Colonialism

Colonialism is the long-term political, social, economic, and cultural domination of a people and territory by a foreign power. Modern colonialism can be traced to the European “Age of Discovery,” particularly to colonizing projects carried out by the England, Spain, France, and the Netherlands that extended to the Far East and to the Americas. Throughout the nineteenth and into the twentieth century, colonialist regimes were established throughout the world, frequently with “civilizing” ideologies at their core, such as “the White man’s burden,” adopted by the British, and the “mission civilisatrice” of the French. Underlying these ideologies was the intent to move beyond governing to the modernization and eventual assimilation of people, often accomplished through great violence and through the establishment of cultures of terror.

Colonies took a variety of forms meant to support economic exploitation of people and land. These included (1) settler colonies, in which people from...