Colony

This article is about a type of political territory. For other uses, see Colony (disambiguation).

Countries and their territories (colonies) in 1945

Puerto Rico, considered by some to be "the world's oldest colony".

File:Trust and Non-Self-Governing Territories.djvu

United Nations list of Trust and Non-Self-Governing Territories (official document)

In politics and 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 founded a colony was called the metropolis. Mother country is a reference to the metropolitan state from the point of view of citizens who live in its colony. There is a United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories.

A colony is mostly ruled by another state or can be run independently. Unlike a puppet state or satellite state, a colony has no independent international representation, and its top-level administration 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

The word Colony comes from the Latin word colōnia. This in turn derives from the word colōnus, which means colonist but also implies a farmer. Cologne is an example of a settlement preserving this etymology. Other, less obvious settlements that began as Roman colonia include cities from Belgrade to York. A telltale sign of a settlement once being a Roman Colony is a city centre with a grid pattern. The terminology is taken from architectural analogy, where a column pillar is beneath the (often stylized) head capital, which is also a biological analog of the body as subservient beneath the controlling head (with 'capital' coming from the Latin caput, meaning 'head'). So colonies are not independently self-controlled, but rather are controlled from a separate entity that serves the capital function.

Roman colonies first appeared when the Romans conquered neighbouring italic peoples. These were small farming settlements that appeared when the Romans had subdued an enemy in war. A colony could take many forms, as a trade outpost or a military base in enemy territory, but its original definition as a settlement created by people migrating from a home territory became the modern definition.

Colonies in ancient civilizations (examples)

See Colonies in antiquity.

• Alexandria formed as a Greek colony
• Carthage was a Phoenician colony
• Cyrene was a colony of the Greeks of Thera
• Durrës formed as a Greek colony
• Marseille formed as a Greek colony
• Cologne formed as a Roman colony, and its modern name refers to the Latin term "Colonia".

Modern colonies (examples, organized alphabetically)

• Angola: a colony of Portugal across several centuries. Independent since 1975.
• Australia: In 1770 some of the eastern coastline of Australia is claimed as British territory by the British explorer, Lieutenant James Cook. The First Fleet was sent to Australia to start a penal colony in 1788. Eventually, Australia became a Federation in 1901.
• Brazil: a colony of Portugal across several centuries. Independent since 1822.
• Canada: colonised by first France, as New France (1534-1763), then under British rule (1763–1867), before achieving Dominion status.
• Hong Kong was a British colony from 1841 to 1997, and Macau was a Portuguese colony from 1557 to 1999. Both are now Special Administrative Regions of China.
• Starting in the 16th century, parts of modern India belonged to Portugal and were collectively known as Portuguese India until 1961. Parts of India were also under the direct control of the government of the United Kingdom between 1858 and 1947. See also Crown colony.
• Indonesia was a Dutch colony for 350 years, from 1600 to 1945/49, occupied by Japan from 1942 to 1945.
• Mozambique: a colony of Portugal across several centuries. Independent since 1975.
• Philippines, previously a colony of Spain from 1521 to 1898, 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.
• Portuguese Guinea: a colony of Portugal across several centuries. Independent since 1974.
• Taiwan was originally inhabited by indigenous peoples closely related linguistically, culturally and genetically to the Filipino people and more distantly to the Polynesians. In the 13th century, people from China's Song Dynasty had been migrating to Taiwan - however, the migration was small due to the island's harsh terrain and hostile local tribes. In the 17th century, most of southern Taiwan was a Dutch colony for 37 years before Koxinga, an anti-Manchu and Ming loyalist controlled the island by defeating the Dutch. In 1683, the Qing Dynasty defeated Koxinga's descendants and ruled over the island, and was made part of Fujian Province till 1885, when it was elevated to become a province in its own right. In 1895, the Qing Dynasty ceded Taiwan to the Empire of Japan following its defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War. After the defeat of Japan in World War II, Taiwan has been administered by the Republic of China, which has been based there following its retreat from mainland China after losing a civil war to the communists in 1949.
• The United States, originally thirteen distinct English (or British, if founded after the Acts of Union of 1707) colonies in British America. The Colony of Virginia, later to become the U.S. states of Virginia, Kentucky and West Virginia, was the first of the thirteen colonies and was under English and then British rule from 1607 until 1783, at least nominally. The United States also founded their own colonies in both the Atlantic and Pacific regions, such as Madisonville on the island of Nuku Hiva in 1813 and Monrovia in 1821.

Current colonies (examples)

Few colonies in the traditional sense of the term remain, with exceptions listed below. However, the Channel Islands are not UK colonies but a remnant of the Duchy of Normandy. Some of the former colonies have been integrated as dependent areas or have closer integration with the country.

Of Morocco

• Río de Oro/Western Sahara is considered by many to be a colony of Morocco, and the last colony on the African continent.

Of Chile

• Easter Island is a special territory incorporated to Chile. Today, natives have full rights as Chilean citizens.

Of France

• French Polynesia
• Saint Barthélemy
• Saint Martin
• Saint Pierre and Miquelon
• Wallis and Futuna
• New Caledonia

Of the United Kingdom

• The British Overseas Territories - such as the British Virgin Islands and Falkland Islands - are former Crown Colonies. Many of the larger, populated territories, have their own political systems but are still under the sovereignty of the United Kingdom and are managed by Governors.

Of the United States

• Similar to Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the United States Virgin Islands are considered by some to have a colonial relationship with the United States because their citizens are subject to the laws of the United States Congress passed without their consent. These territories, along with Puerto Rico, are known as unincorporated territories.
• Puerto Rico's subjection to US sovereignty is considered by many countries to constitute a colonial imposition because Puerto Ricans are subject to laws passed by the United States Congress without their consent, due to constitutional exclusion from electoral participation in elections of the officials that hold ultimate sovereignty over their national government, and because its population does not enjoy the full citizenship rights of the United States Constitution. According to the US President's Task Force Report on the Political Status of Puerto Rico the US may dispose of Puerto Rico by transferring it to another sovereign country as a mere disposition of property. In a 2007 letter addressed to then-United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the then-governor of Puerto Rico, Aníbal Acevedo Vilá, accused the US of having deceived the United Nations and the international community in 1953, when it succeeded in having the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico recognized as a provisional decolonized status subject to continued monitoring; Acevedo Vilá stated that it was ironic that this is the position taken by the Government of Iran and that the Governor of Puerto Rico will soon feel forced to support Iran's claims regarding the US government's alleged-hypocritical actions with regards to Puerto Rico's "colonial" status. On June 15, 2009, the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization approved a draft resolution calling on the Government of the United States to expedite a process that would allow the Puerto Rican people to exercise fully their inalienable right to self-determination and independence. Subsequent actions by the governments of the United States and Puerto Rico paved the way for the Puerto Rican status referendum, 2012, scheduled to be held on 6 November 2012. See Puerto Rico Recent developments for more information.

Of New Zealand

• Tokelau is a colony of New Zealand.

See also

• Internal colony
• United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories
• Space colonization
• Settler colonialism
• Crown colony
• Proprietary colony
• Commonwealth

External links

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