The term colony originates from theancient Romancolonia, a type of Roman settlement. Derived fromcolonus (farmer, cultivator, planter, or settler), it carries with it the sense of 'farm' and 'landed estate'.[4]Furthermore, the term was used to refer to the older Greekapoikia (Ancient Greek:ἀποικία,lit.'home away from home'), which wereoverseas settlements by ancient Greek city-states. The city that founded such a settlement became known as itsmetropolis ("mother-city"). Since early-modern times, historians, administrators, and political scientists have generally used the term "colony" to refer mainly to the many differentoverseas territories of particularly European states between the 15th and 20th centuriesCE, with colonialism anddecolonization as corresponding phenomena.
While colonies often developed fromtrading outposts orterritorial claims, such areas do not need to be a product ofcolonization, nor become colonially organized territories. Territories furthermore do not need to have been militarilyconquered andoccupied to come under colonial rule and to be considered de facto colonies, instead neocolonial exploitation ofdependency or imperialist use ofpower tointervene to force policy, might make a territory be considered a colony, which broadens the concept, includingindirect rule orpuppet states (contrasted by more independent types of client states such asvassal states). Subsequently, some historians have used the terminformal colony to refer to a country under ade facto control of another state. Though the broadening of the concept is often contentious.
The English-language word "colony" comes from the Latin wordcolōnia, used forancient Romanoutposts and eventually for cities. The Latin termcolōnia in turn derives from the wordcolōnus, which referred to a Romantenant farmer.
Settlements that began as Romancoloniae include cities fromCologne (which retains this history in its name) toBelgrade toYork. 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.[5]
Historians and political scientists may distinguish "settler colonies" as a subset of the class of colonies. Settler colonies comprise a more particular type of a settlement or community.[3]
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 theFranco-Siamese conflict of 1893. The federation lasted until 1954. In the four protectorates, the French formally left the local rulers in power, who were theEmperors of Vietnam,Kings of Cambodia, and Kings of Luang Prabang, but gathered all powers in their hands, the local rulers acting only as figureheads.
Greenland was a colony ofDenmark-Norway from 1721 and was a colony ofDenmark 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 alsoDanish colonization of the Americas.
Puerto Rico was acolony ofSpain from 1493 to 1898, when it passed to be a colonial possession of theUnited States,[11][12][13] classified by the United States as "an unincorporated territory".[14] 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. 1900Foraker Act.[15] 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."[16][17] That year, the United States advised the United Nations (UN) that the island was a self-governing territory.[18][a] 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."[21][b] The island has been called a colony by many,[22] including US Federal judges,[23] US Congresspeople,[24][25] the Chief Justice of the Puerto Rico Supreme Court,[26] and numerous scholars.[27][c]
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 ofUnion of South Africa in 1910.
TheUnited States was formed from a union of thirteen Britishcolonies. TheColony of Virginia was the first of the thirteen colonies. All thirteen declared independence in July 1776 and expelled the British governors.
Dependent territories and their sovereign states. All territories are labeled according toISO 3166-1[d] or with numbers.[e] Colored areas without labels are integral parts of their respective countries.Antarctica is shown as acondominium instead ofindividual claims.
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^During its 8th session, theUnited Nations General Assembly recognized Puerto Rico's self-government on November 27, 1953, with Resolution 748 (VIII).[19] (UN Resolution "748 (VIII)", adopted on November 27, 1953, during its 459th Plenary Meeting.) This removed Puerto Rico's classification as anon-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.[20]
^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."
^For additional references to Puerto Rico's current (2021) colonial status under U.S. rule, see Nicole Narea,[28] Amy Goodman and Ana Irma Rivera Lassén,[29] David S. Cohen[30] and Sidney W. Mintz.[31]
^Each territory in theUnited States Minor Outlying Islands is labeledUM- followed by the first letter of its name and another unique letter if needed.
^"colony".Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Oxford University Press. 2021. Retrieved8 January 2021.1. [...] a country or an area that is governed by people from another, more powerful, country
^"Collins Englisch Wörterbuch".COLONY Definition und Bedeutung (in German). 20 December 2017. Retrieved10 January 2025.any people or territory separated from but subject to a ruling power
^abStanard, Matthew G. (2018).European Overseas Empire, 1879 - 1999: A Short History. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 4–5.doi:10.1002/9781119367376.ISBN978-1-119-13013-0.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.
^Nayar, Pramod (2008).Postcolonial Literature – An Introduction. India: Pearson India. pp. 1–2.ISBN9788131713730.
^In 1521, an expedition led byFerdinand Magellan landed in the islands, andRuy López de Villalobos named the islandsLas Islas Filipinas in honor of Spain'sPrince Philip (later to becomePhilip 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.[9]
^C.D. Burnett, et al.,Foreign in a Domestic Sense: Puerto Rico, American Expansion, and the Constitution. Duke University Press. 2001.ISBN9780822326984
^Resolution 748 (VIII)Archived 6 May 2019 at theWayback 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.
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