200 Years of US Military Interventions – Interactive Map

As the United States fights military campaigns in Iraq and Syria, take a look at the long history of overseas US military deployments.

A recent report by the United States Congressional Research Service details hundreds of overseas military deployments spanning more than two centuries. The scope of and justification for the deployments vary wildly, from conflicts with pirates and bandits to formal declarations of war against an array of sovereign nations.

Explore where, when and why US armed forces have been deployed using our interactive map.

Pirates, raiders and ruffians

Adventurers, brigands, freebooters, privateers, pirates,raiders, ruffians, smugglers and thieves. These terms are all used to describe the wide variety of groups the US military fought in early conflicts.

Pirates were a common enemy on the high seas, as were cross-border raiders preying on outlying US townships and settlements. During the eight years between 1815 and 1823, there were more than 3,000 pirate attacks on “merchantmen” (non-naval vessels) reported, a rate of more than one per day.

There is a gap of more than a century between the final two reported actions against pirates. Conflicts with pirates seem to wind down throughout the 19th century, finishing with US forces destroying the pirate ship Forward in 1870. But modern times have seen a renewal of US naval forces being deployed against pirates, with the report noting a 2012 operation by “Special Operations Forces” to rescue Ms Jessica Buchanan “who had been kidnapped by a group linked to Somali pirates and financiers”.

The surrender of William Walker

Although the colonial expansionism of the United States was coming to an end by the mid-1850s, some vestiges remained. William Walker was a filibuster—someone conducting unauthorised military expeditions—who made several attempts to establish English-speaking colonies in Latin America.

Walker’s expeditions met with varying degrees of success and he was briefly, beginning in July 1856, the president of the Republic of Nicaragua. By later that year his grip on power had come unstuck and in 1857, under pressure from a coalition of central American armies, he surrendered to the United States. The US Navy was deployed to accept his surrender and repatriate him to New York City, where he received a hero’s welcome.

After damaging his reputation by blaming the US Navy for his defeat in Nicaragua, Walker quickly set off on a new expedition. However, it was very short-lived, with the Navy’s Home Squadron deployed to arrest Walker and once again return him to the US. Walker’s arrest attracted heavy public criticism and the legality of the Navy’s actions came into question.

Bluff, bluster and going too far

The report contains a multitude of references to “naval demonstrations” being conducted. Demonstrations and displays of force appear to have been a common tactic employed to further US interests in a variety of situations. As late as 1933, there were attempts to prevent war breaking out by “demonstrating” America’s military power.

The attacks by US armed forces weren’t always above board and the descriptions of conflicts sometimes appear to be little more than vengeful reprisals. One such instance occurred in 1824 when 200 men under the command of Commodore David Porterattacked a town in Puerto Rico which had “insulted American naval officers”. After the attack in which Commodore Porter “forced an apology” he was court-martialled for “overstepping” his authority.

A number of the early conflicts listed, while undertaken by official US military forces—as opposed to privateers or filibusters like William Walker—ended up being subsequently disavowed by central government authorities.

Some of these incidents seem to have resulted from a lack of modern communications technologies, such as an incident where Commodore T.A.C Jones, “believing war had come” occupied Monterey, California (at the time, Mexican territory).

Other actions seem to have been disavowed for the benefit of diplomacy such an 1812 incident in east Florida (then Spanish territory) where possession of territory “was obtained by General George Matthews in so irregular a manner that his measures were disavowed by the President.”

The legal authorisation for military action has played an important role and continues to be controversial. The legitimacy of actions of individual naval commanders seems to have been regularly called into question in the early years.

In more recent times, the power of the President to commit US forces to conflict has been more of a focus. Since 1973, the War Powers Resolution has been an important part of the legal framework around the use of military force. The majority of post-1980 deployments listed in the report are sourced from the President’s regular reporting to Congress required under the legislation and note that the reporting is “consistent with the War Powers Resolution.”

The wars: declared and undeclared

The report lists deployments made as part of 11 official declarations of war and eight undeclared wars.

While the US did not officially enter World War II until December 1941, deployments listed for 1940 and 1941 seem to be strategic responses to the spreading war in Europe and Asia. The US deployed troops to guard naval and air bases “leased” from Britain in Newfoundland, Bermuda, St Lucia, Bahamas, Jamaica, Antigua, Trinidad and British Guiana.

Greenland and Iceland were both “taken under the protection” of the United States in 1941 before the US’s entry into WWII.

Despite the US military’s significant involvement in major conflicts such as the Korean War, the Vietnam War and several Middle East conflicts, there hasn’t been an official US declaration of war since WWII. The US constitution specifically gives the US Congress the power to declare war, but provides no specifics describing how such a declaration should be made.

Although none of the major conflicts since WWII are officially declared wars, in most cases—including the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War, the War in Afghanistan and the Iraq War—the conflicts were authorised by resolutions of US Congress.

Does the map include every deployment?

The map is based on a list compiled by the Congressional Research Service. This is what it says about what is—and is not—included:

“The following list reviews hundreds of instances in which the United States has used military forces abroad in situations of military conflict or potential conflict to protect US citizens or promote US interests.

“The list does not include covert actions or numerous instances in which US forces have been stationed abroad since World War II in occupation forces or for participation in mutual security organisations, base agreements, or routine military assistance or training operations…

“Disaster relief, and routine alliance stationing and training exercises are not included here, nor are the Civil and Revolutionary Wars and the continual use of US military units in the exploration, settlement, and pacification of the western part of the United States…

“Because of differing judgments over the actions to be included, other lists may include more or fewer instances.”

In some cases – such as World War II – the report lists the nations the United States officially declared war against, rather all deployments.

The report was released on September 15, 2014 and the list of deployments for 2014 is incomplete.

A deployment listed in 2001 and related to the US’s response to the September 11 attacks was excluded from the map because the entry did not include location details.