- This article is about a type of political territory. For other uses see Colony
(disambiguation).
In politics and in history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others
were territories without definite statehood from their inception. The metropolitan state is
the state that owns the colony. In Ancient Greece, the city that owned a colony was
called the metropolis within its political organization. Mother country is a reference to the metropolitan state
from the point of view of citizens who live in its colony. Today, the terms overseas
territory or dependent territory are preferred.[citation needed] There is a United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories.
People who migrated to settle permanently in colonies controlled by their country of origin were called colonists or
settlers.
A colony differs from a puppet state or satellite
state in that a colony has no independent international representation, and the top-level administration of a colony is
under direct control of the metropolitan state.
The term "informal colony" is used by some historians to describe a country which is under the de facto control of
another state, although this description is often contentious.
Definitions
In the modern usage, colony is generally distinguished from overseas possession. In the former case, the local
population, or at least the part of it not coming from the "metropolitan" (controlling) country, does not enjoy full citizenship
rights. The political process is generally restricted, especially excluding questions of independence. In this case, there are
settlers from a dominating foreign country, or countries, and often the property of
indigenous peoples is seized, to provide the settlers with land. Foreign mores,
religions and/or legal systems are imposed. In some cases, the local population is held for unfree labour, is submitted to brutal force, or even to pfor legal independence movements to form; should
they gain a majority in the oversea possession, the question of independence may be brought, for instance, to referendum.
However, in some cases, settlers have come to outnumber indigenous people in overseas possessions, and it is possible for
colonies to become overseas possessions, against the wishes of indigenous peoples. This often results in ongoing and long-lasting
independence struggles by the descendants of the original inhabitants.
The word Colony may also be used for countries that, while independent or considering themselves independent of a
former colonizing power, still have a political and social structure where the rulers are a minority originating from the
colonizing power. Such was the case with Rhodesia after the Unilateral Declaration of Independence.
The term informal colony has also been used in relation to countries which, while they have
never been conquered by force or officially ruled by a foreign power, have a clearly subordinate social or economic
relationship to that power.
History
Colonization and imperialism at the end of
World War II (1945)
Originally, as with the ancient (Hellenic) Greek apoikia (αποικια), the term colonization referred to the foundation of a new city or
settlement, more often than not with nonviolent means (but see for instance the Athenian re-colonisation of Melos after wiping out the earlier settlement). The term colony is derived from the Latin colonia, which indicated a place meant for agricultural
activities; these Roman colonies and others like them were in fact usually either conquered so as to be inhabited by these
workers, or else established as a cheap way of securing conquests made for other reasons. The name of the German city Köln, which is "Cologne" in English, also derives from
colonia. In the modern era, communities founded by colonists or settlers became known as
settler colonies.
The "Age of Discovery" began in the 15th
century with the initiation of the vast Portuguese Empire and lasted until the
mid-20th century. Curiously, the first great European colonial empire to be created, the Portuguese, was also the last one to be dismantled. In this long period, the Spanish, the British, the French, the Dutch, the German, and other Colonial Empires were created. During these centuries European states, the United States and others took political control of
much of the world's population and landmass. The term "colony" came to mean an overseas district with a majority indigenous population, administered by a distant colonial government. (Exceptions occurred:
Russian colonies in Central Asia and Siberia, American settlements in the American West, and German
colonies in Eastern Europe were not "overseas"; British colonies (or "overseas
territories") like the Falkland Islands and Tristan
da Cunha lacked a native population.). Most non-European countries were colonies of Europe at one time or another, or were
handled in a quasi-colonial manner. The European colonies and former colonies in America made extensive use of slave labor, initially using the native population, then through the importation of slaves from black
Africa.
There existed various statuses and modes of operation for foreign countries, direct control by the colonizing country being
the most obvious. Some colonies were operated through corporations (the British
East India Company for India; the Congo Free
State under the very brutal rule of Léopold II of Belgium); some were run
as protectorates. Quasi-colonies were run through proxy or puppet governments, generally
kingdoms or dictatorships. For instance, it may be argued that Cuba before the Revolution was a
quasi-colony of the United States, with an enormous influence of US economic and political interests; see banana republic.
