In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state, distinct from the home territory of the sovereign. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception. The metropolitan state is the state that owns the colony. In Ancient Greece, the city that founded a colony was called the metropolis. "Mother country" is a reference to the metropolitan state from the point of view of citizens who live in its colony. There is a United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories.
The term informal colony is used by some historians to refer to a country under the de facto control of another state, although this term is often contentious.
The word 'colony' comes from the Latin word 'colōnia'. This in turn derives from the word colōnus, which means colonist but also implies a farmer. Cologne is an example of a settlement preserving this etymology. Other, less obvious settlements that began as Roman colonia include cities from Belgrade to York. A tell-tale sign of a settlement once being a Roman Colony is a city centre with a grid pattern. The terminology is taken from architectural analogy, where a column pillar is beneath the (often stylized) head capital, which is also a biological analog of the body as subservient beneath the controlling head (with 'capital' coming from the Latin caput, meaning 'head'). So colonies are not independently self-controlled, but rather are controlled from a separate entity that serves the capital function.
Roman colonies first appeared when the Romans conquered neighbouring Italic peoples. These were small farming settlements that appeared when the Romans had subdued an enemy in war. A colony could take many forms, as a trade outpost or a military base in enemy territory, but its original definition as a settlement created by people migrating from a home in the world territory became the modern definition.
Colonies in ancient civilizations (examples)
- Alexandria formed as a Greek colony
- Carthage was a Phoenician colony
- Cyrene was a colony of the Greeks of Thera
- Durrës formed as a Greek colony
- Marseille formed as a Greek colony
- Cologne formed as a Roman colony, and its modern name refers to the Latin term "Colonia".
Modern colonies (historical examples)
- Alaska: a colony of Russia from the middle 18th century until sold to the United States in 1867. Became the 49th state in 1959.
- Angola: a colony of Portugal since the 15th century. Independent since 1975.
- Australia: In 1770 some of the eastern coastline of Australia was claimed as British territory by the British explorer, Lieutenant James Cook. The First Fleet was sent to Australia to start a penal colony in 1788. Eventually, Australia became a Federation in 1901.
- Brazil: a colony of Portugal since the 15th century. Independent since 1822.
- Canada: colonised by first France, as New France (1534-1763), then under British rule (1763–1867), before achieving Dominion status.
- Congo: a colony of Belgium from 1908 to 1960.
- Guinea: a colony of Portugal since the 15th century. Independent since 1974.
- Hong Kong was a British colony from 1841 to 1997. Is now a Special Administrative Region of China.
- India since the 15th century until 1961, parts of modern India belonged to Portugal and were collectively known as Portuguese India. Parts of India were also under the direct control of the government of the United Kingdom between 1858 and 1947. See also Crown colony.
- Indonesia was a Dutch colony for 350 years, from 1600 to 1945/49, occupied by Japan from 1942 to 1945.
- Jamaica was part of the Spanish West Indies in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Became a British colony in 1655, then gained its independence in 1962.
- Macau was a Portuguese colony from 1557 to 1999. Together with Hong Kong, became a Special Administrative Region of China.
- Malta was a British protectorate and later a colony from the French Revolutionary Wars in 1800 to independence in 1964.
- Mozambique: a colony of Portugal since the 15th century. Independent since 1975.
- Philippines, previously a colony of Spain from 1521 to 1898 as part of the Spanish East Indies, was a colony of the United States from 1898 to 1946. Achieved Commonwealth status in 1935. During World War II between 1942 and 1945, it was occupied by the Japanese forces.
- Somalia, was a colony of Italy and Britain from the late 1800s to 1960. On July 6, 1960, the Trust Territory of Somalia (former Italian Somaliland) united as planned with the State of Somaliland (former British Somaliland) to form the Somali Republic.
- Sri Lanka a British colony from 1815 to 1948. Known as Ceylon. Was a British Dominion until 1972.
- Taiwan had a Dutch colony (1624–1662) centered around present-day Tainan; shortly afterwards, a Spanish colony (1626–1642) was established concurrently in northern Taiwan, not far from present-day Taipei. Chinese colonial rule was established when Han Chinese forces loyal to the Ming Dynasty defeated the Dutch in 1662. The Ming loyalists later surrendered Taiwan to the Qing Dynasty, which annexed Taiwan into Chinese territory, making it part of Fujian province, and later making it a province in its own right. Qing dynasty rule ended after the First Sino-Japanese War when the Qing ceded Taiwan to Japan, placing Taiwan under Japanese control (1895-1945). After the defeat of Japan in World War II, Taiwan was given to the Republic of China, becoming its base after its defeat in the Chinese civil war.
- The United States was formed from a union of thirteen distinct English (or British, if founded after the Acts of Union of 1707) colonies in British America. The colony of Colony of Virginia, later to become the U.S. states of Virginia, Kentucky and West Virginia, was the first of the thirteen colonies and was under English and then British rule from 1607 until 1783, at least nominally. The United States also founded their own colonies in both the Atlantic and Pacific regions, such as Madisonville on the island of Nuku Hiva in 1813 and Monrovia in 1821.
- 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 the Franco-Siamese War in 1893. The federation lasted until 1954. In the four protectorates, the French formally left the local rulers in power, who were the Emperors of Vietnam, Kings of Cambodia, and Kings of Luang Prabang, but in fact gathered all powers in their hands, the local rulers acting only as figureheads.
The Special Committee on Decolonization maintains the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories, which identifies areas the United Nations (though not without controversy) believes are colonies. Given that dependent territories have varying degrees of autonomy and political power in the affairs of the controlling state, there is disagreement over the classification of "colony".
- United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories
- British Overseas Territories (formerly Crown colony)
- Proprietary colony
- Constitutional Rights Foundation.
- Sharon Ann Navarro, and Armando Xavier Mejia, Latino Americans and Political Participation (Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO) 2004. p. 106. ISBN 1-85109-523-3.
- Puerto Rico:The Trials of the Oldest Colony in the World. By Jose Trias Monge. Yale University Press. 1997.
- James S. Jeffers (1999). The Greco-Roman world of the New Testament era: exploring the background of early Christianity. InterVarsity Press. pp. 52–53. ISBN 978-0-8308-1589-0.
- De Lario, Damaso; de Lario Ramírez, Dámaso (2008). "Philip II and the "Philippine Referendum" of 1599". Re-shaping the world: Philip II of Spain and his time. Ateneo de Manila University Press. ISBN 978-971-550-556-7.
- Ferdinand Magellan claimed the Philippine Islands for Spain in 1521, but it can be argued that Spain's legitimate sovereignty over the islands commenced following a popular referendum in 1599.
- Tonio Andrade, How Taiwan Became Chinese: Dutch, Spanish, and Han Colonization in the Seventeenth Century, Columbia University Press.
- Non-Self-Governing Territories Listed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2002
- Non-Self-Governing Territories Listed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2012
- Siberia : History (covers Siberia as Russian colony)