Colonies and Colonialism

A colony is a political and administrative unit that is under the political control of another, usually geographically distant, entity. The controlling entity has been called several names over time, including colonizer, empire, motherland, and protector. As well, control has been exercised in differing ways, falling into two general patterns: direct rule and indirect rule.

Under direct rule, colonies were commonly divided into districts administered by imperial appointees. For example, in French West Africa—which in the twentieth century included Guinea, Cameroon, Senegal, Mali, Benin, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Gabon, and Mauritania—the head district administrator, called the commandant de cercle, was in charge of regional tax collection, public works, justice, education, military recruitment, labor relations, and the execution of mandates from the colonial governor. In contrast, indirect rule, which was practiced extensively by the British, exercised control through the traditional authority systems and institutions of the entities being colonized. For example, the British employed the services of the princes in India and the Sokoto Caliphate in Northern Nigeria. Understandably, indirect rule worked best in colonial areas where relatively strong and organized precolonial authority systems existed and where the rulers of those systems welcomed or were resigned to imperial collaboration.

On the whole, colonies were pursued as part of colonialism, a political process and system whereby imperial-minded nations pursued power and prestige by conquering and then ruling other nations and peoples. Natural resources, free labor, territory, strategic access to protect and extend existing colonies, and market opportunities were among some of the key reasons for colonization. Advocates of colonialism suggested that it provided economic and political infrastructures necessary for development and democracy, and critics highlighted its negative aspects such as economic plunder, slavery, inequality, racism, underdevelopment, and political instability.

Colonization dates back to ancient times, but modern colonization lasted from the fifteenth to the twentieth century and involved the pursuit of power and prestige, especially by European powers in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Noted European colonizers during that period included the United Kingdom, Spain, France, and the Netherlands. Minor ones included Portugal, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Denmark, and, in the twentieth century, the United States. Denmark and Belgium were the European nations that were perhaps the least known as colonial powers. Denmark's one noted possession was the Danish Virgin Islands in the Caribbean, and Belgium's was the Democratic Republic of the Congo, once known as Zaire, in Central Africa. Denmark sold its colony to the United States in 1917 for $25 million as the European homeland faced impending German occupation during World War I (1914–1918). This possession is now known as the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Congo won independence in 1960. The Ottoman Empire (1299–1922), which dominated parts of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa between the thirteenth and early twentieth centuries, also pursued colonization in Asia, Africa, and Europe, as did Japan in Asia.

During the height of modern colonization in the nineteenth century, the United Kingdom possessed the most expansive empire, with interests in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Their domain was so expansive that it gave rise to the saying "The sun never sets on the British Empire," reflecting the number of time zones under their jurisdiction and the fact that it was always daylight in some part of the empire.

Many colonies passed back and forth between colonizers, due to military conquest and negotiated exchanges to settle wars and political disputes. For instance, because of its strategic harbors, St. Lucia in the Caribbean was the subject of an intense struggle between France and the United Kingdom during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, changing ownership fourteen times before finally being ceded to the United Kingdom in 1814. In some cases territories underwent multiple colonial reconfigurations as European powers waged war and made political deals. For instance, at one time during the eighteenth century parts of modern Guyana in South America were controlled by the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom, and in the nineteenth century parts of modern Tanzania were under British, German, and Ottoman rule.

Although several colonies, especially in South and Central America, broke away from their imperial masters during the nineteenth century, several twentieth-century military and political developments facilitated wholesale decolonization, which entailed the dissolution of colonial empires and establishment of politically independent states out of those empires. Decolonization was secured by both violent and nonviolent methods. Violence was notable in the case of colonies belonging to France and Portugal, and nonviolence was the norm in the case of those belonging to the United Kingdom.

Unexpectedly, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's (1856–1924) "Fourteen Points," a key aspect of the settlement of World War I, gave impetus to the pursuit of political self-determination among people in colonized Africa and Asia, although Wilson's focus was on self-determination in the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires. World War II (1935–1945) and its aftermath gave a dramatic spark to nationalism and self-determination, creating a decolonization steamroller, as colonizing empires, recovering from the war, had become too weak to fend for themselves, much less protect and preserve their empires.

The expansion of the membership of the United Nations (UN), an outcome of World War II, was a direct result of decolonization, although the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Balkanization of several Eastern and Central European countries were also major contributing factors during the 1990s. At its creation in 1945, the UN had fifty-one members. A decade later, it had seventysix, and in 1965 it had 117. In the following decade, membership increased, reaching 144 by 1975. Two decades later, in 1995, it had grown to 185. In 2004 it stood at 191.

As decolonization progressed and the world community embraced nationalism and political self-determination, the term "colony" gave way to several others. Thus, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, there are few remaining colonies, but several "dependent areas," "protected areas," "associated states," and "commonwealths ." The United Kingdom has this type of relationship with the following territories: Anguilla, Bermuda, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Jersey, Isle of Man, Montserrat, Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. France has interests in Bassas da India, Clipperton Island, Europa Island, French Polynesia, French Southern and Antarctic Lands, Glioroso Islands, Juan de Nova Island, New Caledonia, Tromelin Island, and Wallas and Fortuna. The Netherlands has Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles, and the United States has American Samoa, Baker Island, Guam, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Midway Islands, Navassa Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Palmyra Atoll, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, and Wake Island.

These few relationships are all that remain of what used to be widespread colonialism. Thus, although colonies are not entirely history, the era of colonization is effectively over.

See also: France; Netherlands, The; Spain; United Kingdom; United States.

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Ivelaw Lloyd Griffith