Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their religion, language, economics, and other cultural practices on indigenous peoples. The foreign administrators rule the territory in pursuit of their interests, seeking to benefit from the colonised region's people and resources. It is associated but distinct to imperialism. Colonialism is strongly associated with the European colonial period starting with the 15th century when some European states established colonising empires. Some scholars refer to this point in history as the beginning of the "Age of Capital," or the Capitalocene, which is an epoch that encompasses the profit-driven era that has led to climate change and global land change. At first, European colonising countries followed policies of mercantilism, aiming to strengthen the home-country economy, so agreements usually restricted the colony to trading only with the metropole (mother country). By the mid-19th century, however, the British Empire gave up mercantilism and trade restrictions and adopted the principle of free trade, with few restrictions or tariffs. Christian missionaries were active in practically all of the European-controlled colonies because the metropoles were Christian. Historian Philip Hoffman calculated that by 1800, before the Industrial Revolution, Europeans already controlled at least 35% of the globe, and by 1914, they had gained control of 84% of the globe. In the aftermath of World War II colonial powers were forced to retreat between 1945 and 1975, when nearly all colonies gained independence, entering into changed colonial, so-called postcolonial and neocolonialist relations. Postcolonialism and neocolonialism has continued or shifted relations and ideologies of colonialism, justifying its continuation with concepts such as development and new frontiers, as in exploring outer space for colonization.


''Collins English Dictionary'' defines colonialism as "the policy and practice of a power in extending control over weaker peoples or areas". ''Webster's Encyclopedic Dictionary'' defines colonialism as "the system or policy of a nation seeking to extend or retain its authority over other people or territories".''Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language'', 1989, p. 291. The ''Merriam-Webster Dictionary'' offers four definitions, including "something characteristic of a colony" and "control by one power over a dependent area or people". Etymologically, the word "colony" comes from the Latin ''colōnia''—"a place for agriculture". The ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' uses the term "to describe the process of European settlement and political control over the rest of the world, including the Americas, Australia, and parts of Africa and Asia". It discusses the distinction between colonialism, imperialism and conquest and states that "e difficulty of defining colonialism stems from the fact that the term is often used as a synonym for imperialism. Both colonialism and imperialism were forms of conquest that were expected to benefit Europe economically and strategically," and continues "given the difficulty of consistently distinguishing between the two terms, this entry will use ''colonialism'' broadly to refer to the project of European political domination from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries that ended with the national liberation movements of the 1960s". In his preface to Jürgen Osterhammel's ''Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview'', Roger Tignor says "For Osterhammel, the essence of colonialism is the existence of colonies, which are by definition governed differently from other territories such as protectorates or informal spheres of influence." In the book, Osterhammel asks, "How can 'colonialism' be defined independently from 'colony?'" He settles on a three-sentence definition:

Types of colonialism

Historians often distinguish between various overlapping forms of colonialism, which are classified into four types: settler colonialism, exploitation colonialism, surrogate colonialism, and internal colonialism. * Settler colonialism involves large-scale immigration, often motivated by religious, political, or economic reasons. It aims largely to replace any existing population. Here, a large number of people emigrate to the colony for the purpose of staying and cultivating the land. Australia, Canada, Turkey and the United States, all exemplify settler-colonial societies. * Exploitation colonialism involves fewer colonists and focuses on the exploitation of natural resources or population as labour, typically to the benefit of the metropole. This category includes trading posts as well as larger colonies where colonists would constitute much of the political and economic administration. Prior to the end of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and widespread abolition, when indigenous labour was unavailable, slaves were often imported to the Americas, first by the Portuguese, and later by the Spanish, Dutch, French and British. * Surrogate colonialism involves a settlement project supported by a colonial power, in which most of the settlers do not come from a same ethnic group as the ruling power. * Internal colonialism is a notion of uneven structural power between areas of a state. The source of exploitation comes from within the state. This is demonstrated in the way control and exploitation may pass from people from the colonising country to an immigrant population within a newly independent country. * National colonialism is a process involving elements of both settler and internal colonialism, in which nation-building and colonization are symbiotically connected, with the colonial regime seeking to remake the colonized peoples into their own cultural and political image. The goal is to integrate them into the state, but only as reflections of the state's preferred culture. The Republic of China in Taiwan is the archetypal example of a national-colonialist society.

Socio-cultural evolution



Colonial empires in 1800.svg |Map of colonial and land-based empires throughout the world in 1800 CE. World 1914 empires colonies territory.PNG |Map of colonial and land-based empires throughout the world in 1914 CE. World 1936 empires colonies territory.png |Map of colonial empires (and Soviet Union) throughout the world in 1936 CE. Colonization 1945.png |Map of colonial empires at the end of the Second World War, 1945 CE.


Activity that could be called colonialism has a long history, starting at least as early as the Ancient Egyptians. Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans founded colonies in antiquity. Phoenicia had an enterprising maritime trading-culture that spread across the Mediterranean from 1550 BC to 300 BC; later the Persian empire and various Greek city-states continued on this line of setting up colonies. The Romans would soon follow, setting up ''coloniae'' throughout the Mediterranean, in Northern Africa, and in Western Asia. Beginning in the 7th century, Arabs colonized a substantial portion of the Middle East, Northern Africa, and parts of Asia and Europe. From the 9th century Vikings (Norsemen) established colonies in Britain, Ireland, Iceland, Greenland, North America, present-day Russia and Ukraine, France (Normandy) and Sicily. In the 9th century a new wave of Mediterranean colonisation began, with competitors such as the Venetians, Genovese and Amalfians infiltrating the wealthy previously Byzantine or Eastern Roman islands and lands. European Crusaders set up colonial regimes in Outremer (in the Levant, 1097-1291) and in the Baltic littoral (12th century onwards). Venice began to dominate Dalmatia and reached its greatest nominal colonial extent at the conclusion of the Fourth Crusade in 1204, with the declaration of the acquisition of three octaves of the Byzantine Empire.


