Settler colonialism is a process by whichsettlers exercisecolonial rule over a land and itsindigenous peoples, transforming the land and replacing or assimilating its population with or into the society of the settlers.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}Assimilation has sometimes been conceptualized in biological terms such as the "breeding of a minority population into a majority," but in other cases, such as in some parts ofLatin America, biological mixing of populations was less problematic.^[6]

Settler colonialism is a form ofexogenous (of external origin, coming from the outside) domination typically organized or supported by animperial authority, which maintains a connection or control to the territory through the settler's colonialism.^[7] Settler colonialism contrasts withexploitation colonialism, where the imperial powerconquers territory to exploit thenatural resources and gain a source of cheap or freelabor. As settler colonialism entails the creation of a new society on the conquered territory, it lasts indefinitely unlessdecolonisation occurs through departure of the settler population or through reforms to colonial structures, settler-indigenous compacts and reconciliation processes.^[a][8]

Settler colonial studies have often focused onEnglish-speaking settler colonies inAustralia andNorth America, which are close to the complete, prototypical form of settler colonialism.^[9] However, settler colonialism is not restricted to any specific culture; it has been practised by non-Europeans, and among European cultures, as in the case ofIreland.^[2][10]

During the 1960s, settlement and colonization were perceived as separate phenomena fromcolonialism. Settlement endeavours were seen as taking place in empty areas, downplaying the Indigenous inhabitants. Later on in the 1970s and 1980s, settler colonialism was seen as bringing high living standards in contrast to the failed political systems associated with classical colonialism. Beginning in the mid-1990s, the field of settler colonial studies was established^{[11][page needed]} distinct but connected toIndigenous studies.^[12] Although often credited with originating the field in hisSettler Colonialism and the Transformation of Anthropology (1999), Australian historianPatrick Wolfe stated that "I didn't invent Settler Colonial Studies. Natives have been experts in the field for centuries."^[13] Additionally, Wolfe's work was preceded by others that have been influential in the field, such asFayez Sayegh'sZionist Colonialism in Palestine (1965),Settler Capitalism byDonald Denoon (1983) and Daiva Stasiulis and Nira Yuval-Davis inUnsettling Settler Societies (1995).^{[14][13][11][page needed][15]}

Settler colonialism is characterized as both a logic and structure, and not a mere occurrence. Settler colonialism takes claim of environments for replacing existing conditions and members of that environment with those of the settlement and settlers. Intrinsically connected to this is the displacement or elimination of existing residents, particularly through destruction of their environment and society.^[1][2][3][4] As such, settler colonialism has been identified as a form ofenvironmental racism.^[16]

Wolfe's model of settler colonial theory posits that settler colonialism is categorically distinct from other forms of colonialism by its drive to "eliminate the native", instead of exploiting them.^[9] For Wolfe and his "intellectual successor"Lorenzo Veracini, settler colonialism is "structural, eliminatory, and land based, which—they argued—distinguish it fromfranchise colonialism, which is based on the exploitation of the native population instead."^[9] Therefore, colonial settling has been called an invasion or occupation, emphazising the violent reality of colonization and its settling, in contrast to the more domestic meaning of "settling".^[17]

According to certaingenocide scholars, includingRaphael Lemkin – the individual who coined the termgenocide –colonization is intimately connected with genocide.^[18] Some scholars further describe the process asinherentlygenocidal, considering settler colonialism to entail the elimination of existing peoples and cultures,^[19] and not only their displacement (seegenocide, "the intentional destruction of a people in whole or in part").^{[citation needed]} Depending on the definition, for Wolfe settler colonial eliminationism may be enacted by a variety of means, including mass killing of the previous inhabitants, removal of the previous inhabitants and/orcultural assimilation.^[20]

However, the opposite argument has been made by Veracini, who argues that all genocide is settler colonial in nature but not all settler colonialism is genocidal.^[21]Sai Englert also argues against the Wolfe model, proposing that settler colonies have used both elimination and exploitation in their relations with indigenous peoples, and often transitioned from one to the other: "By assuming that exploitation, by definition, lays outside the realm of its field of study, SCS has privileged the analysis of the Anglo-settler world—primarily North America and Oceania." For him, the specificity of settler colonialism from other forms of colonialism is its social relations of class struggle within settler societies over the distribution of "colonial loot".^[9]

