Colonialism

Colonialism is generally defined as extended rule over a foreign territory. Colonial rule had political, economic, religious, social, and cultural aspects. Widespread indigenous independence movements, beginning in the 1960s, broke apart Western colonial empires. Western-developed nations, however, continued to maintain economic control of developing nations, a phenomenon termed neocolonialism. Questions regarding colonialism's legitimacy and concerns over hypocrisy and dishonesty within the colonial system began to emerge alongside justifications of the practice. Critics of colonialism and neocolonialism cite the untrustworthiness of colonial powers, based on their history of dishonest behavior. They also cite colonialism's negative impacts, including military and political domination, economic exploitation, claims of racial and cultural superiority, forced assimilation, and sometimes genocide.

The practice of maintaining colonies has existed since ancient times, but colonialism is most often associated with European control of American, Australian, Asian, African, and other overseas territories from the 15th to 20th centuries. Advances in navigation were a key factor in facilitating this wave of colonization. Great Britain administered the largest colonial system, with the British Empire encompassing India and portions of Africa, the Americas, and the Caribbean. Colonial experiences differed based on each individual colonized nation's unique resources and conditions, as well as the motives of the colonizers.

Scholars further divide colonialism into settler versus exploitation colonialism. Settler colonialism is defined as control over a foreign territory for the purpose of widespread permanent settlement by emigrants from the home country. Examples include North America, Brazil, and Australia and New Zealand. Exploitation colonialism involves control of a foreign land with no plans for large-scale settlement. Examples include European colonialism in Africa. Exploitation colonialism is more associated with a dominant nation seeking to impose its culture on subordinate peoples.

Local government bodies provided daily local rule over settler colonial states, and members of the indigenous population held political offices under exploitation colonialism, but the colonial [Page 173]country maintained ultimate sovereign political control in both cases. Critics argued that this practice provided a false illusion of settler or indigenous participation in their colonization, or that those indigenous figures in power hid ulterior motives of self-interest within the guise of helping their people. Trouble often arose when settlers felt that home governments were suppressing their local interests, such as occurred in the American Revolution against British rule.

Hernán Cortés and his men kneel before Emperor Montezuma in an illustration in Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly, Volume 6, 1878. Some scholars assert that Cortés was able to conquer the Aztecs of Mexico by leveraging their belief that his arrival equaled the expected return of their god, Quetzalcoatl.