Colony

{{About |the political concept|the concentrated dwelling|Human settlement|the concentrated dwelling of animals|Colony (biology)|other uses|Colony (disambiguation)}}

File:Non-Self-Governing.png (primarily islands) with their sovereign states ({{as of|2012|6|lc=on}})]]

A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule,{{cite web |url= https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/colony |title= colony |date= 2021|publisher= Oxford University Press|website= Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary|accessdate= 8 January 2021 | quote = 1. [...] a country or an area that is governed by people from another, more powerful, country}} which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their metropole (or "mother country").{{cite web | title=Collins Englisch Wörterbuch | website=COLONY Definition und Bedeutung | date=2017-12-20 | url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/de/worterbuch/englisch/colony | quote=any people or territory separated from but subject to a ruling power | language=de | access-date=2025-01-10}} This separated rule was often organized into colonial empires, with their metropoles at their centers, making colonies neither annexed or even integrated territories, nor client states. Particularly new imperialism and its colonialism advanced this separated rule and its lasting coloniality. Colonies were most often set up and colonized for exploitation and possibly settlement by colonists.

The term colony originates from the ancient Roman {{Lang|la|colonia}}, a type of Roman settlement. Derived from colonus (farmer, cultivator, planter, or settler), it carries with it the sense of 'farm' and 'landed estate'.{{Cite book|last=Nayar|first=Pramod|title=Postcolonial Literature – An Introduction|publisher=Pearson India|year=2008|isbn=9788131713730|location=India|pages=1–2}}

Furthermore, the term was used to refer to the older Greek apoikia ({{Langx|grc|ἀποικία||home away from home}}), which were overseas settlements by ancient Greek city-states. The city that founded such a settlement became known as its metropolis ("mother-city"). Since early-modern times, historians, administrators, and political scientists have generally used the term "colony" to refer mainly to the many different overseas territories of particularly European states between the 15th and 20th centuries CE, with colonialism and decolonization as corresponding phenomena.

While colonies often developed from trading outposts or territorial claims, such areas do not need to be a product of colonization, nor become colonially organized territories. Territories furthermore do not need to have been militarily conquered and occupied to come under colonial rule and to be considered de facto colonies, instead neocolonial exploitation of dependency or imperialist use of power to intervene to force policy, might make a territory be considered a colony, which broadens the concept, including indirect rule or puppet states (contrasted by more independent types of client states such as vassal states). Subsequently, some historians have used the term informal colony to refer to a country under a de facto control of another state. Though the broadening of the concept is often contentious.

Contemporarily colonies are identified and organized as not sufficiently self-governed dependent territories. Other past colonies have become either sufficiently incorporated and self-governed, or independent, with some to a varying degree dominated by remaining colonial settler societies or neocolonialism.

Concept

The word "colony" comes from the Latin word {{lang|la|colōnia}}, used for ancient Roman outposts and eventually for cities. This in turn derives from the word {{lang|la|colōnus}}, which referred to a Roman tenant farmer.

Settlements that began as Roman {{lang|la|coloniae}} include cities from Cologne (which retains this history in its name) to Belgrade to York. A telltale sign of a settlement within the Roman sphere of influence once being a Roman colony is a city centre with a grid pattern.{{cite book|author=James S. Jeffers|title=The Greco-Roman world of the New Testament era: exploring the background of early Christianity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YGmKaXiUDiYC|year=1999|publisher=InterVarsity Press|isbn=978-0-8308-1589-0|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=YGmKaXiUDiYC&pg=PA52 52–53]}}

With a long and changing history of use colonies have been distinguished from "settler colonies", which are the more particular type of a settlement or community and not so much territorial.{{Cite book |last=Stanard |first=Matthew G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pZlNDwAAQBAJ |title=European Overseas Empire, 1879 - 1999: A Short History |date=2018 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-119-13013-0 |doi=10.1002/9781119367376 |pages=4–5 |language=en | quote=One kind of colony comprises a group of people that leaves one place to settle in a distant land, and who then remain free of formal control of their country of origin. Ancient Greeks who departed the area around the Aegean Sea to establish settlements around the Mediterranean are an example of this, as is, more recently, the “colony” of Italians who settled in New York City from the late 1800s. A colony can also be such a settlement that remains controlled by the land from which the colonists originated. By 241 bce, the Roman Republic had established its first province in Sicily, for instance. More recent examples are Virginia and Australia, founded as British colonies in 1607 and 1788, respec-tively. A third type of colony is a territory conquered by a foreign power and placed in a subservient relationship within that power’s empire, but that, for whatever reason, is not settled by large numbers of people from the metropole. [...] A "colonist" is someone from a colonizing power who settles in a foreign or colonized land, a "colonizer" someone who engages in conquest and foreign rule, and the "colonized" those people subject to colonization, that is, indigenous people (natives) ruled over by foreigners and oftentimes dispossessed of their lands. To “colonize” (noun: “colonization”) usually refers to setting up a colony, that is, taking and populating lands. “Colonialism,” by contrast, often refers either to colonization or more generally to engaging in the practice of empire. This book emphasizes a major distinction, namely between “colonies” controlled by a metropole yet overwhelmingly populated by indigenous peoples, and “settler colonies,” lands where colonists took land for settlement.}}

