Colony





In politics and in history, a colony is an administrative unit under the
control of another entity (usually an autonomous state) geographically
distant.

Originally, as with the ancient (Hellenic) Greek apoikia, the term
colonization referred to the foundation of a new city or settlement, more
often than not with nonviolent means (but see for instance the Athenian
re-colonisation of Melos after wiping out the earlier settlement). The term
colony is derived from the Latin colonia, which indicated a place meant for
agricultural activities; these Roman colonies and others like them were in
fact usually either conquered so as to be inhabited by these workers, or
else established as a cheap way of securing conquests made for other
reasons. The name of the German city Cologne also derives from colonia.

During the time of the Western (European and later Japanese) expansion
(roughly 1400s - 1945), the term "colony" came to mean an overseas district
with a native population, administered by a distant colonial government.
(Exceptions occurred: Russian colonies in Central Asia and Siberia and
German colonies in Eastern Europe fail the "overseas" test; British colonies
(or "overseas territories") like the Falkland Islands and Tristan da Cunha
lacked a native population.) Most non-European countries were colonies of
Europe at one time or another, or were handled in a quasi-colonial manner.

The independence of these colonies began with that of 13 colonies of Britain
that formed the United States, finalised in 1783 with the conclusion of a
war begun in 1776, and has continued until about the present time, with for
example Algeria and East Timor being relinquished by European powers only in
1962 and 1975 respectively (although the latter was forcibly made an
Indonesian possession instead of becoming fully independent). This process
is called decolonization, though the use of a single term obscures an
important distinction between the process of the settler population breaking
its links with the mother country while maintaining local political
supremacy and that of the indigenous population reasserting themselves
(possibly through the expulsion of the settler population).

Compare protectorate, Crown colony, dominion.

The Latin name colonia also became the name of several towns, the most
famous of which is Cologne.

Colonies in ancient civilizations

   * Assyria was originally a colony of Babylonia
   * Carthage was a Phoenician colony
   * Cyrene was a colony of the Greeks of Thera
   * Naples formed as a Greek colony