territorial expansion
Growing national boundaries
Territorial expansion is the process of a nation or state extending its boundaries by acquiring new land.
This typically occurs through conquest, colonization, purchase, or annexation: Manifest Destiny drove American territorial expansion westward.
The term often carries implications of imperialism or aggressive foreign policy: The empire's territorial expansion brought it into conflict with neighboring powers.
- annexationAbsorbing territory into jurisdiction
- imperialismExtending dominion over others
- conquestDefeating and seizing control
- manifest destinyObvious, inescapable fate
- colonizationForeign territorial takeover
native displacement · resources · expansionism · occupation · buffer zone · diplomacy · empire · assimilation · Scramble for Africa · colonial empire · frontier · subjugation · flag planting · hegemony · Louisiana Purchase · settlement · westward · land speculation
- US HistoryAmerican Revolution, US history, Civil War, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln
- Westernscowboys, western, outlaws, sheriffs, western novels
- conquestwar of conquest, capture, invasion, domination, subjugation
- frontierfrontier, pioneer, pioneers, settlers, settler
- territoryland, region, domain, realm, dominion
- Early ModernRenaissance, 1500s, 1600s, Reformation, sixteenth century
territorial expansionland loss
Reduction of terrain area
disintegration · secession · balkanization · partition · decolonization
territorial expansionretrocession
Return of ceded territory
anti-imperialism · voluntary withdrawal · isolationism · strategic retreat
territorial expansiondecolonization
Ending imperial control
imperial collapse · disintegration · balkanization · secession · partition