Ancient examples

Carthage formed as a Phoenician colony
Cadiz formed as a Phoenician colony
Cyrene was a colony of the Greeks of Thera
Sicily was a part Greek, part Phoenician colony
Sardinia was a Phoenician colony
Marseille formed as a Greek colony
Malta was a Phoenician colony
Cologne formed as a Roman colony and its modern name refer to the Latin term "colonia".
Kandahar formed as a Greek colony during the Hellenistic era by Alexander the Great in 330 BC.

More modern historical examples

L'Anse aux Meadows: a Norse colony which existed {{circa}} 1025 AD.
{{flag|Angola}}: a colony of Portugal from the 16th century to its independence in 1975.
{{flag|Australia}} was formed as a British Dominion in 1901 from a federation of six distinct British colonies which were founded between 1788 and 1829.
{{flag|Barbados}}: was a colony of Great Britain that was important in the Atlantic slave trade. It gained its independence in 1966.
{{flag|Brazil}}: a colony of Portugal since the 16th century. Independent since 1822.
{{flag|Canada|1868}}: was colonized first by France as New France (1534–1763) and England (in Newfoundland, 1582) then under British rule (1763–1867), before achieving Dominion status and losing "colony" designation.
{{flag|Democratic Republic of the Congo}}: a colony of Belgium from 1908 to 1960; previously under private ownership of King Leopold II.
{{flag|French Indochina}} was formed in October 1887 from Annam, Tonkin, Cochinchina (which together form modern Vietnam) and the Kingdom of Cambodia; Laos was added after the Franco-Siamese conflict of 1893. The federation lasted until 1954. In the four protectorates, the French formally left the local rulers in power, who were the Emperors of Vietnam, Kings of Cambodia, and Kings of Luang Prabang, but gathered all powers in their hands, the local rulers acting only as figureheads.
{{flag|Ghana}}: Contact between Europe and Ghana (known as the Gold Coast) began in the 15th century with the arrival of the Portuguese. This soon led to the establishment of several colonies by European powers: Portuguese Gold Coast (1482–1642), Dutch Gold Coast (1598–1872), Swedish Gold Coast (1650–1663), Danish Gold Coast (1658–1850), Brandenburger and Prussian Gold Coast (1685–1721) and British Gold Coast (1821–1957). In 1957, Ghana was the first African colony south of the Sahara to become independent.
{{flag|Greenland}} was a colony of Denmark-Norway from 1721 and was a colony of Denmark from 1814 to 1953. In 1953 Greenland was made an equal part of the Danish Kingdom. Home rule was granted in 1979 and extended to self-rule in 2009. See also Danish colonization of the Americas.
{{flag|Guinea-Bissau}}: a colony of Portugal since the 15th century. Independent since 1974.
{{flagcountry|British Hong Kong}} was a British colony (from 1983 British Dependent Territory) from 1841 to 1997. Is now a Special Administrative Region of China.
{{flagcountry|British Raj}} was an imperial political entity comprising present-day India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan with regions under the direct control of the British Government of the United Kingdom from 1858 to 1947. From the 15th century until 1961, Portuguese India (Goa) was a colony of Portugal. Pondicherry and Chandernagore were part of French India from 1759 to 1954. Small Danish colonies of Tharangambadi, Serampore and the Nicobar Islands from 1620 to 1869 were known as Danish India.
{{flag|Indonesia}} was a colony of the Netherlands gained full independence in 1949.{{Cite web|url=https://www.un.org/dppa/decolonization/en/nsgt|title = Non-Self-Governing Territories | the United Nations and Decolonization}}
{{flag|Jamaica}} was part of the Spanish West Indies in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It became an English colony in 1655 and; independence in 1962.
{{flag|Liberia}} a colony set up in 1821 by American private citizens for the migration of African American freedmen. Liberian Declaration of Independence from the American Colonization Society on 26 July 1847. It is the second oldest black republic in the world after Haiti.
{{flagcountry|Portuguese Macau}} was a Portuguese colony (from 1976 a "Chinese territory under Portuguese administration") from 1557 to 1999. In 1999, two years after Hong Kong, it became a Special Administrative Region of China.
{{flag|Malaysia}} was initially colonized by the Portuguese Empire in 1511 after capturing Malacca.{{Cite web|url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2013/5/1/timeline-malaysias-history|title=Timeline: Malaysia's history|website=www.aljazeera.com}} After 1511, Britain established colonies and trading ports on the Malay Peninsula; Penang was leased to the British East India Company. The Dutch Empire encountered Malaysia when it was looking for spices to trade with.{{Cite web|url=https://www.malaysia-traveller.com/dutch-in-malaysia.html|title=Dutch In Malaysia|website=Malaysia Traveller}}