Modern colonialism started with the Portuguese Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460), initiating the Age of Exploration and establishing African trading posts (1445 onwards). Spain (initially the Crown of Castile) and soon after Portugal encountered the Americas (1492 onwards) through sea travel and built trading posts or conquered large extents of land. For some people, it is this building of colonies across oceans that differentiates colonialism from other types of expansionism. Madrid and Lisbon divided the areas of these "new" lands between the Spanish Empire and the Portuguese Empire in 1494; other would-be colonial powers paid little heed to the theoretical demarcation. The 17th century saw the birth of the French colonial empire and the Dutch Empire, as well as the English overseas possessions, which later became the British Empire. It also saw the establishment of a Danish colonial empire and some Swedish overseas colonies. A first wave of independence movements started with the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), initiating a new phase for the British Empire. The Spanish Empire largely collapsed in the Americas with the Latin American wars of independence ( onwards). However, empire-builders established several new colonies after this time, including in the German colonial empire and the Belgian colonial empire. In the late-19th century, many European powers became involved in the Scramble for Africa. The Russian Empire, Ottoman Empire and Austrian Empire existed at the same time as the above empires but did not expand over oceans. Rather, these empires expanded through the more traditional route of the conquest of neighbouring territories. There was, though, some Russian colonisation of the Americas across the Bering Strait. From the 1860s, the Empire of Japan modelled itself on European colonial empires and expanded its territories in the Pacific and on the Asian mainland. Argentina and the Empire of Brazil fought for hegemony in South America. The United States of America gained overseas territories after the 1898 Spanish–American War - hence the coining of the term "American Empire". After the First World War of 1914-1918, the victorious allies divided up the German colonial empire and much of the Ottoman Empire between themselves as League of Nations mandates, grouping these territories into three classes according to how quickly it was deemed that they could prepare for independence. The empires of Russia and Austria collapsed in 1917-1918. Nazi Germany set up short-lived colonial systems (''Reichskommissariate'', ''Generalgouvernement'') in Eastern Europe in the early 1940s. After World War II (1939-1945) decolonisation progressed rapidly, due to a number of reasons. First, the Japanese victories in the Pacific War of 1941-1945 had showed Indians and other subject peoples that the colonial powers were not invincible. Second, World War II had significantly weakened all the overseas colonial powers economically. Dozens of independence movements and global political solidarity projects such as the Non-Aligned Movement proved instrumental in the decolonisation efforts of former colonies. These included significant wars of independence fought in Indonesia, Vietnam, Algeria, and Kenya. Eventually, the European powers—pressured by the United States and Soviets—resigned themselves to decolonisation. In 1962 the United Nations set up a Special Committee on Decolonisation, often called the Committee of 24, to encourage this process.

The status and cost of European colonization at the turn of the 20th century

The world's colonial population at the outbreak of the First World War (1914) - a high point for colonialism - totalled about 560 million people, of whom 70% lived in British possessions, 10% in French possessions, 9% in Dutch possessions, 4% in Japanese possessions, 2% in German possessions, 2% in American possessions, 2% in Portuguese possessions, 1% in Belgian possessions and 0.5% in Italian possessions. The domestic domains of the colonial powers had a total population of about 370 million people. Outside Europe, few areas had remained without coming under formal colonial tutorship - and even Siam, China, Nepal, Japan, Afghanistan, Persia and Abyssinia had felt varying degrees of Western colonial-style influence - concessions, unequal treaties, extraterritoriality and the like. Asking whether colonies paid, economic historian Grover Clark (1891-1938) argues an emphatic "No!" He reports that in every case the support cost, especially the military system necessary to support and defend colonies, outran the total trade they produced. Apart from the British Empire, they did not provide favoured destinations for the immigration of surplus metropole populations. The question of whether colonies paid is, however, a complicated one when recognizing the multiplicity of interests involved. In some cases colonial powers paid a lot in military costs while private investors pocketed the benefits. In other cases the colonial powers managed to move the burden of administrative costs to the colonies themselves by imposing taxes.


The word "neocolonialism" has been used to refer to a variety of contexts since the decolonisation that took place after World War II. Generally it does not refer to a type of direct colonisation - rather to colonialism or colonial-style exploitation by other means. Specifically, neocolonialism may refer to the theory that former or existing economic relationships, such as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the Central American Free Trade Agreement, or the operations of companies (such as Royal Dutch Shell in Nigeria and Brunei) fostered by former colonial powers were or are used to maintain control of former colonies and dependencies after the colonial independence movements of the post–World War II period. The term "neocolonialism" became popular in ex-colonies in the late-20th century.

