Colonization (British English: colonisation) is a process of establishing control over targeted territories or peoples for the purpose of taxation, control, cultivation, often by establishing colonies and possibly by settling them.
Colonization is sometimes used synonymously with settling, as with colonisation in biology, but while colonization historically involved settling, this particular form is called settler colonialism. In this case, colonization is structured and enforced by the settlers directly, while their or their ancestors' metropolitan country maintains a connection or control through the settler's colonialism. In settler colonization, a minority group rules either through the oppression and assimilation of the indigenous peoples, or by establishing itself as the demographic majority through driving away, disadvantaging, or outright killing the indigenous people, as well as through immigration and births of metropolitan as well as other settlers.
The European colonization of Australia, New Zealand, and other places in Oceania was fueled by explorers, and colonists often regarding the encountered landmasses as terra nullius ("empty land" in Latin). This resulted in laws and ideas such as Mexico's General Colonization Law and the United States' manifest destiny doctrine which furthered colonization.
Despite countless declarations and referendums from the United Nations on the independence of colonial countries and peoples, implemented since 1946, there are still over 60 colonies – sometimes designated territories – in the world, including Puerto Rico, Guam, and Bermuda.
Lexicology
The term colonization is derived from the Latin words ("to cultivate, to till"), ("a landed estate", "a farm") and ("a tiller of the soil", "a farmer"), then by extension "to inhabit". Someone who engages in colonization, i.e. the agent noun, is referred to as a colonizer, while the person who gets colonized, i.e. the object of the agent noun or absolutive, is referred to as a colonizee, colonisee or the colonised.
Pre-modern colonizations
Classical period
In ancient times, maritime nations such as the city-states of Greece and Phoenicia often established colonies to farm what they believed was uninhabited land. Land suitable for farming was often occupied by migratory 'barbarian tribes' who lived by hunting and gathering. To ancient Greeks and Phoenicians, these lands were regarded as simply vacant. However, this did not mean that conflict did not exist between the colonizers and local/native peoples. Greeks and Phoenicians also established colonies with the intent of regulating and expanding trade throughout the Mediterranean and Middle East.
Another period of colonization in ancient times was during the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire conquered large parts of Western Europe, North Africa, and West Asia. In North Africa and West Asia, the Romans often conquered what they regarded as 'civilized' peoples. As they moved north into Europe, they mostly encountered rural peoples/tribes with very little in the way of cities. In these areas, waves of Roman colonization often followed the conquest of the areas. Many of the current cities throughout Europe began as Roman colonies, such as Cologne, Germany, originally called Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium by the Romans, and the British capital city of London, which the Romans founded as Londinium.
Middle Ages
The decline and collapse of the Roman Empire saw (and was partly caused by) the large-scale movement of people in Eastern Europe and Asia. This is largely seen as beginning with nomadic horsemen from Asia (specifically the Huns) moving into the richer pasture land to the west, thus forcing the local people there to move further west and so on until eventually the Goths were forced to cross into the Roman Empire, resulting in continuous war with Rome which played a major role in the fall of the Roman Empire. During this period there were large-scale movements of people establishing new colonies all over western Europe. The events of this time saw the development of many of the modern-day nations of Europe like the Franks in France and Germany and the Anglo-Saxons in England.
In West Asia, during Sassanid Empire, some Persians established colonies in Yemen and Oman. The Arabs also established colonies in Northern Africa, Mesopotamia, and the Levant.