I.

Introduction

Colonies and Colonialism, territories, inhabited or not, acquired by conquest or settlement by a people or government previously alien to that territory; and, imposed foreign rule upon such territory. A colonial relationship is created when one people or government extends its sovereignty and imposes political control over an alien people or territory. The relationship is terminated when the subject people either become fully self-governing or become assimilated into the political structure of the colonial power on equal terms.

In modern times, and especially since World War II, colonialism has become the subject of intense moral and political controversy. Although some governments have attempted to justify the colonial systems they created in the past, many former colonies have depicted colonialism as a system of exploitation, imposed on them by stronger powers and responsible for economic backwardness, racial conflict, and social and cultural disorder.

Historically, colonial relationships have varied considerably. Some colonies have been heavily settled by nationals of the colonizing country; others have hardly been settled at all. Some colonies have been strictly supervised by their colonizers; others have been subject to loose and informal control. Some colonies have been founded overseas; others have been established on territory adjacent to that of the colonizing nation.

II.

Ancient and Medieval Times

Colonialism has existed since antiquity. Among the most notable continental empires of the ancient world were those of Egypt, Babylonia, and Persia. The maritime traders and adventurers Phoenicia, generally acknowledged as the earliest overseas colonizers, established colonies along the shores of the Mediterranean as early as 1100 bc. Phoenician colonization was motivated principally by the desire to expand and control trade. By the 8th century bc many of the Greek city-states were rapidly expanding along the coasts of the north Aegean, the Black Sea, and southern Italy. The Greeks were impelled by the need for arable land to sustain a growing population and the desire to facilitate commerce. The two most famous Greek city-states, Sparta and Athens, were colonial powers in roughly the 6th and 5th centuries bc, the former on the Greek mainland, the latter with overseas colonies.

The city of Carthage, in present-day Tunisia, was founded as a Phoenician colony but eventually became an important colonial power itself. The Carthaginians were also interested in controlling Mediterranean trade and thus established a maritime empire that included colonies in Spain and western Sicily. Carthage and its empire were challenged and ultimately destroyed by Rome in the Punic Wars (3rd-2nd century bc); the Romans in turn ruled over much of Europe and the Middle East in the following centuries.

The Middle Ages, following the collapse of Roman power in the 5th century, was not a period of much overseas colonization. Scandinavian Vikings, however, expanded their domains considerably in the 9th and 10th centuries, establishing control over large areas of the British Isles and founding settlement colonies in Iceland and Greenland.

III.

Early Modern Europe

Modern European colonialism dates from the 15th century and can be divided into two overlapping phases: the first from 1415 to about 1800; the second from about 1800 to World War II. In the first phase, western Europe, led by Spain and Portugal, expanded in the East Indies and the Americas; in the second, Great Britain spearheaded European expansion into Asia, Africa, and the Pacific.

The Portuguese, enjoying the advantages of political stability, maritime experience, and a favourable geographic position, were the first Europeans to make their way around the southern tip of Africa to South and East Asia in the 15th century. Interested primarily in dominating the spice trade, the Portuguese set up coastal trading posts and fortresses rather than settlement colonies. By the late 16th century the English and the Dutch were seriously challenging Portugal's eastern trade monopoly. The Dutch established themselves at the Cape of Good Hope, eventually drove out the Portuguese, and by 1800 controlled Java and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Meanwhile, the English East India Company established itself in India and formally began the conquest of the mainland in 1757.

European colonization of the Americas was motivated by many objectives. These included the quest for precious metals, the need for new land for agriculture, the search for freedom from religious persecution, and the desire to convert the indigenous peoples to Christianity. Settlement colonies were generally established rather than trading posts, although once established, these colonies traded extensively and exclusively with their respective parent nations in Europe. Spain's empire was the most prominent in the New World, spreading across much of Central and South America. The Portuguese settled mainly in Brazil. Whereas the Spanish and Portuguese tended to form mixed settlements that absorbed the indigenous populations of their territories, the British and French settlers in North America tended to form pure colonies, eliminating or displacing the previous inhabitants.