List of colonies

British colonies and protectorates

The Battle_of_Isandlwana_during_the_[[Anglo-Zulu_War_of_1879._After_an_initial_defeat_the_British_were_able_to_conquer_[[Zulu_Kingdom.html" style="text-decoration: none;"class="mw-redirect" title="Anglo-Zulu_War.html" style="text-decoration: none;"class="mw-redirect" title="Battle of Isandlwana during the Battle_of_Isandlwana_during_the_[[Anglo-Zulu_War_of_1879._After_an_initial_defeat_the_British_were_able_to_conquer_[[Zulu_Kingdom">Zululand..html" style="text-decoration: none;"class="mw-redirect" title="Anglo-Zulu War">Battle of Isandlwana during the Zululand.">Anglo-Zulu_War">Battle_of_Isandlwana_during_the_[[Anglo-Zulu_War_of_1879._After_an_initial_defeat_the_British_were_able_to_conquer_[[Zulu_Kingdom">Zululand. *_[[Aden_Protectorate.html" style="text-decoration: none;"class="mw-redirect" title="Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. After an initial defeat the British were able to conquer [[Zulu Kingdom">Zululand.">Anglo-Zulu War">Battle of Isandlwana during the [[Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. After an initial defeat the British were able to conquer [[Zulu Kingdom">Zululand. * [[Aden Protectorate">Aden * [[Anglo-Egyptian Sudan * [[Ascension Island * [[Australia ** [[New South Wales ** [[Victoria (Australia)|Victoria ** [[Tasmania ** [[Queensland ** [[South Australia ** [[Western Australia * [[Austria * Bahamas * Barbados * Basutoland * Bechuanaland * Bhutan * British Borneo ** Brunei ** Labuan ** North Borneo ** Sarawak * British East Africa * British Guiana * British Honduras * British Hong Kong * British Leeward Islands ** Anguilla ** Antigua ** Barbuda ** British Virgin Islands ** Dominica ** Montserrat ** Nevis ** Saint Kitts * British Malaya ** Federated Malay States ** Straits Settlements ** Unfederated Malay States * British Somaliland * British Western Pacific Territories ** British Solomon Islands ** Fiji ** Gilbert and Ellice Islands ** Phoenix Islands ** Pitcairn Islands ** New Hebrides (condominium with France) ** Tonga ** Union Islands * British Windward Islands ** Barbados ** Dominica ** Grenada ** Saint Lucia ** Saint Vincent and the Grenadines * Denmark * Myanmar * Canada * Ceylon * Christmas Island * Cocos (Keeling) Islands * Cyprus (including Akrotiri and Dhekelia) * Egypt * Falkland Islands * Falkland Islands Dependencies ** Graham Land ** South Georgia ** South Orkney Islands ** South Shetland Islands ** South Sandwich Islands ** Victoria Land * Gambia * Gibraltar * Gold Coast * India (including what is today Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar) * Heard Island and McDonald Islands * Ireland * Jamaica * Kenya * Peninsular Thailand * Maldives * Malta * Mandatory Palestine * Mauritius * Mosquito Coast * Muscat and Oman * Norfolk Island * Nigeria * Northern Rhodesia * Norway * Nyasaland *Oregon Country * Panama * Seychelles * Sierra Leone * Shanghai International Settlement * South Africa ** Cape Colony ** Natal ** Transvaal Colony ** Orange River Colony * Southern Iran * Eastern coast of Saudi Arabia * Southern Rhodesia * St Helena * Swaziland * Thailand * The Californias * Thirteen Colonies * Trinidad and Tobago * Tristan da Cunha * Trucial States * Tonga * Tunisia * Uganda * Austria * West Berlin * West Germany * Y Wladfa

French colonies

* Acadia * Algeria * Canada * Clipperton Island * Comoros Islands (including Mayotte) * Corsica * French Guiana * French Equatorial Africa ** Chad ** Oubangui-Chari ** French Congo ** Gabon * French India (Pondichéry, Chandernagor, Karikal, Mahé and Yanaon) * French Indochina **Annam ** Tonkin ** Cochinchina ** Cambodia ** Laos ** Most of Thailand * French Polynesia * French Somaliland * French Southern and Antarctic Lands * French West Africa ** Ivory Coast ** Dahomey ** Guinea ** French Sudan ** Mauritania ** Niger ** Senegal ** Upper Volta * Guadeloupe ** Saint Barthélemy ** Saint Martin * La Réunion * Louisiana * Madagascar * Martinique * French Morocco * Lebanon * New Caledonia * Austria * West Germany * West Berlin * Saarland * Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon * Saint-Domingue * Shanghai French Concession (similar concessions in Kouang-Tchéou-Wan, Tientsin, Hankéou) * Tunisia * New Hebrides (condominium with Britain) * Wallis-et-Futuna

Russian colonies and protectorates

* Sagallo * Kauai (Hawaii) (1816-1817) * Russian America (Alaska) (1733–1867) * Fort Ross (California) * Northern Iran * Mongolia (Later conceded to the Soviet Union) *Russian Dalian *Tianjin

Soviet colonies

* Finland * Afghanistan * Mongolia * North Korea * Vietnam * Cuba * Northeastern China * East Germany * East Berlin * Austria

German colonies

* Bismarck Archipelago * Cameroon * Caroline Islands * German New Guinea * German Solomon Islands * German East Africa * German South-West Africa * Gilbert Islands * Jiaozhou Bay * Mariana Islands * Marshall Islands * Togo * Tianjin

Italian colonies and protectorates

* Italian Aegean Islands * Italian protectorate of Albania * Italian governorate of Dalmatia * Italian governorate of Montenegro * Italian Concession of Tientsin * Italian East Africa ** Italian Eritrea ** Italian Ethiopia ** Italian Somaliland
-''Italian Trans-Juba'' (briefly; annexed) * Italian Libya ** Italian Tripolitania ** Italian Cyrenaica

Dutch colonies and Overseas Territories

* Dutch Brazil * Dutch Ceylon * Dutch Formosa * Dutch Cape Colony * Aruba * Bonaire * Curaçao * Saba * Sint Eustatius * Sint Maarten * Suriname * Dutch East Indies * Dutch New Guinea * Malacca

