colonial empire
Metropole with territories
A colonial empire is a state that controls territories beyond its borders, typically through conquest or settlement, governing distant lands and peoples as possessions rather than as equal parts of the nation.
The term usually refers to European powers from the 16th through 20th centuries—Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands—that dominated much of Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
The British colonial empire once spanned a quarter of the globe.
- Berlin ConferenceMeeting that divided Africa
- Bandung Conference1955 Afro-Asian diplomatic gathering
- Scramble for AfricaRapid European colonization period
- conquestDefeating and seizing control
- Belgian CongoFormer central African colony
British Raj · dominion · mother country · annexation · Columbian Exchange · extraterritoriality · Pan-Africanism · French Indochina · expansionism · territory · spices · outpost · trading post · white man's burden · civilizing mission · exploitation · rubber · raw materials
- French ColonialismFrench Indochina, protectorates, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia
- IberianSpain, flamenco, tapas, paella, bullfighting
- Portuguese EmpirePortugal, spice trade, Vasco da Gama, Age of Discovery, slave trade
- Portuguese historyAge of Discovery, Carnation Revolution, Salazar, Henry the Navigator, Vasco da Gama
- Third RepublicNational Assembly, Dreyfus Affair, separation of church and state, presidential powers, bicameral legislature
- PortugalLisbon, Porto, Algarve, Oporto, Madeira
colonial empireindependent republic
Self-ruling nation-state
self-determination · home rule · national independence · indigenous sovereignty · sovereignty
colonial empireconfederation
Autonomous entities united loosely
nation-state · republic · city-state · tribal nation · free association
colonial empiredecolonization
Ending imperial control
national liberation · independence movement · anti-colonial movement · emancipation · postcolonialism
empire, colony, colonial, empirical, empires, colonize, colonies, imperialism, colonization