Colonialism
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Colonialism is the pursuing, establishing and maintaining of control and exploitation of people and of resources by a foreign group of people.[1][2][3][4][5] Implemented through the establishment of coloniality and possibly colonies, this colonization keeps colonized territory and people socio-economically othered and subaltern to colonizers and their metropole. While frequently advanced as an imperialist regime, colonialism can also take the form of settler colonialism, whereby colonial settlers invade and occupy territory to permanently replace an existing society with that of the colonizers, possibly towards a genocide of native populations.[6][7]
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Colonialism and its definition may vary depending on the use of the term and the context,[4][8] with colonies having been set up since ancient times. The modern concept of colonialism originated to describe European colonial empires of the modern era. This modern colonialism developed and spread globally from the 15th century to the mid-20th century, with European colonial empires spanning 35% of Earth's land by 1800 and peaking at 84% by the beginning of World War I.[9] Modern colonialism developed a coloniality which complemented military colonial control through intersectional violence and discrimination, developing modern biopolitics of sexuality, gender, race, disability and class, among others.[10][11] Western colonialism was frequently justified by beliefs of having a civilizing or often Christian mission to cultivate land and life. In the modern period, non-Western states such as Japan, China, and Indonesia have engaged in colonialism.[6]
Decolonization, which started in the 18th century, gradually in waves led to the independence of colonies, with a particular large wave of decolonizations happening in the aftermath of World War II between 1945 and 1975.[12][13] Colonialism has a persistent impact on a wide range of modern outcomes, as scholars have shown that variations in colonial institutions can account for variations in economic development,[14][15][16] regime types,[17][18] and state capacity.[19][20]