Portuguese colonies

* Portuguese Africa ** Cabinda ** Ceuta ** Madeira ** Portuguese Angola ** Portuguese Cape Verde ** Portuguese Guinea ** Portuguese Mozambique ** Portuguese São Tomé and Príncipe ** Fort of São João Baptista de Ajudá * Portuguese Asia ** Portuguese India *** Goa *** Daman *** Diu ** Portuguese Macau ** Portuguese Nagasaki ** Portuguese Ceylon ** Portuguese Malacca * Portuguese Oceania ** Flores ** Portuguese Timor ** Solor * Portuguese South America ** Colonial Brazil ** Cisplatina ** Misiones Orientales * Portuguese North America ** Azores ** Newfoundland and Labrador

Spanish colonies

* Canary Islands * Cape Juby * Captaincy General of Cuba ** Spanish Florida ** Spanish Louisiana * Captaincy General of the Philippines ** Caroline Islands ** Mariana Islands ** Palau Islands * Ifni * Río de Oro * Saguia el-Hamra * Spanish Morocco * Spanish Netherlands * Iberian Union * Union with Holy Roman Empire * Oran * Tripoli * Tunis * Béjaïa * Peñón of Algiers * Spanish Sahara * Spanish Sardinia * Spanish Sicily * Viceroyalty of Peru ** Captaincy General of Chile ** Acre * Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata ** Spanish Guinea *** Annobón *** Fernando Po *** Río Muni * Viceroyalty of New Granada ** Captaincy General of Venezuela * Viceroyalty of New Spain ** Captaincy General of Guatemala ** Captaincy General of Yucatán ** Captaincy General of Santo Domingo ** Captaincy General of Puerto Rico ** Spanish Formosa ** Tidore

Austrian colonies

* Bosnia and Herzegovina * Tianjin * Austrian Netherlands * Nicobar Islands * North Borneo * Austrian Colonial Policy

Danish colonies

* Andaman and Nicobar Islands * Danish West Indies (now United States Virgin Islands) * Danish Norway * Faroe Islands * Greenland * Iceland * Serampore * Danish Gold Coast * Danish India *Duchy of Estonia (1219–1346)

Belgian colonies

* Belgian Congo * Ruanda-Urundi * Tianjin * Santo Tomás de Castilla, Guatemala (1843-1854)

Swedish colonies

* Baltic states * Guadeloupe * New Sweden * Saint Barthélemy * Swedish Pomerania * Swedish Gold Coast

Norwegian Overseas Territories

*Svalbard *Jan Mayen *Bouvet Island *Queen Maud Land *Peter I Island

Ottoman colonies and Vassal and tributary states of the Ottoman Empire

*Sultanate of Aceh *Maldives *Rumelia *Ottoman North Africa *Ottoman Arabia *Ottoman Serbia *Ottoman Bulgaria *Ottoman Hungary *Ottoman Greece

Colonization attempts by Poland

* New Courland * James Island * St. Mary's Island * Fort Jillifree * Toco

Australian Overseas Territories

* Papua New Guinea * Christmas Island * Cocos Islands * Coral Sea Islands * Heard Island and McDonald Islands * Norfolk Island * Nauru * Australian Antarctic Territory

New Zealand dependencies

* Cook Islands * Nauru * Niue * Ross Dependency ** Balleny Islands ** Ross Island ** Scott Island ** Roosevelt Island * Samoa

United States colonies and protectorates

* Alaska * American Concession in Tianjin (1869-1902) * American Concession in Shanghai (1848-1863) * American Concession in Beihai (1876-1943) * American Concession in Harbin (1898-1943) * American Samoa * Austria * Beijing Legation Quarter (1861-1945) * Corn Islands (1914–1971) * Canton and Enderbury Islands * Chile (1818 during the Chilean war of independence) * Costa Rica (Protected by the United States Military) *Cuba (Platt Amendment turned Cuba into a protectorate, protectorate until Cuban Revolution) * Dominican Republic * Falkland Islands (1832) * Guantánamo Bay * Guam * Gulangyu Island (1903-1945) * Haiti (1915-1934) *Hawaii * Indian Territory (1834–1907) * Isle of Pines (1899-1925) *Liberia (Independent since 1847, US protectorate until post-WW2) * Mexico City (1847) * Midway * Nicaragua (1912–1933) * Palmyra Atoll * Panama (Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty turned Panama into a protectorate, protectorate until post-WW2) * Panama Canal Zone (1903–1979) * Philippines (1898-1946) * Puerto Rico * Veracruz * Quita Sueño Bank (1869–1981) * Roncador Bank (1856–1981) *Ryukyu Islands * Parts of the Russian Far East, Caucasus, and parts of Northern Russia * Shanghai International Settlement (1863-1945) * Japan * South Korea * Sultanate of Sulu (1903–1915) * Swan Islands, Honduras (1914-1972) * Algeria * Morocco * Tangier International Zone (Now present-day Tangier, Morocco) (1924-1956) * Treaty Ports of China, Korea and Japan *Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands * United States Virgin Islands * Wake Island * Wilkes Land * West Berlin * West Germany

Japanese colonies and protectorates

* Aleutian Islands * Bonin Islands * Karafuto * Korea * Kuril Islands * Kwantung Leased Territory * Nanyo ** Caroline Islands ** Marshall Islands ** Northern Mariana Islands * Penghu Islands * Ryukyu Domain * Taiwan * Volcano Islands

Chinese colonies and protectorates

* Guangxi (Tusi) * Hainan ** Nansha Islands ** Xisha Islands * Manchuria * Inner Mongolia * Outer Mongolia during the Qing dynasty * Taiwan * Tibet (Kashag) * Tuva during the Qing dynasty * Yunnan (Tusi) * Vietnam during the Han, Sui, and Tang dynasties * Ryukyu from the 15th to the 19th century