By the beginning of the 1800s the earlier European colonial empires had largely declined. Most of the Spanish, Portuguese, and French colonies in the Americas gained independence during and in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars. The Dutch, too, lost a large part of their modest empire in the New World and were content to trade illicitly with the colonies of other foreign powers. The British lost a large part of their original North American colonies, which became independent in 1776 in the American War of Independence, but Britain remained an important colonial power. In addition to controlling India, it retained for strategic purposes some of the foreign colonies it had occupied during the European wars, such as Canada, the Cape of Good Hope, and Ceylon. Britain's colonial empire of the late 18th century provides a historical bridge between the first and second waves of European expansion.

IV.

The Second Phase of Modern Colonialism

The second colonial era may be divided into two periods: the first, from roughly 1815 to 1880; and the second, from 1880 to 1914. Colonization in the former period did not follow a consistent pattern geographically and for the most part did not seem to be the result of a conscious desire on the part of the metropolitan powers to acquire new territory. Instead, the impetus for expansion more often came from European interests already well established on the periphery. For example, British settlers in Australia ventured deeper into their peripheral territories in search of land and resources; the French were compelled to colonize all of Algeria when political instability there threatened their modest initial foothold; and the Russian conquest of Central Asia was carried out largely for security reasons on the initiative of merchants, settlers, and administrators established in the local area.

The colonial powers acted more resolutely in the 1880-1914 period, when the colonization of Africa (except for Ethiopia, which resisted Italy's attempted conquest) and parts of Asia and the Pacific was completed; by 1914 the colonial network had closed around the globe. The British Empire was by far the largest and most diverse, but France, Belgium, Germany, Portugal, the United States, and Japan were also significant colonial powers.

The motivation behind this scramble for colonies remains controversial. Some writers—Lenin, for example—attribute it to the dynamics of advanced capitalism, stressing Europe's need for raw materials and outlets for its surplus capital. Others emphasize strategic and diplomatic motivations, noting the tendency of European leaders to treat colonies as pawns in a global chess game. Still others see a continuity between early and late 19th-century expansion, admitting no need for a special explanation of the latter.

The collapse of the European balance of power and successive global wars in the 20th century signalled the demise of modern colonialism. The growth of national awareness in the colonies, the decline of European political and military influence, and the erosion of the moral justification for empire contributed to rapid decolonization after 1945. In a matter of three decades, the colonial empires, built over a number of centuries, were almost totally dismantled.

V.

Evaluation

The potential for colonization is inherent in a world composed of political entities at radically different stages of economic and technological development; the powerful are always tempted to dominate the weak. Power disparities only make colonization possible, however, not necessary or inevitable. The powerful are not always willing to expand, and when they do, the weak sometimes manage to resist.

Any moral evaluation of colonialism must be sensitive to changing historical circumstances. According to contemporary standards of international behaviour, colonialism is inexcusable because it conflicts directly with the rights of national sovereignty and self-determination. Such rights, however, have only recently been recognized as applicable worldwide. Thus, 19th-century empire builders believed they bore the moral responsibility to rule “backward peoples” and bring them the fruits of Western civilization.

The effects of colonialism can best be described as mixed, both for the colonizers and the colonized. Clearly, an empire brought numerous benefits to the colonial powers, including emigration opportunities, expanded trade and profits, and strategic resources. At the same time, conquest brought with it significant costs. Colonizers were obliged to provide for colonial administration, defence, and economic assistance and were frequently dragged into conflicts they would rather have avoided.

That colonization had harmful effects on the peoples of the colonized areas is indisputable. Traditional lifestyles were disrupted, cultures destroyed, and entire peoples subjugated or exterminated. As a result, the developing countries continue to harbour a deep resentment of the former colonial powers. On the other hand, contact with European civilization also brought the subject peoples numerous economic, health, technological, and educational benefits.