Settler colonialism is distinct fromreplacement migration due tointegration of immigrants into an existing society and not replacement with aparallel society.^[22][23]Mahmood Mamdani writes, "Immigrants are unarmed; settlers come armed with both weapons and a nationalist agenda. Immigrants come in search of a homeland, not a state; for settlers, there can be no homeland without a state."^[23] Nevertheless, the difference is often elided by settlers who minimize the voluntariness of their departure, claiming that settlers are mere migrants, and some pro-indigenous positions which militantly simplify, claiming that all migrants are settlers.^[24]

Asettler state is an autonomous or independent political entity established through settler colonialism by and for settlers. This occurs when a migrant settler society assumes a politically dominant position over theindigenous peoples and forms a self-sustaining state that operates independently of themetropole, the homeland of acolonial empire. Countries that have been described as settler states include theUnited States,Canada,Australia,New Zealand,Israel, andTaiwan, and formerlySouth Africa,Liberia, andRhodesia.^[25][26][27]

The settler colonial paradigm has been applied to a wide variety of conflicts around the world, includingNew Caledonia,^[28]Western New Guinea,^[29] theAndaman Islands,Argentina,^[30]Australia,British Kenya, theCanary Islands,^[31]Northern Cyprus,^[32]Fiji,French Algeria,^[33]Generalplan Ost,Hawaii,^[34]Ireland,^[10]Israel/Palestine,Italian Libya andEast Africa,^[35][36]Kashmir,^[37][38][39]Hokkaido,Korea andManchukuo,^[40][41]Jazira andKirkuk,^[42]Latin America,Liberia,New Zealand,northern Afghanistan,^{[43][44][45][46]}United States,Canada,Posen andWest Prussia andGerman South West Africa,^[47]Rhodesia,Sápmi,^{[48][11][page needed][49][50]}South Africa,South Vietnam,^[51][52][53] andTaiwan.^[9][54]

During the fifteenth century, theKingdom of Castile sponsored expeditions byconquistadors to subjugate under Castilian rule theMacaronesian archipelago of the Canary Islands, located off the coast ofMorocco and inhabited by the IndigenousGuanche people. Beginning with the start of the conquest of the island ofLanzarote on 1 May 1402 and ending with the surrender of the last Guanche resistance onTenerife on 29 September 1496 to the now-unifiedSpanish crown, the archipelago was subject to a settler colonial process involving systematic enslavement, mass murder, and deportation of the Guanches, who were replaced with Spanish settlers, in a process foreshadowing the Iberian colonisation of the Americas that followed shortly thereafter. Also like in the Americas, Spanish colonialists in the Canaries quickly turned to the importation of slaves from mainland Africa as a source of labour due to the decimation of the already small Guanche population by a combination of war, disease, and brutal forced labour. HistorianMohamed Adhikari has labelled the conquest of the Canary Islands as the first overseas European settler colonial genocide.^[31][48]

Since 1975, theKingdom of Morocco has sponsored settlement schemes that have encouraged several thousand Moroccan citizens to settleMoroccan-occupiedWestern Sahara as part of theWestern Sahara conflict. On 6 November 1975, theGreen March took place, during which about 350,000 Moroccan citizens crossed intoSaguia al-Hamra in the formerSpanish Sahara after having received a signal from King Hassan II.^[55] As of 2015, it is estimated thatMoroccan settlers constitute two-thirds of the population of Western Sahara.^[56]

In 1652, the arrival of Europeans sparked the beginning of settler colonialism in South Africa. TheDutch East India Company was set up at the Cape, and imported large numbers of slaves from Africa and Asia during the mid-seventeenth century.^[57] The Dutch East India Company established a refreshment station for ships sailing between Europe and the east, initially planning to maintain a small community around the new fort, but the community continued to spread and settle further.^[58] In 1948, the policy ofApartheid was introduced South Africa in order to segregate the races and ensure the domination of theAfrikaner minority over non-whites, politically, socially and economically.^[59]

