Though the involvement in wars is not the best characteristic of the country, it shows its greatness and strength to the others. The UK has a long history of wars having been involved in numerous conflicts on all but one continents of the world. It is difficult to imagine, but Great Britain was in the state of war with more than one hundred countries. The greatest rivals of the Kingdom were France, the USA and others. Nowadays and for many decades its military forces have been and still are the ones of the best prepared armies in the world. And despite the fact that the military history of the UK started only in the 18th century after the union of all parts of the Kingdom many dramatic wars had happened on the territory of the modern country before that.
