Editing Colony (section)

{{Short description|Territory governed by another country}}
{{About |the political concept|the concentrated dwelling|Human settlement|the concentrated dwelling of animals|Colony (biology)|other uses|Colony (disambiguation)}}
{{More citations needed|date= May 2020}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}}
{{Politics}}
[[File:Non-Self-Governing.png|thumb|upright=1.7| Color coded chart of current [[United Nations list of non-self-governing territories|non-self-governing territories]] (primarily islands) with their sovereign states ({{as of|2012|6|lc=on}})]]

A '''colony''' is a territory subject to a form of [[foreign rule]],<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/colony |title= colony |date= 2021|publisher= Oxford University Press|website= [[Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary]]|accessdate= 8 January 2021 | quote = 1. [...] a country or an area that is governed by people from another, more powerful, country}}</ref> which rules the territory and its [[indigenous peoples]] separated from the foreign rulers, the [[colonizer]], and their ''[[metropole]]'' (or "mother country").<ref name="i561">{{cite web | title=Collins Englisch Wörterbuch | website=COLONY Definition und Bedeutung | date=2017-12-20 | url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/de/worterbuch/englisch/colony | quote=any people or territory separated from but subject to a ruling power | language=de | access-date=2025-01-10}}</ref> This separated rule was often organized into [[colonial empire]]s, with their metropoles at their centers, making colonies neither [[annexation|annexed]] or even [[Territorial integration|integrated]] territories, nor [[client state]]s. Particularly [[new imperialism]] and its [[colonialism]] advanced this separated rule and its lasting [[coloniality]]. Colonies were most often set up and [[colonized]] for exploitation and possibly settlement by [[colonist]]s.<ref name="Overseas"/>

The term colony originates from the [[ancient rome|ancient Roman]] {{Lang|la|[[colonia (Roman)|colonia]]}}, a type of Roman settlement. Derived from ''colonus'' (farmer, cultivator, planter, or settler), it carries with it the sense of 'farm' and 'landed estate'.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Nayar|first=Pramod|title=Postcolonial Literature – An Introduction|publisher=Pearson India|year=2008|isbn=9788131713730|location=India|pages=1–2}}</ref>
Furthermore, the term was used to refer to the older Greek ''apoikia'' ({{Langx|grc|ἀποικία||home away from home}}), which were [[Greek colonisation|overseas settlements by ancient Greek city-states]]. The city that founded such a settlement became known as its ''[[wikt:metropolis|metropolis]]'' ("mother-city"). Since early-modern times, historians, administrators, and political scientists have generally used the term "colony" to refer mainly to the many different [[overseas territory|overseas territories]] of particularly European states between the 15th and 20th centuries [[Common Era|CE]], with colonialism and [[decolonization]] as corresponding phenomena.

While colonies often developed from [[Factory (trading post)|trading outpost]]s or [[territorial claim]]s, such areas do not need to be a product of [[colonization]], nor become colonially organized territories. Territories furthermore do not need to have been militarily [[conquered]] and [[military occupation|occupied]] to come under colonial rule and to be considered de facto colonies, instead neocolonial exploitation of [[Dependency theory|dependency]] or imperialist use of [[Power (international relations)|power]] to [[Interventionism (politics)|intervene]] to force policy, might make a territory be considered a colony, which broadens the concept, including [[indirect rule]] or [[puppet state]]s (contrasted by more independent types of client states such as [[vassal state]]s). Subsequently, some historians have used the term ''informal colony'' to refer to a country under a ''de facto'' control of another state. Though the broadening of the concept is often contentious.

Contemporarily colonies are identified and organized as [[Chapter XI of the United Nations Charter|not sufficiently self-governed]] [[dependent territory|dependent territories]]. Other past colonies have become either sufficiently incorporated and [[self-governed]], or [[independence|independent]], with some to a varying degree dominated by remaining [[settler colonialism|colonial settler societies]] or [[neocolonialism]].