Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Colonialism refers to the direct political control of a society and its people by a foreign ruling state. Essentially it is a political phenomenon. The ruling state monopolizes political power and keeps the subordinated society and its people in a legally inferior position. But colonialism has had significant cultural, social, and economic correlates and ramifications. Neocolonialism is the continued exercise of political or economic influence over a society in the absence of formal political control. Traditionally, the concept of colonialism has been associated with “colonization,” which refers to the transplantation or settlement of peoples from one territory to another. The word colonization is derived from the Latin colonia , meaning the settlement of people from home. But popular and scholarly uses of the term later shifted the meaning. Colonialism came to refer to political control with or without settlement. The concept also took on a more explicit ethnic, racial, and geographical component. It increasingly came to refer to the establishment of political control by European or western powers over Asia, Latin America, and Africa. It also signified political control by one “race” over another “race,” where the latter is deemed inferior to the former. Analytically, colonialism is related to but also distinguishable from imperialism. While imperialism also refers to control ... log in or subscribe to read full text