Mexican colonies

* Californias * Central America * Chiapas * Clipperton Island * Revillagigedo Islands * Texas * Manila

Guatemalan Colonies

* Belize * Chiapas

Ecuatorian colonies

* Galápagos Islands

Colombian colonies

* Panama * Ecuador * Venezuela * Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina

Venezuelan Colonies

* Western part of Guyana

Argentine colonies and protectorates

* Argentine Antarctica * Asuncion (1873) * California (1818) * Chile (1817-1818 during the Chilean war of independence) * Equatorial Guinea (1810-1815) * Falkland Islands and Dependencies (1829–1831, 1832–1833, 1982) * Formosa * Gobierno del Cerrito (1843–1851) * Gonaïves, Haití. * Misiones * Paraguay (1873) * Patagonia * Peru (1820-1822 during the Independence of Peru) *Philippines (1818) * Puna de Atacama (1839– ) * Tierra del Fuego * Uruguay (Cisplatine War)

Paraguayan colonies

* Mato Grosso do Sul * Formosa

Bolivian colonies

* Puna de Atacama (1825–1839 ceded to Argentina) (1825–1879 ceded to Chile) * Acre

Chilean Colonies

*Patagonia * Tierra del Fuego *Easter Island

Brazilian Colonies

* Uruguay * Cape Verde * Angola * Mozambique * Asuncion * Brazilian Antarctica

Ethiopian colonies

*Eritrea *Yemen

South African Colonies

*Namibia *Prince Edward Islands

Moroccan colonies

*Western Sahara

Omani colonies

Omani Empire * Swahili coast * Zanzibar * Qatar * Bahrain * Somalia * Socotra

Indian colonies and protectorates


Thai colonies (Siam)

* Kingdom of Vientiane (1778–1828) * Kingdom of Luang Prabang (1778–1893) * Kingdom of Champasak (1778–1893) * Kingdom of Cambodia (1771–1867) * Kedah (1821–1826) * Perlis (1821-1836)

(Ancient) Egyptian colonies

* Canaan (Now present-day Israel) * Sudan

Ancient Roman Colonies

* Aegyptus * Achaia * Hispania * Lusitania * Illyricum * Aquitania * Gallia * Galatia * Raetia * Moesia * Judea * Britannia

Pakistani Colonies

* Bangladesh

Impact of colonialism and colonisation

The impacts of colonisation are immense and pervasive. Various effects, both immediate and protracted, include the spread of virulent diseases, unequal social relations, detribalization, exploitation, enslavement, medical advances, the creation of new institutions, abolitionism,Lovejoy, Paul E. (2012). Transformations of Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa. London: Cambridge University Press. improved infrastructure, and technological progress. Colonial practices also spur the spread of colonist languages, literature and cultural institutions, while endangering or obliterating those of native peoples. The native cultures of the colonised peoples can also have a powerful influence on the imperial country.

Economy, trade and commerce


Slavery and indentured servitude


Military innovation


The end of empire

The populations of some colonial territories, such as Canada, enjoyed relative peace and prosperity as part of a European power, at least among the majority; however, minority populations such as First Nations peoples and French-Canadians experienced marginalisation and resented colonial practises. Francophone residents of Quebec, for example, were vocal in opposing conscription into the armed services to fight on behalf of Britain during World War I, resulting in the Conscription crisis of 1917. Other European colonies had much more pronounced conflict between European settlers and the local population. Rebellions broke out in the later decades of the imperial era, such as India's Sepoy Rebellion of 1857. The territorial boundaries imposed by European colonisers, notably in central Africa and South Asia, defied the existing boundaries of native populations that had previously interacted little with one another. European colonisers disregarded native political and cultural animosities, imposing peace upon people under their military control. Native populations were often relocated at the will of the colonial administrators. The Partition of British India in August 1947 led to the Independence of India and the creation of Pakistan. These events also caused much bloodshed at the time of the migration of immigrants from the two countries. Muslims from India and Hindus and Sikhs from Pakistan migrated to the respective countries they sought independence to.

Post-independence population movement


Introduced diseases

Encounters between explorers and populations in the rest of the world often introduced new diseases, which sometimes caused local epidemics of extraordinary virulence. For example, smallpox, measles, malaria, yellow fever, and others were unknown in pre-Columbian America. Half the native population of Hispaniola in 1518 was killed by smallpox. Smallpox also ravaged Mexico in the 1520s, killing 150,000 in Tenochtitlan alone, including the emperor, and Peru in the 1530s, aiding the European conquerors. Measles killed a further two million Mexican natives in the 17th century. In 1618–1619, smallpox wiped out 90% of the Massachusetts Bay Native Americans. Smallpox epidemics in 1780–1782 and 1837–1838 brought devastation and drastic depopulation among the Plains Indians. Some believe that the death of up to 95% of the Native American population of the New World was caused by Old World diseases. Over the centuries, the Europeans had developed high degrees of immunity to these diseases, while the indigenous peoples had no time to build such immunity. Smallpox decimated the native population of Australia, killing around 50% of indigenous Australians in the early years of British colonisation. It also killed many New Zealand Māori. As late as 1848–49, as many as 40,000 out of 150,000 Hawaiians are estimated to have died of measles, whooping cough and influenza. Introduced diseases, notably smallpox, nearly wiped out the native population of Easter Island. In 1875, measles killed over 40,000 Fijians, approximately one-third of the population. The Ainu population decreased drastically in the 19th century, due in large part to infectious diseases brought by Japanese settlers pouring into Hokkaido. Conversely, researchers have hypothesised that a precursor to syphilis may have been carried from the New World to Europe after Columbus's voyages. The findings suggested Europeans could have carried the nonvenereal tropical bacteria home, where the organisms may have mutated into a more deadly form in the different conditions of Europe. The disease was more frequently fatal than it is today; syphilis was a major killer in Europe during the Renaissance. The first cholera pandemic began in Bengal, then spread across India by 1820. Ten thousand British troops and countless Indians died during this pandemic. Between 1736 and 1834 only some 10% of East India Company's officers survived to take the final voyage home. Waldemar Haffkine, who mainly worked in India, who developed and used vaccines against cholera and bubonic plague in the 1890s, is considered the first microbiologist.

