Colony

A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their metropole (or "mother country"). 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.

Chart of current non-self-governing territories (as of June 2012^[update])

The term colony originates from the ancient Roman 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'. Furthermore, the term was used to refer to the older Greek apoikia (Ancient Greek: ἀποικία, lit. '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 colōnia, used for ancient Roman outposts and eventually for cities. This in turn derives from the word colōnus, which referred to a Roman tenant farmer.

Settlements that began as Roman 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.

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.

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 c. 1025 AD.
•  Angola: a colony of Portugal from the 16th century to its independence in 1975.
•  Australia was formed as a British Dominion in 1901 from a federation of six distinct British colonies which were founded between 1788 and 1829.
•  Barbados: was a colony of Great Britain that was important in the Atlantic slave trade. It gained its independence in 1966.
•  Brazil: a colony of Portugal since the 16th century. Independent since 1822.
•  Canada: 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.
•  Democratic Republic of the Congo: a colony of Belgium from 1908 to 1960; previously under private ownership of King Leopold II.
•  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.
•  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.
•  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.
•  Guinea-Bissau: a colony of Portugal since the 15th century. Independent since 1974.
•  Hong Kong was a British colony (from 1983 British Dependent Territory) from 1841 to 1997. Is now a Special Administrative Region of China.
•  India 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.
•  Indonesia was a colony of the Netherlands gained full independence in 1949.
•  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.
•  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.
•  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.
•  Malaysia was initially colonized by the Portuguese Empire in 1511 after capturing Malacca. 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.
•  Malta was a British protectorate and later a colony from the French Revolutionary Wars in 1800 to independence in 1964.
•  Mozambique: a colony of Portugal since the 15th century. Independent since 1975.
•  Philippines, previously a colony of Spain from c. 1565 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.
•  Puerto Rico was a colony of Spain from 1493 to 1898, when it passed to be a colonial possession of the United States, classified by the United States as "an unincorporated territory". 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. 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." That year, the United States advised the United Nations (UN) that the island was a self-governing territory. 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." The island has been called a colony by many, including US Federal judges, US Congresspeople, the Chief Justice of the Puerto Rico Supreme Court, and numerous scholars.
•  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.
•  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.
•  Korea was a colony of Japan from 1910 to 1945. North and South Korea were established in 1948.
•  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). 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  United States 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

Dependent territories and their sovereign states. All territories are labeled according to ISO 3166-1 or with numbers. 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".

See also

• Colonialism
• Colonization
• Decolonization
• Democratic peace theory
• Exploitation colonialism
• Scramble for Africa
• Settler colonialism
• United Nations list of non-self-governing territories
• Development town
• Spice Trade
• Border outpost – outpost maintained by a sovereign state on its border, usually one of a series placed at regular intervals, to watch over and safeguard its border with a neighboring statePages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
• Outpost (military) – Military post
• Military base – Facility directly owned and operated by or for the military
• Waypoint – Point on a route of travel
• Mountain pass – Route through a mountain range or over a ridge
• Caravanserei – Type of roadside innPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Stage station – Place of rest provided for stagecoach travelers
• Mission (station) – Organized effort to spread ChristianityPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Diplomatic mission – Representatives of one state in another
• Trading post – Area where economic activity between peoples is less regulated
• Bridgehead – Strategically important position on a river crossing which enemy forces seek to control
• Crossroads village – term for a settlement situated at a crossroadsPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
• Railway town – Settlement that was greatly developed because of a railway station or junction at its site
• Special economic zone – Geographical region in which business and trade laws are different from the rest of the country
• Entrepôt – Hub for commercial activity
• Factory (trading post) – Transshipment zone (5th- to 19th-century name)
• Free economic zone – Area with limited taxes
• Exclusive economic zone – Adjacent sea zone in which a state has special rights
• Free-trade area – Regional trade agreementPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Mill town – Settlement that developed around one or more mills or factories
• Industrial park – Area for development of industry
• Frontier – Area near or beyond a boundary
• Frontier thesis – Argument by historian Frederick Jackson TurnerPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Border – Geographic boundaries of political entity
• No-go area – Area where authorities are unable to enforce law or sovereignty
• Terra nullius – International law term for unclaimed land
• No-mans land – Strip of land between wartime trenchesPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Human outpost – Human habitats located in environments inhospitable for humans

Notes

1. During its 8th session, the United Nations General Assembly recognized Puerto Rico's self-government on November 27, 1953, with Resolution 748 (VIII). (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.
2. 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."
3. For additional references to Puerto Rico's current (2021) colonial status under U.S. rule, see Nicole Narea, Amy Goodman and Ana Irma Rivera Lassén, David S. Cohen and Sidney W. Mintz.
4. 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.
5. The following territories do not have ISO 3166-1 codes:
   1: Akrotiri and Dhekelia
   2: Ashmore and Cartier Islands
   3: Coral Sea Islands

