Editing Semi-colony (section)

==Social structures, ethnic composition and political trajectories==
The class structure of a "typical" or "classical" semi-colony features a large mass of peasants and unemployed, a relatively small urban working class and middle class, a class of landowners, and an urban [[comprador]] bourgeoisie. However, a variety of different class structures, ethnic compositions and complex political trajectories<ref>James Minahan, ''Encyclopedia of the stateless nations: ethnic and national groups around the world'' (4 vols.). Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2002.</ref> are possible in semi-colonial countries. For example, 

* During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the British [[colony of New Zealand]] (since [[Dominion of New Zealand|1907]] a [[dominion]] of the [[British Empire]]) engaged in imperialist interventions and annexations in the Pacific.<ref>Nicholas Hoare, ''New Zealand's ‘Critics of Empire’: Domestic Opposition to New Zealand's Pacific Empire, 1883-1948''. Masters Thesis, Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand), 2014.[https://openaccess.wgtn.ac.nz/articles/thesis/New_Zealand_s_Critics_of_Empire_Domestic_Opposition_to_New_Zealand_s_Pacific_Empire_1883-1948/17007868/1?file=31461319]</ref> Today, New Zealand is a major aid donor in the South Pacific, and a large number of [[Pasifika New Zealanders|Pacific Islanders]] now live in New Zealand.

* In what is now [[Israel]], a new colonial settler state arose out of a [[Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine|Jewish insurgency]] against British rule in [[Mandatory Palestine]] during the late 1940s, as well as the [[1948 Palestine war]] against the [[Palestinians]]; the state of Israel continues to expand its territory via annexations and depends heavily on military, economic and political support from the [[federal government of the United States]], as well as on private U.S. investors/donors.<ref>[[Maxime Rodinson]], ''Israel: a colonial-settler state?''. New York: Monad Press, 1973.</ref> 
* In the [[American Revolutionary War]], armed forces commanded by [[George Washington]] engaged in eight years of conflict with the British which ultimately led to Britain recognizing the sovereign independence of the United States. At the same time, the American government mostly denied the sovereignty of [[Native Americans in the United States|American Indians]] over their ancestral lands, and not infrequently tried to [[Native American genocide in the United States|exterminate]] the Indians, and/or relocate them to [[List of Indian reservations in the United States|reservations]] set aside for Indians. It was characteristic of American political thinking, that sovereignty was not necessarily regarded as a good thing or as a bad thing, and that a people or a nation was not automatically entitled to sovereignty and territory because they lived somewhere, and had lived there for a long time. It all depended on the interests that were at stake, what the balance of power happened to be, and what was regarded as a "progressive" policy (see also: [[United States involvement in regime change]] and [[Foreign interventions by the United States]]).