Countering disease


Colonialism and the history of thought

Colonial botany

Colonial botany refers to the body of works concerning the study, cultivation, marketing and naming of the new plants that were acquired or traded during the age of European colonialism. Notable examples of these plants included sugar, nutmeg, tobacco, cloves, cinnamon, Peruvian bark, peppers and tea. This work was a large part of securing financing for colonial ambitions, supporting European expansion and ensuring the profitability of such endeavors. Vasco de Gama and Christopher Columbus were seeking to establish routes to trade spices, dyes and silk from the Moluccas, India and China by sea that would be independent of the established routes controlled by Venetian and Middle Eastern merchants. Naturalists like Hendrik van Rheede, Georg Eberhard Rumphius, and Jacobus Bontius compiled data about eastern plants on behalf of the Europeans. Though Sweden did not possess an extensive colonial network, botanical research based on Carl Linnaeus identified and developed techniques to grow cinnamon, tea and rice locally as an alternative to costly imports.


adopted Persian customs of clothing

Colonialism and geography

Settlers acted as the link between indigenous populations and the imperial hegemony, thus bridging the geographical, ideological and commercial gap between the colonisers and colonised. While the extent in which geography as an academic study is implicated in colonialism is contentious, geographical tools such as cartography, shipbuilding, navigation, mining and agricultural productivity were instrumental in European colonial expansion. Colonisers' awareness of the Earth's surface and abundance of practical skills provided colonisers with a knowledge that, in turn, created power."Painter, J. & Jeffrey, A., 2009. ''Political Geography'', 2nd ed., Sage. "Imperialism" p. 23 (GIC). Anne Godlewska and Neil Smith argue that "empire was 'quintessentially a geographical project. Historical geographical theories such as environmental determinism legitimised colonialism by positing the view that some parts of the world were underdeveloped, which created notions of skewed evolution. Geographers such as Ellen Churchill Semple and Ellsworth Huntington put forward the notion that northern climates bred vigour and intelligence as opposed to those indigenous to tropical climates (See The Tropics) viz a viz a combination of environmental determinism and Social Darwinism in their approach. Political geographers also maintain that colonial behaviour was reinforced by the physical mapping of the world, therefore creating a visual separation between "them" and "us". Geographers are primarily focused on the spaces of colonialism and imperialism; more specifically, the material and symbolic appropriation of space enabling colonialism. Maps played an extensive role in colonialism, as Bassett would put it "by providing geographical information in a convenient and standardised format, cartographers helped open West Africa to European conquest, commerce, and colonisation". However, because the relationship between colonialism and geography was not scientifically objective, cartography was often manipulated during the colonial era. Social norms and values had an effect on the constructing of maps. During colonialism map-makers used rhetoric in their formation of boundaries and in their art. The rhetoric favoured the view of the conquering Europeans; this is evident in the fact that any map created by a non-European was instantly regarded as inaccurate. Furthermore, European cartographers were required to follow a set of rules which led to ethnocentrism; portraying one's own ethnicity in the centre of the map. As J.B. Harley put it, "The steps in making a map – selection, omission, simplification, classification, the creation of hierarchies, and 'symbolisation' – are all inherently rhetorical." A common practice by the European cartographers of the time was to map unexplored areas as "blank spaces". This influenced the colonial powers as it sparked competition amongst them to explore and colonise these regions. Imperialists aggressively and passionately looked forward to filling these spaces for the glory of their respective countries. The ''Dictionary of Human Geography'' notes that cartography was used to empty 'undiscovered' lands of their Indigenous meaning and bring them into spatial existence via the imposition of "Western place-names and borders, hereforepriming 'virgin' (putatively empty land, 'wilderness') for colonisation (thus sexualising colonial landscapes as domains of male penetration), reconfiguring alien space as absolute, quantifiable and separable (as property)." David Livingstone stresses "that geography has meant different things at different times and in different places" and that we should keep an open mind in regards to the relationship between geography and colonialism instead of identifying boundaries. Geography as a discipline was not and is not an objective science, Painter and Jeffrey argue, rather it is based on assumptions about the physical world. Comparison of exogeographical representations of ostensibly tropical environments in science fiction art support this conjecture, finding the notion of the tropics to be an artificial collection of ideas and beliefs that are independent of geography.

Colonialism and imperialism


Marxist view of colonialism


Liberalism, capitalism and colonialism

, professor Daniel Klein, 1.7.2004
Their philosophies found the colonial enterprise, particularly mercantilism, in opposition to the principles of free trade and liberal policies. Adam Smith wrote in ''The Wealth of Nations'' that Britain should grant independence to all of its colonies and also argued that it would be economically beneficial for British people in the average, although the merchants having mercantilist privileges would lose out.