{{flag|Malta}} was a British protectorate and later a colony from the French Revolutionary Wars in 1800 to independence in 1964.
{{flag|Mozambique}}: a colony of Portugal since the 15th century. Independent since 1975.
{{flag|Philippines}}, previously a colony of Spain from {{circa|1565}}{{refn|In 1521, an expedition led by Ferdinand Magellan landed in the islands, and Ruy López de Villalobos named the islands Las Islas Filipinas in honor of Spain's Prince Philip (later to become Philip I of Castile). During a later expedition in 1564, Miguel López de Legazpi conquered the Philippines for Spain. However, it can be argued that Spain's legitimate sovereignty over the islands commenced following a popular referendum in 1599.{{cite book|first1=Damaso|last1=De Lario|first2=Dámaso|last2=de Lario Ramírez|title=Re-shaping the world: Philip II of Spain and his time|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8r8eIuAJpTAC|year=2008|publisher=Ateneo de Manila University Press|isbn=978-971-550-556-7|chapter=Philip II and the "Philippine Referendum" of 1599|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8r8eIuAJpTAC&pg=PA93}}}} to 1898 as part of the Spanish East Indies, was a colony of the United States from 1898 to 1946. Achieved self-governing Commonwealth status in 1935; independent in 1946.
{{flag|Puerto Rico}} was a colony of Spain from 1493 to 1898, when it passed to be a colonial possession of the United States,[http://www.voluntownpeacetrust.org/a-peace-of-history-blog/the-recolonization-of-puerto-rico-part-1 The Recolonization of Puerto Rico, Part 1.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210914030429/http://www.voluntownpeacetrust.org/a-peace-of-history-blog/the-recolonization-of-puerto-rico-part-1 |date=14 September 2021 }} The Voluntown Peace Trust. 22 July 2021. Accessed 13 September 2021.[https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1018&context=lacs_fac_scholar Colonialism in Puerto Rico.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210914030429/https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1018&context=lacs_fac_scholar |date=14 September 2021 }} Pedro Caban. SUNY-Albany. Latin American, Caribbean, and US Latino Studies Faculty. 2015. p. 516. Accessed 13 September 2021.C.D. Burnett, et al., Foreign in a Domestic Sense: Puerto Rico, American Expansion, and the Constitution. Duke University Press. 2001. {{ISBN|9780822326984}} classified by the United States as "an unincorporated territory".[https://www.doi.gov/oia/islands/politicatypes Definitions of Insular Area Political Organizations.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190731200047/https://www.doi.gov/oia/islands/politicatypes |date=31 July 2019 }} U.S. Department of the Interior. Office of Insular Affairs. 2021. Accessed 13 September 2021. In 1914, the Puerto Rican House of Delegates voted unanimously in favor of independence from the United States, but this was rejected by the U.S. Congress as "unconstitutional" and in violation of the U.S. 1900 Foraker Act.Juan Gonzalez. Harvest of Empire Penguin Press. 2001. pp.60–63.{{ISBN|978-0-14-311928-9}} In 1952, after the US Congress approved Puerto Rico's constitution, its formal name became "Commonwealth of Puerto Rico", but its new name "did not change Puerto Rico's political, social, and economic relationship to the United States."{{cite web |url=https://fam.state.gov/FAM/07FAM/07FAM1120.html#M1121_2_1 |title=7 FAM 1120 Acquisition of U.S. Nationality in U.S. Territories and Possessions |access-date=13 September 2021 |date=January 3, 2013 |work=U.S. Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual Volume 7 - Consular Affairs |publisher=U.S. Department of State |format=PDF |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222081013/https://fam.state.gov/FAM/07FAM/07FAM1120.html#M1121_2_1 |archive-date=December 22, 2015 |url-status=dead }}[http://www.puertorico-herald.org/issues/2002/vol6n30/LetPRDecideHow2End-en.html "Let Puerto Rico Decide How to end its Colony Status: True Nationhood Stands on the Pillar of Independence."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210914030430/http://www.puertorico-herald.org/issues/2002/vol6n30/LetPRDecideHow2End-en.html |date=14 September 2021 }} Rosalinda de Jesus. The Allentown Morning Call. Republished by The Puerto Rico Herald. July 21, 2002. San Juan, Puerto Rico. Retrieved 13 September 2021. That year, the United States advised the United Nations (UN) that the island was a self-governing territory.{{Cite web|title=Puerto Rico - The debate over political status|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Puerto-Rico|access-date=2021-09-11|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}{{efn|During its 8th session, the United Nations General Assembly recognized Puerto Rico's self-government on November 27, 1953, with Resolution 748 (VIII).