Liberia is regarded by some scholars as a unique example of settler colonialism and the only known instance of Black settler colonialism.^[60] It is described as anAfrican American settler colony tasked with establishing aWestern form of governance in Africa.^{[61][better source needed]}

Liberia was founded as the privatecolony of Liberia in 1822 by theAmerican Colonization Society, aWhite American-run organization, to relocate free African Americans to Africa, as part of theBack-to-Africa movement.^[62][63][64] U.S. presidentsThomas Jefferson andJames Madison publicly endorsed and funded the project.^[62] Between 1822 and the early 20th century, around 15,000 African Americans colonized Liberia on lands acquired from the region's indigenous African population. The African American elite monopolized the government and establishedminority rule over the locals. As they possessedWestern culture, they felt superior to the natives, whom they dominated and oppressed.^[65] Indigenous revolts against theAmerico-Liberian elite such as theLiberian–Grebo War in 1875–1876 andKru Revolt in 1915 were quelled with U.S. military support.^{[60][66][67][68][69][page needed]}

Attempts to assimilate the Indigenous peoples of what is now Canada were rooted inimperial colonialism centred around Europeanworldviews and cultural practices, and a concept of land ownership based on thediscovery doctrine.^[70] Original assimilation efforts were religiously-oriented, beginning in the 17th century with the arrival of Frenchmissionaries inNew France.^[71] Although not without conflict,European Canadians' early interactions withFirst Nations andInuit populations were relatively peaceful.^[72] First Nations andMétis peoples (of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry) played a critical part in the development ofEuropean colonies in Canada, particularly for their role in assisting Europeancoureur des bois andvoyageurs in their explorations of the continent during theNorth American fur trade.^[73]

The early European interactions with First Nations would change fromPeace and Friendship Treaties todispossession of lands through treaties and displacement legislation such as theGradual Civilization Act,^[74] theIndian Act,^[75] thePotlatch ban,^[76] and thepass system,^[77] that focused on European ideals of Christianity, sedentary living, agriculture, and education.^[78]

Indigenous groups in Canada continue to suffer fromracially motivated discrimination, despite living in one of the most progressive countries in the world.^[79] Discriminatory practices such ascriminal justice inequity,police brutality,high incarnation rates, andhigh rates of violence against Indigenous women have been subject to legal and political review.^[80]

Incolonial America,European powers created economic dependency and imbalance of trade, incorporating Indigenous nations into spheres of influence and controlling them indirectly with the use of Christian missionaries and alcohol.^[81] With the emergence of an independent United States, desire for land and the perceived threat of permanent Indigenous political and spatial structures led to violent relocation of many Indigenous tribes to the American West, in what is known as theTrail of Tears.^[20] Native Americans resisted American encroachment but successive defeats were followed by white settlement, with dispossession via treaties such as the 1795Treaty of Greenville or 1819Treaty of Saginaw.^[82][83]

Frederick Jackson Turner, the father of the "frontier thesis" of American history, noted in 1901: "Our colonial system did not start with Spanish War; the U.S. had had a colonial history from the beginning...hidden under the phraseology of 'interstate migration' and territorial organization'".^[81] While the United States government and local state governments directly aided this dispossession through theuse of military forces, ultimately this came about through agitation by settler society in order to gain access to Indigenous land. Especially in the US South, such land acquisition built plantation society and expanded the practice of slavery.^[20]

InArgentina, settler colonialism began withSpanish conquest in the 16th century, establishing settlements such asBuenos Aires and displacing indigenous groups such as theQuerandí andTehuelche.^[84] TheConquest of the Desert led by GeneralJulio Argentino Roca during the 1870s and 1880s annexedPatagonia, resulting in the displacement and mass killing of the indigenousMapuches to secure land forEuropean settlers who developed it for agriculture.^[85][86] Between the late 19th century and early 20th century, awave of over six million European immigrants, primarilyItalians andSpaniards, solidified Argentina's composition as a predominantly European-descended society.^[87][88]

Near the end of their rule theQing dynasty attempted to colonizeXinjiang,Tibet, and other parts of the imperial frontier. To accomplish this goal, they began resettlingHan Chinese on the frontier.^[89] This policy of settler colonialism was renewed by thePeople's Republic of China, led byChinese Communist Party,^[90][91] and is being practiced today according to some academics and researchers.^[92][93][94]