The United Kingdom used Australia as a penal colony: British convicts would be sent to
forced labor there, with the added benefit that the freed convicts would settle in the colony and thus augment the European
population there. Similarly, France once deported prostitutes and various "undesirables" to populate its colonies in North
America, and until the 20th century operated a penitentiary on Devil's Island in
French Guiana.
The independence of these colonies began with that of 13 colonies of Britain that formed the United States, finalised
in 1783 with the conclusion of a war begun in 1776, and has continued until about the present time, with for example
Algeria and East Timor being relinquished by European powers
only in 1962 and 1975 respectively (although the latter was forcibly made an Indonesian
possession instead of becoming fully independent). This process is called decolonization, though the use of a single term obscures an important distinction between the process
of the settler population breaking its links with the mother country while maintaining local
political supremacy and that of the indigenous population reasserting themselves
(possibly through the expulsion of the settler population).
The movement towards decolonization was not uniform, with more newer powers, sometimes themselves ex-colonies or once
threatened by colonial power, trying to carve a colonial empire. The United States, itself a former colony, expanded westwards by
waging brutal wars against the Native American population,
including whole massacres of civilians, so as to make it possible for settlers to colonize the American West. It also colonized Hawaii, and waged various wars
and conduct armed expeditions so as to assert power over local governments (in Japan, with
Commodore Perry and in Cuba, for example). European
countries and the United States, exploiting the weakness of China's waning imperial regime, also maintained so-called
international concessions in that country, a sort of colonial enclave; the coastal towns of Macau and Hong Kong were held on long-term leases by Portugal and the United Kingdom. During the first half of the 20th century, until its defeat the Second World War, Japan, once afraid of becoming a European or American colony, built itself a colonial
empire in Korea, Taiwan, South Sakhalin, northeast part of China, and the Western Pacific, using military force.
Under the Geneva Conventions of 1949, it is a war crime to transfer, directly or
indirectly, the civilian population of a country power onto land under that country's military occupation. The reasoning for this
crime is apparently to emphasise that it is now a violation of international law to annex territory through military force. This
phrase describes many of acts of colonisation in the past, and arguably outlaws
colonisation.
See also: British Empire, Portuguese
Empire, Spanish Empire, French colonial
empire, Dutch colonial empire, Colonialism,
Colonial mentality, Colonization,
British Nationality Law, Slavery,
Imperialism, New Imperialism, settler.
Compare protectorate, Crown
colony, dominion, Proprietary colony.
Colonies in ancient civilizations (examples)
Modern colonies (examples)
- Indonesia was a Dutch colony for 350 years, from 1600 to 1945/49, occupied by Japan from
1942 to 1945.
- Hong Kong was a British colony from 1841 to 1997, and Macau
was a Portuguese colony until the beginning of the XX Century
- Parts of India were under the direct control of the government of the United Kingdom between 1858 and 1947. See also Crown
colony.
- Taiwan was a colony of Japan between 1895 and 1945. Prior to
that, Taiwan was a territory and, briefly, a province of the Qing Empire.
- The Philippines, previously a colony of Spain, was a
colony of the United States from 1898 to 1946. During World War II between 1942 and 1945,
it was occupied by the Japanese forces.
Today, the colonizing European and North American powers hold few colonies in the traditional sense of the term, with
exceptions in the case of the United States (including Puerto Rico and Guam - see next section), France and the UK. Some of their former colonies have been integrated as dependent
areas or have closer integration with the country.
Current colonies (examples)
- Gibraltar has been a colonial possession of the British since 1713. (The word "colony" is no longer used, however. The small minority of former
British colonies still under British sovereignty are now termed Overseas
Territories.)
- Puerto Rico's relationship to the United States
is considered by some to be colonial, since citizens are subject to laws passed by Congress
without their consent. This view is shared by many supporters of independence and
statehood for the island, as well as by some supporters of current Commonwealth status. However, other Puerto
Ricans do not agree with this perception. A change to the current commonwealth status was rejected in all three
plebiscites in 1967, 1993, and 1998.
- Similarly, Guam's relationship to the United States is
also considered by some to be colonial, as its citizens are also subject to the laws of Congress passed without their consent. Guam is formally known as an unincorporated territory.
- The French Overseas Departments are integral regions, although seen by others as
still modern day colonies under France.
See also
External links
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