History of colonialism
The phenomenon of colonization is one that has occurred around the globe and across time. Various ancient and medieval polities established colonies – such as the Phoenicians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Han Chinese, and Arabs. The High Middle Ages saw colonising Europeans moving west, north, east, and south. The medieval Crusader states in the Levant exemplify some colonial features similar to those of colonies in the ancient world.
A new phase of European colonialism began with the "Age of Discovery", led by the Portuguese, who became increasingly expansionist following the conquest of Ceuta in 1415. Portugal aimed to control navigation through the Strait of Gibraltar, to spread Christianity, to amass wealth and plunder, and to suppress predation on Portuguese populations by Barbary pirates. Around 1450, the Portuguese developed a lighter ship, the caravel based on North African fishing boats. Caravels could sail further and faster than previous vessels, were highly maneuverable, and could sail into the wind.
Enabled by new maritime technology, and with the added incentive to find an alternative "Silk Road" after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 to the Ottoman Empire effectively closed profitable trade routes between Asia and Europe, early European exploration of Africa was followed by the Spanish exploration of the Americas, further exploration along the coasts of Africa, and explorations of West Asia, South Asia, and East Asia.
The conquest of the Canary Islands by the Crown of Castile, from 1402 to 1496, was an early instance of European settler colonialism in Africa. In 1462 the Portuguese established the first European settlement in the tropics by peopling the previously uninhabited Cape Verde archipelago, which thereafter became a site of Jewish exile during the height of the Portuguese and Spanish Inquisitions in the 1490s; the Portuguese soon also brought slaves from the West African coast. Because of the economics of plantations, especially sugar, much European colonial expansion and slavery would remain linked into the 19th century. The use of exile to penal colonies would also continue.
The European "discovery" of the New World opened another colonial chapter, beginning with the colonization of the Caribbean in 1493 with Hispaniola. The Portuguese and Spanish Empires were the first trans-oceanic global empires: they were the first to stretch across different continents, covering vast territories around the globe. Between 1580 and 1640, the Portuguese and Spanish empires were both ruled by the Spanish monarchs in personal union. During the late 16th and 17th centuries, England, France, and the Dutch Republic also established their own overseas empires, each in direct competition with the other European expansionists. Meanwhile the Tsardom of Russia expanded overland: Russian Central Asian North Asian colonies eventually extended to Alaska and California.
The end of the 18th and mid-19th century saw the first era of decolonization, when most of the European colonies in the Americas, notably those of Spain, New France, and the Thirteen Colonies, gained their independence from their respective metropoles. The Kingdom of Great Britain, France, Portugal, and the Dutch turned their attention to the Old World, particularly South Africa and South Asia, where coastal enclaves had already been established.
In the 19th century, the Second Industrial Revolution led to what has been termed the era of New Imperialism, when the pace of colonization rapidly accelerated, the height of which was the Scramble for Africa, in which Belgium, Germany, and Italy also participated. The newly westernized Empire of Japan established the Japanese colonial empire in eastern Asia from the late 19th century. Nazi Germany pursued the Lebensraum concept of settler colonialism in Eastern Europe, and Fascist Italy pursued colonialism in Africa. All three are viewed as causes of World War II.
There were deadly battles between colonizing states and revolutions in colonized areas, shaping areas of control and establishing independent nations. During the 20th century, the colonies of the defeated Central Powers of World War I were distributed amongst the victors as mandates, but it was not until after the end of World War II that the second phase of decolonization began in earnest.
Periodization
Some commentators identify three waves of European colonialism.The two main countries in the first wave of European colonialism were Portugal and Spain. The Portuguese started the long age of European colonization with the conquest of Ceuta, Morocco in 1415, and the conquest and discovery of other African territories and islands, this would also start the movement known as the Age of Discoveries. The Spanish and Portuguese launched the colonization of the Americas, basing their territorial claims on the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494. This treaty demarcated the respective spheres of influence of Spain and Portugal.
The expansion achieved by Spain and Portugal caught the attention of Britain, France, and the Netherlands. The entrance of these three powers into the Caribbean and North America perpetuated European colonialism in these regions.
The second wave of European colonialism commenced with Britain's involvement in Asia in support of the British East India Company; other countries such as France, Portugal and the Netherlands also had involvement in European expansion in Asia.
The third wave consisted of the Scramble for Africa regulated by the terms of the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885. The conference effectively divided Africa among the European powers. Vast regions of Africa came under the sway of Britain, France, Germany, Portugal, Belgium, Italy and Spain.
Gilmartin argues that these three waves of colonialism were linked to capitalism. The first wave of European expansion involved exploring the world to find new revenue and perpetuating European feudalism. The second wave focused on developing the mercantile capitalism system and the manufacturing industry in Europe. The last wave of European colonialism solidified all capitalistic endeavors by providing new markets and raw materials.
As a result of these waves of European colonial expansion, only thirteen present-day independent countries escaped formal colonization by European powers: Afghanistan, Bhutan, Iran, Japan, Liberia, Mongolia, Nepal, China, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Thailand, and Turkey as well as North Yemen.
