed with basic weapons like machetes, they were able to hold off the French advance, eventually forcing them to retreat. 

The victory at Puebla galvanized Mexican resistance against colonialism. While France did take Puebla and Mexico City in 1863, they could never hold the territory due to irregular warfare waged by Mexican rebels across the countryside. After nearly six years of fighting, French forces completely withdrew from Mexico in March, 1867. 

6. Japan

When France was successfully invaded and occupied by Germany during the early phases of the Second World War, many of its overseas properties were still controlled by imperial French troops. Sensing an opportunity, Japan signed a pact with the collaborationist Vichy government to station more than 6,000 troops in French Indochina – a colonial-era name for the countries of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. 

Without warning, a full-scale Japanese invasion was launched on September 22, 1940, as infantry columns breached the border at three places. For close to five days, colonial French troops and Foreign Legionaires fought the Imperial Japanese Army for control of major strategic points, though they were eventually defeated by the superior Japanese airpower and armor.

5. Prussia

The Franco-Prussian War began in July 1870, when the French emperor Napoleon III ordered his troops to mount a full-scale invasion of Prussia – then a loose confederation of German states under the leadership of Otto von Bismarck. While the immediate cause was a dispute regarding the Spanish throne, the war was fought in the backdrop of a larger rivalry between Prussia and France – at that point two of the most powerful states in Europe. 

The war ended in disaster for France. Despite being evenly matched in terms of numbers, Prussia was able to deploy a large number of troops to the battlefield within a few days’ time. French soldiers, on the other hand, were usually unequipped or late to the front, resulting in catastrophic losses for one of the most technologically-advanced military forces of the time.

The war ended with the Siege of Paris and eventual French defeat in 1971, and it would have lasting consequences for Europe in the years to come. In France, it ended Napoleon’s reign and established the French Third Republic. In Germany, it reinforced popular faith in German militarism and united the previously-separate Prussian states into a singular German empire. 

4. Vietnam

The First Indochina war between France and communist rebels in Vietnam – then Indochina – began almost as soon as the end of WW2. As Japan signed the surrender terms on September 2, 1945, an independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam was declared by the Viet Minh leader Ho Chi Minh on the same day, setting the stage for a years-long conflict that would significantly erode the strength of the French colonial empire.

While fighting was limited to small-scale, low-intensity skirmishes in the early years, all that changed in 1949 after the successful revolution in China. The Viet Minh deployed increasingly aggressive guerrilla tactics across North Vietnam and parts of South Vietnam, prompting the United States and other western powers to get involved. 

The war came to an end with the siege of Dien Bien Phu – a mountain outpost near the Laotian border occupied by France. While heavily fortified and regularly supplied from air, the garrison couldn’t withstand the overwhelming assault by Viet Minh forces. The garrison was overrun within two months beginning in March, 1954, bringing a decisive and bloody end to the French colonial empire in Asia. 

3. Algeria

The Algerian War of Independence against colonial French rule was one of the largest conflicts of the 20th century. Beginning in 1954 and lasting until 1962, more than 1.5 million Algerians may have died throughout the war, though the real numbers could be far higher. Much of the violence could be attributed to French retaliation against revolutionary activities by the Algerians, particularly those allied with the National Liberation Front (FLN), including summary executions, rape, and torture against the native civilian population.

The most intense phase of the war was the Battle of Algiers in 1956-57, where Algerian rebels deployed increasingly-brutal combat techniques to break the French will to fight. While retaliation was often swift and disproportionate, the ferocity of the fighting quickly turned the French citizenry against the war. France did make some breakthroughs from 1958 and 1959, though growing anti-war pressure at home and abroad forced Charles de Gaulle to sign a peace agreement in 1962, ending more than 132 years of French rule in Algeria. 

2. Russia