Scientific thought in colonialism, race and gender


"The Other"

"The Other", or "othering", is the process of creating a separate entity to persons or groups who are labelled as different or non-normal due to the repetition of characteristics. Othering is the creation of those who discriminate, to distinguish, label, categorise those who do not fit in the societal norm. Several scholars in recent decades developed the notion of the "other" as an epistemological concept in social theory. For example, postcolonial scholars, believed that colonising powers explained an "other" who were there to dominate, civilise, and extract resources through colonisation of land. Political geographers explain how colonial/imperial powers (countries, groups of people etc.) "othered" places they wanted to dominate to legalise their exploitation of the land. During and after the rise of colonialism the Western powers perceived the East as the "other", being different and separate from their societal norm. This viewpoint and separation of culture had divided the Eastern and Western culture creating a dominant/subordinate dynamic, both being the "other" towards themselves.


Post-colonialism (or post-colonial theory) can refer to a set of theories in philosophy and literature that grapple with the legacy of colonial rule. In this sense, one can regard post-colonial literature as a branch of postmodern literature concerned with the political and cultural independence of peoples formerly subjugated in colonial empires. Many practitioners take Edward Saïd's book ''Orientalism'' (1978) as the theory's founding work (although French theorists such as Aimé Césaire (1913–2008) and Frantz Fanon (1925–1961) made similar claims decades before Saïd). Saïd analyzed the works of Balzac, Baudelaire and Lautréamont, arguing that they helped to shape a societal fantasy of European racial superiority. Writers of post-colonial fiction interact with the traditional colonial discourse, but modify or subvert it; for instance by retelling a familiar story from the perspective of an oppressed minor character in the story. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's ''Can the Subaltern Speak?'' (1998) gave its name to Subaltern Studies. In ''A Critique of Postcolonial Reason'' (1999), Spivak argued that major works of European metaphysics (such as those of Kant and Hegel) not only tend to exclude the subaltern from their discussions, but actively prevent non-Europeans from occupying positions as fully human subjects. Hegel's ''Phenomenology of Spirit'' (1807), famous for its explicit ethnocentrism, considers Western civilisation as the most accomplished of all, while Kant also had some traces of racialism in his work.



Effects of Colonialism on the Colonisers

In his 1955 essay, ''Discourse on Colonialism'' (French: ''Discours sur le colonialisme''), French poet Aimé Césaire evaluates the effects of racist, sexist, and capitalist attitudes and motivations on the civilisations that attempted to colonise other civilisations. In explaining his position, he says "I admit that it is a good thing to place different civilisations in contact with each other that it is an excellent thing to blend different worlds; that whatever its own particular genius may be, a civilisation that withdraws into itself atrophies; that for civilisations, exchange is oxygen." However, he contends that colonisation is a harmful and counterproductive means of interacting with and learning from neighbouring civilisations. To illustrate his point, he explains that colonisation relies on racist and xenophobic frameworks that dehumanise the targets of colonisation and justify their extreme and brutal mistreatment. Every time an immoral act perpetrated by colonisers onto the colonised is justified by racist, sexist, otherwise xenophobic, or capitalist motivations to subjugate a group of people, the colonising civilisation "acquires another dead weight, a universal regression takes place, a gangrene sets in, a centre of infection begins to spread." Césaire argues the result of this process is that "a poison sinstilled into the veins of Europe and, slowly but surely, the continent proceeds toward ''savagery''." Césaire is indicating that the racist and xenophobic justifications for colonisation—motivated by capitalist desires—ultimately result in the moral and cultural degradation of the colonising nation. Thusly, colonisation is damaging to the civilisations that participate as perpetrators in a way that is internally harmful.

British public opinion about the British Empire


Colonial migrations

Nations and regions outside Europe with significant populations of European ancestry * Africa (see Europeans in Africa) ** South Africa (European South African): 7.8% of the population ** Namibia (European Namibians): 6.5% of the population, of which most are Afrikaans-speaking, in addition to a German-speaking minority. ** Réunion: estimated to be approx. 25% of the population ** Zimbabwe (Europeans in Zimbabwe) ** Algeria (Pied-noir) ** Botswana: 3% of the population ** Kenya (Europeans in Kenya) ** Mauritius (Franco-Mauritian) ** Morocco (European Moroccans) ** Ivory Coast (French people) ** Senegal ** Canary Islands (Spaniards), known as Canarians. ** Seychelles (Franco-Seychellois) ** Somalia (Italian Somalis) ** Eritrea (Italian Eritreans) ** Saint Helena (UK) including Tristan da Cunha (UK): predominantly European. ** Swaziland: 3% of the population ** Tunisia (European Tunisians) * Asia ** Siberia (Russians, Germans and Ukrainians) ** Kazakhstan (Russians in Kazakhstan, Germans of Kazakhstan): 30% of the population ** Uzbekistan (Russians and other Slavs): 6% of the populationRobert Greenall
"Russians left behind in Central Asia"
BBC News, 23 November 2005.
** Kyrgyzstan (Russians and other Slavs): 14% of the population ** Turkmenistan (Russians and other Slavs): 4% of the population ** Tajikistan (Russians and other Slavs): 1% of the population ** Hong Kong ** Philippines (Spanish Ancestry): 3% of the population ** People's Republic of China (Russians in China) ** Indian subcontinent (Anglo-Indians) * Latin America (see White Latin American) **Argentina (European Immigration to Argentina): 97% of the population ** Bolivia: 15% of the population ** Brazil (White Brazilian): 47% of the population ** Chile (White Chilean): 60–70% of the population. ** Colombia (White Colombian): 37% of the population ** Costa Rica: 83% of the population ** Cuba (White Cuban): 65% of the population ** Dominican Republic: 16% of the population ** Ecuador: 7% of the population ** Honduras: 1% of the population ** El Salvador: 12% of the population ** Mexico (White Mexican): 9% or ~17% of the population. and 70–80% more as Mestizos. ** Nicaragua: 17% of the population ** Panama: 10% of the population ** Puerto Rico: approx. 80% of the population ** Peru (European Peruvian): 15% of the population ** Paraguay: approx. 20% of the population ** Uruguay (White Uruguayan): 88% of the population ** Venezuela (White Venezuelan): 42% of the population * Rest of the Americas **Bahamas: 12% of the population ** Barbados (White Barbadian): 4% of the population ** Bermuda: 34% of the population ** Canada (European Canadians): 80% of the population ** Falkland Islands: mostly of British descent. ** French Guiana: 12% of the population ** Greenland: 12% of the population ** Martinique: 5% of the population ** Saint Barthélemy ** Trinidad and Tobago: 1% of the population ** United States (European American): 72% of the population, including Hispanic and Non-Hispanic Whites. * Oceania (see Europeans in Oceania) ** Australia (European Australians): 90% of the population ** New Zealand (European New Zealanders): 78% of the population ** New Caledonia (Caldoche): 35% of the population ** French Polynesia: (Zoreilles) 10% of the population ** Hawaii: 25% of the population ** Christmas Island: approx. 20% of the population. ** Guam: 7% of the population ** Norfolk Island: 9→5% of the population

