What is a colony?

Colony is a Chinese vocabulary, which refers to countries and regions that are exploited economically, invaded culturally and enslaved politically by the suzerain. Originally meant to be immigrants, farming on wasteland can be used as a trade outpost or a military base. After that, it refers to the immigrant settlement established by a country in its conquered area (country) to obtain new resources for the suzerain country.

Colonies in the capitalist period, especially in the imperialist stage, refer to countries or regions whose territories are occupied, their sovereignty and independence are lost, they are completely ruled and dominated by capitalist powers politically and economically, and their purpose is to plunder various resources.

Colonies, in a broader sense, also include protectorates and vassals. The emergence of colonies is closely related to the emergence and development of capitalist mode of production.

Most of the ancient colonies were colonial colonies, that is, the continuation of the suzerain country overseas, such as Carthage established by the Phoenicians. In ancient Greece, Greek cities established many colonies along the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea, once as far away as the coasts of North Africa and Spain. The Greek colonial movement began with the need of trade with overseas regions. At the same time, some Greek citizens were dissatisfied with the political status quo of their city-states, or emigrated overseas because of the small land and large population. After the establishment of Greek overseas colonies, most of them maintained political independence, but maintained certain ties with their home countries, sent representatives to participate in the ancient Greek Olympic Games, and were proud to be the outpost of Greek civilization. Some Greek colonies have survived to this day, such as Syracuse (now known as Syracuse in Sicily), taranto and Byzantium (now known as Istanbul).

Roman period

The modern word "Colony" comes from the word "Colonia" in ancient Rome, which originally refers to the village community composed of Roman citizens and their families guarding the coast of Apennine Peninsula. When the Romans conquered neighboring tribes, they formed a village society as a trade outpost or military base. At the same time, they plundered all kinds of resources and slaves in the occupied areas and sent them back to Rome. With the expansion of Roman territory, this system gradually expanded to newly conquered areas and evolved into a colonial system.

Colonists still enjoy all the rights of Roman citizens, but the population of conquered areas cannot enjoy Roman citizenship (in the late Roman Republic and Roman Empire, with the romanization of conquered areas, citizenship was granted to colonial people).

After the demise of the Western Roman Empire, its overseas provinces and colonies were divided up by the Eastern Roman Empire, the Frankish Empire, the Visigoth Kingdom and other countries. Due to political and military restrictions, and because of the sparse population after the demise of Western Rome, these countries lacked the strength to expand overseas colonies.

The Crusade marked the beginning of Europe's interest in areas outside itself. The Crusader countries established on the eastern Mediterranean were not colonies, but after the fourth Crusader occupied the Byzantine Empire, Venice and Genoa occupied many territories originally belonging to Byzantium and established their own commercial colonies in the eastern Mediterranean. Most of these colonies were later occupied by the Ottoman Empire.