Zionism has been characterized by scholars such as theNew Historians as a form of settler colonialism concerning theregion of Palestine and theIsraeli–Palestinian conflict.^[97][98] This framework has also been embraced by activists.^{[99][100][101]} This viewpoint has been criticised by other scholars due to its perceived denial of thehistorical Jewish connection to Palestine, among other reasons.^{[96][100][102]} Many of the founding fathers of Zionism themselves described the project ascolonization, such asVladimir Jabotinsky, who said "Zionism is a colonization adventure."^[103]Theodor Herzl, the founder of theWorld Zionist Organization, described the Zionist project as "something colonial" in a letter toCecil Rhodes in 1902.^[104]

In 1967, the French historianMaxime Rodinson wrote an article later translated and published in English asIsrael: A Colonial Settler-State?,^[105] but it was not until the 1990s that this viewpoint became more common in Israeli scholarship,^[b][106] in part coinciding with increased support for atwo state solution.^[97] The Australian historianPatrick Wolfe, whose work is considered defining on the subject of settler colonialism, has classifiedIsrael as a modern form of settler colonialism.^[13][20][9]

Lorenzo Veracini describesIsrael as a "settler colonial polity", and writes that it could celebrate its anticolonial struggle in 1948 because it had colonial relationships inside and outside Israel's new borders.^[107] Veracini believes the possibility of an Israeli disengagement is always latent and this relationship could be severed through aone state solution.^[c] Other commentators, such asDaiva Stasiulis,Nira Yuval-Davis,^[109] andJoseph Massad have included Israel in their global analysis of settler societies.^[110]Ilan Pappé describes Zionism and Israel in similar terms.^{[111][112][better source needed]} ScholarAmal Jamal, fromTel Aviv University, has stated, "Israel was created by a settler-colonial movement of Jewish immigrants".^[113]Damien Short has accused Israel ofcarrying out genocide againstPalestinians during theIsraeli–Palestinian conflict since its inception within asettler colonial context.^[114]

Critics of the paradigm argue that Zionism does not fit the traditional framework of colonialism.S. Ilan Troen views Zionism as the return of an indigenous population to its historic homeland, distinct from imperial expansion.^[115] Moses Lissak says that the settler-colonial thesis denies the idea that Zionism is the modernnational movement of theJewish people, seeking to reestablish a Jewish political entity in their historical territory. Lissak argues that Zionism was both a national movement and a settlement movement at the same time, so it was not, by definition, a colonial settlement movement.^[116]

Some scholars describe Russia as a settler colonial state, particularly in its expansion intoSiberia and theRussian Far East, during which it displaced and resettled Indigenous peoples, while practicing settler colonialism.^{[117][118][119]} The annexation ofSiberia and the Far East to Russia was resisted by theIndigenous peoples, while theCossacks often committed atrocities against them.^[120]

This colonization continued during theSoviet Union in the 20th century.^{[121][page needed]} The Soviet policy also included the deportation of native populations, as in the case of theCrimean Tatars.^[122] During the Cold War, new forms of Indigenous repression were practiced.^[123]

Following the1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, Turkey facilitated the mass resettlement of civilians from mainland Turkey into the northern part of the island, supplementing theTurkish Cypriot population. This occurred alongside the displacement of approximately 150,000Greek Cypriots from the north and the prevention of their return, developments that some sources describe as ethnic cleansing.^[124] Scholars such as Nikos Moudouros who analyze the case within the framework of modern settler colonialism point to its hybrid and incomplete nature: the settler population remains structurally dependent on Turkey, has not achieved political or economic dominance over the indigenous Turkish Cypriot community, and is situated within ongoing tensions involving the metropole, the local administration, the long-established Turkish population dating back to theOttomanconquest, and the settlers themselves. The situation is therefore viewed as a fluid and hybrid example of contemporary settler colonialism rather than a fully consolidated settler-colonial state.^[124]