Colonialism in ancient times (3200 BC – 7th century AD)
Portuguese and Spanish colonial hegemony: the Americas (15th century–1770)
European colonization of both Eastern and Western Hemispheres has its roots in Portuguese exploration. There were financial and religious motives behind this exploration. By finding the source of the lucrative spice trade, the Portuguese could reap its profits for themselves. They would also be able to probe the existence of the fabled Christian kingdom of Prester John, with an eye to encircling the Islamic Ottoman Empire, itself gaining territories and colonies in Eastern Europe. The first foothold outside of Europe was gained with the conquest of Ceuta in 1415. During the 15th century, Portuguese sailors discovered the Atlantic islands of Madeira, Azores, and Cape Verde, which were duly populated, and pressed progressively further along the west African coast until Bartolomeu Dias demonstrated it was possible to sail around Africa by rounding the Cape of Good Hope in 1488, paving the way for Vasco da Gama to reach India in 1498.Portuguese successes led to Spanish financing of a mission by Christopher Columbus in 1492 to explore an alternative route to Asia, by sailing west. When Columbus eventually made landfall in the Caribbean Antilles he believed he had reached the coast of India, and that the people he encountered there were Indians with red skin. This is why Native Americans have been called Indians or red-Indians. In truth, Columbus had arrived on a continent that was new to the Europeans, the Americas. After Columbus' first trips, competing Spanish and Portuguese claims to new territories and sea routes were solved with the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494, which divided the world outside of Europe in two areas of trade and exploration, between the Iberian kingdoms of Castile and Portugal along a north-south meridian, 370 leagues west of Cape Verde. According to this international agreement, the larger part of the Americas and the Pacific Ocean were open to Spanish exploration and colonization, while Africa, the Indian Ocean, and most of Asia were assigned to Portugal.
In 1521, the Portuguese took control of Bahrain under the command of António Correia, making it the first country in the Middle East to be fully colonised by any European power. During the same year of 1521, the boundaries specified by the Treaty of Tordesillas were put to the test in 1521 when Ferdinand Magellan and his Spanish sailors, sailing for the Spanish Crown became the first European to cross the Pacific Ocean, reaching Guam and the Philippines, parts of which the Portuguese had already explored, sailing from the Indian Ocean. The two by now global empires, which had set out from opposing directions, had finally met on the other side of the world. The conflicts that arose between both powers were finally solved with the Treaty of Zaragoza in 1529, which defined the areas of Spanish and Portuguese influence in Asia, establishing the anti-meridian, or line of demarcation on the other side of the world.
During the 16th century, the Portuguese continued to press both eastwards and westwards into the Oceans. Towards Asia they made the first direct contact between Europeans and the peoples inhabiting present day countries such as Mozambique, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia, East Timor, China, and finally Japan. In the opposite direction, the Portuguese colonized the huge territory that eventually became Brasil, and the Spanish conquistadors established the vast Viceroyalties of New Spain and Peru, and later of Río de la Plata and New Granada. In Asia, the Portuguese encountered ancient and well populated societies, and established a seaborne empire consisting of armed coastal trading posts along their trade routes, so they had relatively little cultural impact on the societies they engaged. In the Western Hemisphere, the European colonization involved the emigration of large numbers of settlers, soldiers and administrators intent on owning land and exploiting the apparently primitive Indigenous peoples of the Americas. The result was that the colonization of the New World was catastrophic: native peoples were no match for European technology, ruthlessness, or their diseases which decimated the Indigenous population.
Spanish treatment of the indigenous populations caused a fierce debate, the Valladolid Controversy, over whether Indians possessed souls and if so, whether they were entitled to the basic rights of mankind. Bartolomé de Las Casas, author of A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, championed the cause of the native peoples, and was opposed by "Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda", who claimed Amerindians were "natural slaves".
The Roman Catholic Church played a large role in Spanish and Portuguese overseas activities. The Dominicans, Jesuits, and Franciscans, notably Francis Xavier in Asia and Junípero Serra in North America were particularly active in this endeavor. Many buildings erected by the Jesuits still stands. Buildings such as the Cathedral of Saint Paul in Macau and the Santisima Trinidad de Paraná in Paraguay, the latter an example of the Jesuit Reductions. The Dominican and Franciscan buildings of California's missions and New Mexico's missions stand restored, such as Mission Santa Barbara in Santa Barbara, California and San Francisco de Asis Mission Church in Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico.
As characteristically happens in any colonialism, European or not, previous or subsequent, both Spain and Portugal profited handsomely from their newfound overseas colonies: the Spanish from gold and silver from mines such as Potosí and Zacatecas in New Spain, the Portuguese from the huge markups they enjoyed as trade intermediaries, particularly during the Nanban Japan trade period. The influx of precious metals to the Spanish monarchy's coffers allowed it to finance costly religious wars in Europe which ultimately proved its economic undoing: the supply of metals was not infinite and the large inflow caused inflation and debt, and subsequently affected the rest of Europe.