All countries invaded by France

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The French colonial empire was the set of lands outside Europe under French control from the sixteenth century to the late 1980s.

The First French colonial empire stretched from a total area at its peak in 1680 to over 10 million square kilometers (3.9 million sq mi). At that time, it was the second-largest empire in the world after only the Spanish Empire.

The Second French colonial empire stretched to over 13.5 million square kilometers (5.2 million sq mi) at its peak in 1936. This second-largest in the world imperial country estimated 10 percent of the world’s land area.

Evolution of the First and Second French Colonial Empires

The French colonial empire started to fall apart during WWII when other countries conquered different parts of their empire (Britain in Lebanon, Syria, Germany in Tunisia, Britain and the U.S. in Morocco and Algeria, Japan in Indochina).

The map below shows European lands that were ever controlled by ethnic French

Here is the world map that shows all countries invaded by France one way or another.

Nowadays territory of metropolitan France is 551.5 thousand km2 (212.9 thousand sq mi) plus overseas territories, whose areas sum to 89.2 thousand km2 (34.4 thousand sq mi).

Overseas Territories of France at the same geographic scale

Moreover, France has the largest globally exclusive economic zone, covering 11.7 million km2 (4.5 sq. mi).