colonial settlement
Settlers' new home
A colonial settlement is a community established by people from one country in territory claimed from or occupied by another, typically indigenous, population.
The term carries the full weight of colonialism—displacement, resource extraction, and imposed governance.
Colonial settlements range from small outposts to major cities: The colonial settlement grew into modern-day Boston.
In historical contexts, the phrase often sanitizes violent founding: What began as a colonial settlement displaced thousands of native inhabitants.
- imperialismExtending dominion over others
- colonial ruleForeign power's territorial dominion
- frontierEdge of settlement
- governorState's chief executive
- plantationLarge-scale farming operation
exploration · syncretism · charter · mercantilism · conquest · viceroy · assimilation · intermarriage · resistance · sea voyage · displacement · treaty · encomienda · forced labor · manifest destiny · indentured servitude · hinterland · garrison
- colonialismcolonial rule, colonial powers, colonizer, colonies, colonial empires
- Colonial AustraliaBotany Bay, penal colonies, convicts, colonists, convict ships
- historic settlementsghost town, ghost towns, abandoned village, deserted town, frontier towns
- Plymouth ColonyPilgrims, Mayflower, Mayflower Compact, 1620, Squanto
- township settlementhamlet, village, rural town, farming community, mining town
- Penal Coloniestransportees, convict, convict ship, Botany Bay, Norfolk Island
colonial settlementsovereign nation
Self-ruled territorial polity
sovereign state · free state · autonomous region · independent republic · mother country
settle, colony, settlement, settler, colonist, colonize, colonization