A colonial empire is a collective of territories (often called colonies), either contiguous with the imperial center or located overseas, settled by the population of a certain state and governed by that state.
Before the expansion of early modern European powers, other empires had conquered and colonized territories, such as the Roman Empire in Iberia, or the Chinese in what is now South China. Modern colonial empires first emerged with a race of exploration between the then most advanced European maritime powers, Portugal and Spain, during the 15th century.[1] The initial impulse behind these dispersed maritime empires and those that followed was trade, driven by the new ideas and the capitalism that grew out of the European Renaissance. Agreements were also made to divide the world up between them in 1479, 1493, and 1494. European imperialism was born out of competition between European Christians and Ottoman Muslims, the latter of which rose up quickly in the 14th century and forced the Spanish and Portuguese to seek new trade routes to India, and to a lesser extent, China.
Although colonies existed in classical antiquity, especially amongst the Phoenicians and the ancient Greeks who settled many islands and coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, these colonies were politically independent from the city-states they originated from, and thus did not constitute a colonial empire.[2] This paradigm shifted by the time of the Ptolemaic Empire, the Seleucid Empire, and the Roman Empire.
The European countries which had the most colonies throughout history were:
United Kingdom (130), France (90), Portugal (52), Spain (44), Netherlands (29), Germany (20), Russia (17), Denmark (9), Sweden (8), Italy (7), Norway (6) and Belgium (3). [3]
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^Encarta-encyclopedie Winkler Prins (1993–2002) s.v. "kolonie [geschiedenis]. §1.2 De moderne koloniale expansie". Microsoft Corporation/Het Spectrum.
A colonialempire is a collective of territories (often called colonies), either contiguous with the imperial center or located overseas, settled by the...
The French colonialempire (French: Empirecolonial français) comprised the overseas colonies, protectorates, and mandate territories that came under French...
The Dutch colonialempire (Dutch: Nederlandse koloniale rijk) comprised the overseas territories and trading posts controlled and administered by Dutch...
economic and colonial tensions between Britain and Germany were major causes of the First World War, during which Britain relied heavily on its empire. The conflict...
Portuguese Overseas (Ultramar Português) or the Portuguese ColonialEmpire (Império Colonial Português), was composed of the overseas colonies, factories...
German colonialempire (German: Deutsches Kolonialreich) constituted the overseas colonies, dependencies, and territories of the German Empire. Unified...
War I in 1914, the Empire of Japan declared war on the German Empire and quickly seized the possessions of the German colonialempire in the Pacific Ocean...
The Italian colonialempire (Italian: Impero coloniale italiano), also known as the Italian Empire (Impero italiano) between 1936 and 1941, was founded...
The Spanish Empire, sometimes referred to as the Hispanic Monarchy or the Catholic Monarchy, was a colonialempire that existed between 1492 and 1976....
governments viewed colonial expansion as economically and politically risky and fundamentally unrewarding, and believed that informal empire, continuing Belgium's...
an empire by sea can be characterized by colonial expansion and empire building "by an increasingly powerful navy". However, sometimes an empire is only...
Greenland and the Faroe Islands were the last vestiges of the colonialempire. Greenland's colonial status ceased in 1953, becoming an integral part of the...
The Empire of Japan, also referred to as the Japanese Empire, Imperial Japan, or simply Japan, was the Japanese nation-state that existed from the Meiji...
monarchy, Austrian Empire, and (from 1867 to 1918) the Austro-Hungarian Empire made a few small short-lived attempts to expand overseas colonial trade through...
applicability of self-determination for subject nations. Italy, a colonial power, lost its African empire, Italian East Africa, Italian Ethiopia, Italian Eritrea...
collapse of global colonialempires. Other scholars extend the meaning to include economic, cultural and psychological aspects of the colonial experience. Decolonization...
of the ColonialEmpire (Portuguese:"Ordem do Império Colonial") was a Portuguese Order (decoration), established on 13 April 1932 as a colonial order of...
managed to build the third-largest colonialempire at the time, after the British and the French ones. As a colonial state, it sometimes clashed with the...
territorial evolution of the British Empire is considered to have begun with the foundation of the English colonialempire in the late 16th century. Since...
ISBN 9789543270392. Wesseling, H. L. (23 October 2015). The European ColonialEmpires: 1815-1919. Routledge. p. 93. ISBN 978-1-317-89507-7. Archived from...
Republic of Congo. Finally, Portugal, which had essentially abandoned a colonialempire in the area, long held through the mostly defunct proxy Kingdom of...
Possessions & Colonies History of Tobago Media related to Swedish colonialempire at Wikimedia Commons Wetaskiwin local heritage – Swedish settlers Mémoire...
Highland Clearances Former colonies and territories in Canada English colonialempire Scottish Americans Scottish Argentine Scottish Australians Scottish...
its anti-imperialist rhetoric by materially supporting the French Empire in a colonial counterinsurgency. Influenced by the Grand Area policy, the U.S....
developed its first colonialempire in Asia, Africa, and in the Americas. In the 16th to the 17th centuries, the First French colonialempire stretched from...
was exiled to St. Helena. Although France had already established a colonialempire overseas since the early 17th century, the French state had remained...
First French colonialempire stretched from a total area at its peak in 1680 to over 10,000,000 km2 (3,900,000 sq mi), the second largest empire in the world...
remained under the rule of white colonial minorities. By the close of the 20th century, the European colonialEmpires had ceased to exist as significant...