[https://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/8/ares8.htm Resolution 748 (VIII)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190506000907/https://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/8/ares8.htm |date=6 May 2019 }}. [Note: To access the text of the UN document, scroll down the list that appears until Resolution "748 (VIII)", dated "November 27, 1953", is found. Click on the link "748 (VIII)" to view the text of the Resolution. Important: This is a UN document database query server; documents are served on-the-fly. Saving the link that appears when the document opens will not provide access in the future.] Retrieved 13 September 2021. (UN Resolution "748 (VIII)", adopted on November 27, 1953, during its 459th Plenary Meeting.) This removed Puerto Rico's classification as a non-self-governing territory (under article 73(e) of the Charter of the United Nations). The resolution passed, garnering a favorable vote from some 40% of the General Assembly, with over 60% abstaining or voting against it (20 to 16, plus 18 abstentions). Today, however, the UN "still debates whether Puerto Rico is a colony" or not.{{Cite web|url=http://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-17-4-c.html#|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090610210536/http://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-17-4-c.html%23|url-status=dead|title=Puerto Rico: Commonwealth, Statehood, or Independence? Constitutional Rights Foundation|archive-date=June 10, 2009}}}} The United States has been "unwilling to play in public the imperial role... it has no appetite for acknowledging in a public way the contradictions implicit in frankly colonial rule."Sidney W. Mintz. Three Ancient Colonies. Harvard University Press. 2010. pp. 135-136.{{efn|Sidney Mintz's quote goes on to state, "Something in our history makes the idea of our ruling other people very difficult to deal with. Puerto Rico's political status certainly has evolved in its century inside the North American 'family.' But the permanent interim political status of which Tomas Blanco wrote still has not ended."}} The island has been called a colony by many,{{Cite web|date=2020-07-24|title=Why Puerto Rico has debated U.S. statehood since its colonization|url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/puerto-rico-debated-statehood-since-colonization|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224231359/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/puerto-rico-debated-statehood-since-colonization|url-status=dead|archive-date=24 February 2021|access-date=2021-09-11|website=History|language=en}} including US Federal judges,[https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/28/us/juan-torruella-groundbreaking-us-appeals-judge-dies-at-87.html Juan Torruella, Groundbreaking U.S. Appeals Judge, Dies at 87.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210911004323/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/28/us/juan-torruella-groundbreaking-us-appeals-judge-dies-at-87.html |date=11 September 2021 }} Sam Roberts. The New York Times. 28 October 2020. Accessed 13 September 2021. US Congresspeople,[https://theglobepost.com/2020/07/16/us-puerto-rico/ Can't We Just Sell the World's Oldest Colony and Solve Puerto Rico's Political Status?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210914030429/https://theglobepost.com/2020/07/16/us-puerto-rico/ |date=14 September 2021 }} Luis Martínez-Fernández. 16 July 2020. Accessed 13 September 2021.[https://thehill.com/latino/517921-hopes-for-dc-puerto-rico-statehood-rise Hopes for DC, Puerto Rico statehood rise.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210819000559/https://thehill.com/latino/517921-hopes-for-dc-puerto-rico-statehood-rise |date=19 August 2021 }} Marty Johnson and Rafael Bernal. The Hill. 24 September 2020. Accessed 13 September 2021. the Chief Justice of the Puerto Rico Supreme Court,José Trías Monge. Puerto Rico: The trials of the oldest colony in the world. Yale University Press. 1997. p.3. {{ISBN|9780300076189}} and numerous scholars.Angel Collado-Schwarz. Decolonization Models for America's Last Colony: Puerto Rico. Syracuse University Press. 2012. {{ISBN|0815651082}}{{efn|For additional references to Puerto Rico's current (2021) colonial status under U.S. rule, see Nicole Narea,[https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/live-results-for-puerto-ricos-statehood-referendum/ar-BB1aF94A Live results for Puerto Rico's statehood referendum.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210914030428/https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/live-results-for-puerto-ricos-statehood-referendum/ar-BB1aF94A |date=14 September 2021 }} Nicole Narea. MSN Microsoft News. 5 November 2020. Accessed 13 September 2021. Amy Goodman and Ana Irma Rivera Lassén,[https://www.democracynow.org/2020/11/6/puerto_rico_ana_irma_rivera_lassen Puerto Ricans Vote to Narrowly Approve Controversial Statehood Referendum & Elect 4 LGBTQ Candidates.