by the Anglo–Dutch fleet in 1816 to support the ultimatum to release
European slaves.
bombards San Juan de Ulua (
Mexico) during the
Pastry War (1838). • In the 5th century BC, the
Achaemenid Empire launched a series of campaigns against
Greece to punish certain Greek city-states for involving themselves in the
Ionian Revolt. • In the early 1st century AD,
Germanicus engaged in punitive expeditions against the Germanic tribes as repercussion for the Roman Legions that were destroyed in the
Battle of Teutoburg Forest. • In 518,
Negus Kaleb of Axum dispatched a
punitive expedition against the
Himyarite Kingdom in response to the
persecution of Christians by the Himyarite Jews. • In the 13th century,
Genghis Khan, the founder of the
Mongol Empire, often engaged in punitive expeditions, either as a pretext or to quell rebellions against his rule. Some notable examples include his
invasion of Khwarazim and his
campaigns against the Western Xia kingdom. • Also in the 13th century,
Kublai Khan, a grandson of Genghis and the founder of the
Yuan Dynasty, sent emissaries demanding tribute from the
Singhasari kingdom of
Java. The ruler of the Singhasari kingdom,
Kertanagara, refused to pay tribute and tattooed a Chinese messenger, Meng Qi, on his face.
A punitive expedition sent by Kublai Khan arrived off the coast of Java in 1293.
Jayakatwang, a rebel from the Kediri Kingdom, had killed Kertanagara by that time. The Mongols allied with
Raden Wijaya of
Majapahit against Jayakatwang and, once the Singhasari kingdom was destroyed, Wijaya turned against the Mongols and forced them to withdraw in confusion. • In 1599, the
Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate ordered his nephew
Vicente de Zaldívar to engage in a punitive expedition against the
Keres natives of
Acoma Pueblo. When the Spanish arrived, they fought a three-day
battle with the Keres leaving about 800 men, women and children dead. • During the
Eighty Years' War, Spanish Admiral
Luis Fajardo made a successful raid to the
Caribbean in 1605 with his fleet. He sailed from Spain to
Araya, on the Venezuelan coast, where he
massacred a fleet of smugglers and Dutch privateers who blocked the area and were engaged in illegally extracting
salt. • During the
First Anglo-Powhatan War (1610–1614),
Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr (1577–1618), an English nobleman, was appointed
Virginia's first royal governor and ordered to defend the colony against the
Powhatan. Lord de la Warr waged a punitive campaign to subdue the Powhatan after they had killed the colony's council president,
John Ratcliffe. • In the summer of 1614, Ottomans led by
Damat Halil Pasha engaged a successful punitive expedition against Sefer Dā'yl, an insurgent in
Tripoli. • In 1784, a brief expedition was carried out by
Denmark and its native allies against the
Anlo Ewe in the so-called
Sagbadre War. • From 1838 to 1842, ships of the
United States Exploring Expedition engaged in three punitive expeditions against Pacific islanders. • The
First Opium War (1839–1842) was a retaliation against the burning of opiate products by Commissioner
Lin Zexu, which resulted in the opening of a number of ports, the
cession of
Hong Kong to
Great Britain, and the
Treaty of Nanjing. • The 1842
Ivory Coast Expedition was led by
Matthew C. Perry against the
Bereby people of
West Africa after two
attacks on American merchant ships. • The
Battle of Kabul in 1842 was undertaken by the British against the Afghans following their disastrous
retreat from Kabul in which 16,000 people were killed. • The
French Campaign against Korea in 1866 was a response to the earlier execution by Korea of French priests proselytizing in Korea. • The 1867
Formosa Expedition was a failed punitive operation of the United States to Taiwan. • The 1868
British Expedition to Abyssinia (Ethiopia) was a rescue mission and punitive expedition against Emperor
Tewodros II of Ethiopia, who had imprisoned several missionaries and two representatives of the British government in an attempt to force the British government to comply with his requests for military assistance. The commander of the expedition, General
Sir Robert Napier, was victorious in every battle against the troops of Tewodros, captured the Ethiopian capital, and rescued all the hostages. • The
United States expedition to Korea in 1871 was in retaliation to the
General Sherman incident, where a U.S. merchant ship was burned as it entered Pyongyang. • The 1874 Japanese
expedition against
Formosa. • The destruction of half of the operational ships of the
Islamic Republic of Iran Navy by the
United States Navy in 1988 during
Operation Praying Mantis was punishment for damaging
USS Samuel B. Roberts by mining international waters of the Persian Gulf. • The
2016 Indo-Pakistani military confrontation began with alleged punitive "surgical strikes" carried out by India. These strikes were a punitive action in response to Pakistan's inaction in curbing the activities of terrorist organisations such as
Lashkar-e-Taiba and
Jaish-e-Mohammad, which India held responsible for the
Uri attack. • The
2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine has been described as a punitive expedition. • Israel's
invasion into the Gaza Strip following the
2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel has been labeled a punitive expedition. ==See also==