colonial ambitions
Empire-building desires
Colonial ambitions are a nation's aspirations to acquire and control territories beyond its borders, establishing colonies for economic exploitation, strategic advantage, or national prestige.
The phrase typically describes historical European expansion but applies to any power seeking dominion over foreign lands and peoples: The empire's colonial ambitions stretched across three continents.
- plantationsLarge-scale farming operations
- annexationAbsorbing territory into jurisdiction
- flag plantingRitual territorial assertion
- expansionismPolicy of territorial growth
- scramble for AfricaEuropean colonial rush, 1880s-1900s
imperialism · exploitation · gold · mercantilism · chartered companies · fort · ethnocentrism · hegemony · Berlin Conference · carving up · missionary work · protectorate · raw materials · spice trade · sphere of influence · naval power · territorial disputes · distant shores
- BalkansAlbania, Bosnia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Kosovo
- Central AsiaKazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan
- Prussian GermanyPrussia, Bismarck, Wilhelm II, German unification, Reich
- Italo-Ethiopian WarEthiopia, Mussolini, Haile Selassie, Abyssinia, Addis Ababa
- Taisho diplomacyLansing, treaty negotiations
colonial ambitionsisolationism
Policy avoiding foreign alliances
non-interventionism · neutrality · insularity · Monroe Doctrine · non-alignment
colonial ambitionsanti-colonialism
Opposition to foreign domination
decolonization · anti-imperialism · self-determination · national liberation · independence movements
colonial ambitionsself-determination
Control over one's fate
national sovereignty · anti-colonialism · liberation · emancipation · home rule