Colonialism

(From colony: L. coloniam). A doctrine, that tends to legitimize the political and economic domination of a territory or nation, by the government of a foreign state. This is the term normally applied to the process initiated in the fifteenth century with the European conquest, settlement, and exploitation of territories in the Americas, the Orient, and Africa. Colonial activities originated with Spain, Portugal, England, France, and the Netherlands. From 1880 to the beginning of the twentieth century, the search for new markets and raw materials provoked the resurgence of c. and the partition of Africa among the great European powers, especially England and France (*Neo-colonialism and Imperialism).