In the 1950s Parker Brothers took a French game called "Conquest of the World" & turned it into this
[DOC] [TLE] LandGrab : Home  View topic - Risk-about (history and interestings) [PAR] The game of Risk was invented in the Early 1950's by a Frenchman by the name 
... called "La Conquete du Monde" (Conquest of the World), to Miro a game ... of 
Miro approaches Parker Brothers with La Conquete du Monde (French for ... 
2003 - Risk travels deeper into Middle-earth with the Lord of the Rings Trilogy 
Edition.