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210908232158/https://www.democracynow.org/2020/11/6/puerto_rico_ana_irma_rivera_lassen |date=8 September 2021 }} Amy Goodman and Ana Irma Rivera Lassén. Democracy Now! 6 November 2020. Accessed 13 September 2021. David S. Cohen[https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/the-political-travesty-of-puerto-rico-196852/ The Political Travesty of Puerto Rico: Like all U.S. territories, Puerto Rico has no real representation in its own national government.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210908232211/https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/the-political-travesty-of-puerto-rico-196852/ |date=8 September 2021 }} David S. Cohen. RollingStone. 26 September 2017. Accessed 15 December 2020. and Sidney W. Mintz.Sidney W. Mintz. Three Ancient Colonies: Caribbean Themes and Variations. Cambridge Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. 2010. p. 134.}}
{{flag|South Africa}} consisted of territories and colonies by various African and European powers, including the Dutch and the British, and the Nguni. The territory consisting of the modern nation was ruled directly by the British from 1806 to 1910; became a self-governing dominion of Union of South Africa in 1910.
{{flag|Sri Lanka}}: a British colony from 1815 to 1948. Known as Ceylon. Was a British Dominion until 1972. Also a Portuguese colony in the 16th–17th centuries, and a Dutch colony in the 17th–18th centuries.
{{flag|Korea}} was a colony of Japan from 1910 to 1945. North Korea and South Korea were established in 1948.
{{flag|Taiwan}} has a complex history of colonial rule under various powers, including the Dutch (1624–1662), Spanish (1626–1642), Chinese (1683–1895) and Japanese (1895–1945).{{cite web| url = http://www.gutenberg-e.org/andrade/conclusion.html| author1=Tonio Andrade|author1-link=Tonio Andrade|title=How Taiwan Became Chinese: Dutch, Spanish, and Han Colonization in the Seventeenth Century|publisher=Columbia University Press}} The precolonial (pre-1624) inhabitants of Taiwan are the ethno-linguistically Austronesian Taiwanese indigenous peoples, rather than the vast majority of present-day Taiwanese people, who are mostly ethno-linguistically Han Chinese. Twice throughout history, Taiwan has served as a quasi rump state for Chinese governments, the first instance being the Ming-loyalist Kingdom of Tungning (1662–1683) and the second instance being the present-day Republic of China (ROC), which officially claims continuity or succession from the Republic of China (1912–1949), having retreated from mainland China to Taiwan in 1949 during the final years of the Chinese Civil War (1927–1949). The ROC, whose de facto territory consists almost entirely of the island of Taiwan and its minor satellite islands, continues to rule Taiwan as if it were a separate country from the People's Republic of China (consisting of mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau).
The {{flag|United States|1777}} was formed from a union of thirteen British colonies. The Colony of Virginia was the first of the thirteen colonies. All thirteen declared independence in July 1776 and expelled the British governors.

Current colonies

Image:Dependent territories.svg{{efn|Each territory in the United States Minor Outlying Islands is labeled UM- followed by the first letter of its name and another unique letter if needed.}} or with numbers.{{efn|The following territories do not have ISO 3166-1 codes:
1: Akrotiri and Dhekelia
2: Ashmore and Cartier Islands
3: Coral Sea Islands}} Colored areas without labels are integral parts of their respective countries. Antarctica is shown as a condominium instead of individual claims.]]

The Special Committee on Decolonization maintains the United Nations list of non-self-governing territories, which identifies areas the United Nations (though not without controversy) believes are colonies. Given that dependent territories have varying degrees of autonomy and political power in the affairs of the controlling state, there is disagreement over the classification of "colony".

Notes

References

External links

[https://www.un.org/en/decolonization/nonselfgov.shtml Non-Self-Governing Territories Listed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2002]
[https://www.un.org/en/decolonization/nonselfgovterritories.shtml Non-Self-Governing Territories Listed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2012]
[http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/world/A0861075.html Siberia : History] (covers Siberia as Russian colony)

Category:Types of administrative division

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