What countries has England fought to gain control over?

Answer 1

There was the Hundred Years' War in the 15th century, when England's King claimed a right to the French throne - although he was in the end unsuccessful. And then there was the war in the 17th century between King William and the man he had deposed, King James. James fought William with an Irish army, and after the Battle of the Boyne William claimed Ireland as a possession of England. Britain had to fight a war - the Boer War - at the turn of the 20th century to gain control over South Africa. In India Britain gained its influence and power mostly by cleverly picking the Indian princes to support in their own wars. They fought to get control over Afghanistan, but that effort turned - as all earlier and later efforts by others - into a failure.

In the colonization era Britain did generally speaking not have to fight any sovereign central government. Usually and apart from South Africa, most countries were no match for the British military to begin with and claiming them was mostly a combination of a simple show of British military force and a solemn signing of documents by tribal chiefs , putting their land and people under the 'protection' and rule of Britain.