colony - History, Colonies in ancient civilizations (examples), Modern colonies (examples), Current colonies (examples)

An area of land or a country held and governed by another country, usually for the purpose of economic or other forms of exploitation. It was only in the 20th-c that colonialism became generally regarded as illegitimate, capable of justification only where it was deemed by the international community to be in the longer-term interests of the colonial territory, which usually meant preparation for independence. The present Commonwealth comprises the former colonies and the Crown Colonies (those still directly administered by Britain), which made up the British Empire.

For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically separate countries, while others were territories without definite statehood at the moment of colonization. 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 the term used to refer to the metropolitan state by its citizens that live in a colony.

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. 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.

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.

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

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). 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 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 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).

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. 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, parts 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.

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)

Carthage was a Phoenician colony Cyrene was a colony of the Greeks of Thera Naples formed as a Greek colony Durrës formed as a Greek colony dome

Modern colonies (examples)

India was 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. The Philippines, previously a colony of Spain, was a colony of the United States from 1898 to 1946.

Today, none of the colonizing European and North American powers hold colonies in the traditional sense of the term, with disputed exceptions in the case of the United States (including Puerto Rico and Guam - see next section). 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.