Since the arrival of theFirst Fleet in 1787,Europeans explored and settled lands inAustralia asterra nullius, displacingAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. TheIndigenous Australian population was estimated at 795,000 at the time of European settlement.^[125] Thepopulation declined steeply for 150 years following settlement from 1788, due to casualties frominfectious disease, theAustralian frontier wars and forced re-settlement and cultural disintegration.^[126][127] Between 1788 and 1868, theBritish Empiretransported around 162,000convicts fromGreat Britain andIreland to the severalpenal colonies in Australia.^[128] Once freed, many convicts qualified for land grants on indigenous lands taken by the British, helping build a European settler society.^[129]

Settler colonialism exists in tension withindigenous studies. Some indigenous scholars believe that settler colonialism as a methodology can lead to overlooking indigenous responses to colonialism; however, other practitioners of indigenous studies believe that settler colonialism has important insights that are applicable to their work.^[13] Settler colonialism as a theory has also been criticized from the standpoint ofpostcolonial theory.^[13]Antiracism has been criticized on the basis that it does not provide a special status for indigenous claims, and in response settler colonial theory has been criticized for potentially contributing to the marginalization of racialized immigrants.^[130]

The termsettler has been criticized byMohamed Adhikari, who says it is euphemistic and it would be more accurate to term them colonists, invaders, or conquerors.^[131]

Political theoristMahmoud Mamdani suggested that settlers could never succeed in their effort to become native, and therefore the only way to end settler colonialism was to erase the political significance of the settler–native dichotomy.^[9]

According toChickasaw scholar Jodi Byrd, in contrast to settler, the termarrivant refers to enslaved Africans transported against their will, and to refugees forced into the Americas due to the effects of imperialism.^[132]

In his bookEmpire of the People: Settler Colonialism and the Foundations of Modern Democratic Thought, political scientist Adam Dahl states that while it has often been recognized that "American democratic thought and identity arose out of the distinct pattern by which English settlers colonized the new world", histories are missing the "constitutive role of colonial dispossession in shaping democratic values and ideals".^[133]

• Anabaptist settler colonialism
• Pre-modern human migration
• European emigration
• Transmigration program

• Adhikari, Mohamed (2021).Civilian-Driven Violence and the Genocide of Indigenous Peoples in Settler Societies.Routledge.ISBN 978-1-000-41177-5.
• Cox, Alicia."Settler Colonialism".Oxford Bibliographies.Oxford University Press. Retrieved21 January 2021.
• Englert, Sai (2022).Settler Colonialism: An Introduction.Pluto Press.ISBN 978-0-7453-4490-4.
• Belich, James (2009).Replenishing the earth: the settler revolution and the rise of the Anglo-world, 1783–1939. Oxford:Oxford University Press. p. 573.ISBN 978-0-19-929727-6.
• Horne, Gerald.The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, and Capitalism in Seventeenth-Century North America and the Caribbean.Monthly Review Press, 2018. 243p.ISBN 9781583676639
• Horne, Gerald.The Dawning of the Apocalypse: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, Settler Colonialism, and Capitalism in the Long Sixteenth Century. Monthly Review Press, 2020.ISBN 978-1-58367-875-6.
• Mamdani, Mahmood (2020).Neither Settler nor Native. Harvard University Press.ISBN 978-0-674-98732-6.
• Manjapra, Kris (2020). "Settlement".Colonialism in Global Perspective.Cambridge University Press. pp. 43–70.ISBN 978-1-108-42526-1.
• Marx, Christoph (2017).Settler Colonies,EGO - European History Online, Mainz:Institute of European History, retrieved: 17 March 2021 (pdf).
• Mikdashi, Maya (2013).What is settler colonialism?American Indian Culture and Research Journal 37.2: 23–34.
• Pedersen, Susan;Elkins, Caroline, eds. (2005).Settler Colonialism in the Twentieth Century.Routledge.
• Sakai, J. (1983).Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat. PM Press.ISBN 978-1-62963-037-3.
• Veracini, Lorenzo (2010).Settler Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview. Hampshire, UK:Palgrave MacMillan. p. 182.ISBN 9780230284906.
• Veracini, Lorenzo (2015).The Settler Colonial Present. Springer.ISBN 978-1-137-37247-5.
• Wolfe, Patrick (2016).Traces of History: Elementary Structures of Race.Verso Books.

• Articles on Settler Colonialism inWestern American Literature

• Settler colonialism
• Cultural geography
• Settlement schemes

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