British colonization
Crown's overseas dominion
British colonization refers to the historical process by which Britain established control over territories worldwide, from the Americas to Africa, Asia, and the Pacific.
The term encompasses settlement colonies like Australia and exploitation colonies like India.
It implies not just political control but cultural imposition—English language, legal systems, Christianity.
The effects of British colonization are still visible in former colonies today.
The phrase often carries critical connotations in contemporary discourse, highlighting displacement of indigenous peoples, economic extraction, and lasting inequalities.
- mercantilismTrade policy favoring exports
- Treaty of WaitangiBritain-Māori colonial compact
- Industrial RevolutionEra of mechanized production
- monarchyRule by crowned sovereign
- imperialismExtending dominion over others
plantation economy · missionary activity · Scramble for Africa · East India Company · Opium Wars · governor-general · tea trade · divide and rule · white man's burden · triangular trade · viceroy · cotton industry · protectorate · American Revolution · railroads · Union Jack · education systems · Boer Wars
- Maritime ColoniesNova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Halifax, Charlottetown
- Nigerian historyNigeria, Oyo Empire, Sokoto Caliphate, Biafra, amalgamation
- Yoruba HistoryOyo Empire, Lagos, civil wars, city-states, Atlantic slave trade
- New ZealandAuckland, Wellington, Air New Zealand, Kiwis, Christchurch
- Maori heritageAotearoa, Maori, mana, pa, tapu
British colonizationindependence
Freedom from external control
self-governance · self-determination · autonomy · self-rule · home rule
British colonizationdecolonization
Ending imperial control
independence movements · national liberation · freedom struggle · devolution · postcolonialism
British colonizationanticolonialism
Opposition to foreign domination
resistance movements · colonial resistance · self-liberation
British, Britain, Briton, Britons, Britishness, colonization, colonize, colonized, colonizing