Numbers of European settlers in the colonies (1500–1914)


See also

* African independence movements * Age of Discovery * Anti-imperialism * Chartered company * Chinese imperialism * Christianity and colonialism * Civilising mission * Colonial Empire * Colonialism and the Olympic Games * Coloniality of power * Colonial war * Decoloniality * Decolonization of the Americas * Direct colonial rule * Empire of Liberty * European colonization of Africa * European colonization of the Americas * European colonization of Micronesia * European colonisation of Southeast Asia * Genocide of indigenous peoples * French law on colonialism * German eastward expansion * Global Empire * Historiography of the British Empire * Impact of Western European colonialism and colonisation * Imperialism * International relations of the Great Powers (1814–1919) * Muslim conquests * Orientalism * Pluricontinental * Protectorate * Soviet Empire * Stranger King (Concept) * Western imperialism in Asia


Further reading

* Albertini, Rudolf von. ''European Colonial Rule, 1880–1940: The Impact of the West on India, Southeast Asia, and Africa'' (1982) 581 pp * Benjamin, Thomas, ed. ''Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism Since 1450'' (2006) * Cooper, Frederick. ''Colonialism in Question: Theory, Knowledge, History'' (2005) * Cotterell, Arthur. ''Western Power in Asia: Its Slow Rise and Swift Fall, 1415 – 1999'' (2009) popular history
* Getz, Trevor R. and Heather Streets-Salter, eds.: ''Modern Imperialism and Colonialism: A Global Perspective'' (2010) * LeCour Grandmaison, Olivier: ''Coloniser, Exterminer – Sur la guerre et l'Etat colonial'', Fayard, 2005, * Lindqvist, Sven: ''Exterminate All The Brutes'', 1992, New Press; Reprint edition (June 1997), * Morris, Richard B. and Graham W. Irwin, eds. ''Harper Encyclopedia of the Modern World: A Concise Reference History from 1760 to the Present'' (1970
* Ness, Immanuel and Zak Cope, eds. ''The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism'' (2 vol 2015), 1456 pp * Nuzzo, Luigi
''Colonial Law''
European History Online, Mainz: Institute of European History, 2010, retrieved: December 17, 2012. * Osterhammel, Jürgen: ''Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview'', Princeton, NJ: M. Wiener, 1997. * Page, Melvin E. et al. eds. ''Colonialism: An International Social, Cultural, and Political Encyclopedia'' (3 vol 2003) * Petringa, Maria, ''Brazza, A Life for Africa'' (2006), . * Rönnbäck, K. & Broberg, O. (2019) Capital and Colonialism. The Return on British Investments in Africa 1869–1969 (Palgrave Studies in Economic History) * Schill, Pierre : ''Réveiller l'archive d'une guerre coloniale. Photographies et écrits de Gaston Chérau, correspondant de guerre lors du conflit italo-turc pour la Libye (1911–1912)'', Créaphis, 480 p., 2018 (). ''Awaken the archive of a colonial war. Photographs and writings of a French war correspondent during the Italo-Turkish war in Libya (1911–1912)''. With contributions from art historian Caroline Recher, critic Smaranda Olcèse, writer Mathieu Larnaudie and historian Quentin Deluermoz. * Stuchtey, Benedikt
''Colonialism and Imperialism, 1450–1950''
European History Online, Mainz: Institute of European History, 2011, retrieved: July 13, 2011. * Townsend, Mary Evelyn. ''European colonial expansion since 1871'' (1941). * U.S. Tariff Commission. ''Colonial tariff policies'' (1922), worldwide; 922p
survey online

* Wendt, Reinhard
''European Overseas Rule''

Primary sources

* Conrad, Joseph, ''Heart of Darkness'', 1899 * Fanon, Frantz, ''The Wretched of the Earth'', Preface by Jean-Paul Sartre. Translated by Constance Farrington. London: Penguin Book, 2001 * Kipling, Rudyard, ''The White Man's Burden'', 1899 * Las Casas, Bartolomé de, ''A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies'' (1542, published in 1552).

External links

* * {{Authority control Category:Cultural geography Category:International relations theory Category:Articles containing video clips