Expeditionary Warfare - European Colonial Expeditions

European Colonial Expeditions

Perhaps unique in the development of expeditionary warfare were the operations by Yermak during the Russian conquest of Siberia which was a largely land-based operation. This eventually led to the Russian settlement of the Far East and the coast of the Pacific Ocean.

The next development in the evolution of the expeditionary warfare was made during the expansion of the western European Empires and the era of colonialism that also led to the inclusion of the expeditionary methods into the direct expression of national strategies to avoid full-scale conflicts in the shape of the gunboat diplomacy approach. It was at this time that naval troops previously used almost exclusively for defence of vessels or minor beach operations were expanded to enable extended littoral operations. The colonial experience, though largely confined to the period before the First World War, persisted well into the 20th century.

Unique in this period was the emergence of non-empire building multinational (though not coalition) operations to defeat the Boxer Rebellion by the Eight-Nation Alliance that can be categorised as possibly the first peacekeeping operation in the modern era.

Perhaps the best example of the empire-building application of the expeditionary warfare were the conflicts between the British Empire and the Boer settlers in South Africa, and the resulting First and Second Boer Wars.