References

1. "colony". Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Oxford University Press. 2021. Retrieved 8 January 2021. 1. [...] a country or an area that is governed by people from another, more powerful, country
2. "Collins Englisch Wörterbuch". COLONY Definition und Bedeutung (in German). 20 December 2017. Retrieved 10 January 2025. any people or territory separated from but subject to a ruling power
3. Stanard, Matthew G. (2018). European Overseas Empire, 1879 - 1999: A Short History. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 4–5. doi:10.1002/9781119367376. ISBN 978-1-119-13013-0. 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.
4. Nayar, Pramod (2008). Postcolonial Literature – An Introduction. India: Pearson India. pp. 1–2. ISBN 9788131713730.
5. James S. Jeffers (1999). The Greco-Roman world of the New Testament era: exploring the background of early Christianity. InterVarsity Press. pp. 52–53. ISBN 978-0-8308-1589-0.
6. "Non-Self-Governing Territories | the United Nations and Decolonization".
7. "Timeline: Malaysia's history". www.aljazeera.com.
8. "Dutch In Malaysia". Malaysia Traveller.
9. De Lario, Damaso; de Lario Ramírez, Dámaso (2008). "Philip II and the "Philippine Referendum" of 1599". Re-shaping the world: Philip II of Spain and his time. Ateneo de Manila University Press. ISBN 978-971-550-556-7.
10. 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.
11. The Recolonization of Puerto Rico, Part 1. Archived 14 September 2021 at the Wayback Machine The Voluntown Peace Trust. 22 July 2021. Accessed 13 September 2021.
12. Colonialism in Puerto Rico. Archived 14 September 2021 at the Wayback Machine Pedro Caban. SUNY-Albany. Latin American, Caribbean, and US Latino Studies Faculty. 2015. p. 516. Accessed 13 September 2021.
13. C.D. Burnett, et al., Foreign in a Domestic Sense: Puerto Rico, American Expansion, and the Constitution. Duke University Press. 2001. ISBN 9780822326984
14. Definitions of Insular Area Political Organizations. Archived 31 July 2019 at the Wayback Machine U.S. Department of the Interior. Office of Insular Affairs. 2021. Accessed 13 September 2021.
15. Juan Gonzalez. Harvest of Empire Penguin Press. 2001. pp.60–63.ISBN 978-0-14-311928-9
16. "7 FAM 1120 Acquisition of U.S. Nationality in U.S. Territories and Possessions". U.S. Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual Volume 7 - Consular Affairs. U.S. Department of State. 3 January 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
17. "Let Puerto Rico Decide How to end its Colony Status: True Nationhood Stands on the Pillar of Independence." Archived 14 September 2021 at the Wayback Machine Rosalinda de Jesus. The Allentown Morning Call. Republished by The Puerto Rico Herald. July 21, 2002. San Juan, Puerto Rico. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
18. "Puerto Rico - The debate over political status". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
19. Resolution 748 (VIII) Archived 6 May 2019 at the Wayback Machine. [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.
20. "Puerto Rico: Commonwealth, Statehood, or Independence? Constitutional Rights Foundation". Archived from the original on 10 June 2009.
21. Sidney W. Mintz. Three Ancient Colonies. Harvard University Press. 2010. pp. 135-136.
22. "Why Puerto Rico has debated U.S. statehood since its colonization". History. 24 July 2020. Archived from the original on 24 February 2021. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
23. Juan Torruella, Groundbreaking U.S. Appeals Judge, Dies at 87. Archived 11 September 2021 at the Wayback Machine Sam Roberts. The New York Times. 28 October 2020. Accessed 13 September 2021.
24. Can't We Just Sell the World's Oldest Colony and Solve Puerto Rico's Political Status? Archived 14 September 2021 at the Wayback Machine Luis Martínez-Fernández. 16 July 2020. Accessed 13 September 2021.
25. Hopes for DC, Puerto Rico statehood rise. Archived 19 August 2021 at the Wayback Machine Marty Johnson and Rafael Bernal. The Hill. 24 September 2020. Accessed 13 September 2021.
26. José Trías Monge. Puerto Rico: The trials of the oldest colony in the world. Yale University Press. 1997. p.3. ISBN 9780300076189
27. Angel Collado-Schwarz. Decolonization Models for America's Last Colony: Puerto Rico. Syracuse University Press. 2012. ISBN 0815651082
28. Live results for Puerto Rico's statehood referendum. Archived 14 September 2021 at the Wayback Machine Nicole Narea. MSN Microsoft News. 5 November 2020. Accessed 13 September 2021.
29. Puerto Ricans Vote to Narrowly Approve Controversial Statehood Referendum & Elect 4 LGBTQ Candidates. Archived 8 September 2021 at the Wayback Machine Amy Goodman and Ana Irma Rivera Lassén. Democracy Now! 6 November 2020. Accessed 13 September 2021.
30. The Political Travesty of Puerto Rico: Like all U.S. territories, Puerto Rico has no real representation in its own national government. Archived 8 September 2021 at the Wayback Machine David S. Cohen. RollingStone. 26 September 2017. Accessed 15 December 2020.
31. Sidney W. Mintz. Three Ancient Colonies: Caribbean Themes and Variations. Cambridge Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. 2010. p. 134.
32. Tonio Andrade. "How Taiwan Became Chinese: Dutch, Spanish, and Han Colonization in the Seventeenth Century". Columbia University Press.

Further reading

• Aldrich, Robert. Greater France: A History of French Overseas Expansion (1996)
• Ansprenger, Franz ed. The Dissolution of the Colonial Empires (1989)
• Benjamin, Thomas, ed. Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism Since 1450 (2006).
• Ermatinger, James. ed. The Roman Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia (2 vol 2018)
• Higham, C. S. S. History Of The British Empire (1921) online free
• James, Lawrence. The Illustrated Rise and Fall of the British Empire (2000)
• Kia, Mehrdad, ed. The Ottoman Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia (2017)
• Page, Melvin E. ed. Colonialism: An International Social, Cultural, and Political Encyclopedia (3 vol. 2003)
• Priestley, Herbert Ingram. (France overseas;: A study of modern imperialism 1938) 463pp; encyclopedic coverage as of late 1930s
• Tarver, H. Micheal and Emily Slape. The Spanish Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia (2 vol. 2016)
• Wesseling, H.L. The European Colonial Empires: 1815–1919 (2015).

External links

Look up colony in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Quotations related to colony at Wikiquote

• Non-Self-Governing Territories Listed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2002
• Non-Self-Governing Territories Listed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2012
• Siberia : History (covers Siberia as Russian colony)