Colonial Empire

With sail came the expansion of European nations far beyond their borders. Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, British, and French colonial empires spread across the globe. The colonizing powers gained riches, but the colonized people often suffered. How did these events unfold?

Fig.1 - Map of Spanish and Portuguese Empires

Colonial Empire Definition

A colonial empire is when one nation governs an area outside of its borders and sends its citizens to settle the area. In most cases, this is accomplished through conquering new lands. Occasionally, this occurs in uninhabited lands, such as the Portuguese settlement of the island of Madeira.

Maritime Empires

Colonial Imperialism, in the context we are talking about, occurred mainly during the Age of Exploration and the Age of Sail. The Age of Exploration, also known as the Age of Discovery, was the period between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries when European explorers traveled the seas, filling out the map of the known world. This blended into the Age of Sail between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries when established colonies and trade routes were connected to the European mainland by sailing ships.

Portuguese Colonial Empire

The modern colonial empire truly began with Portugal. Their exploration and development of sailing techniques and technology allowed Europeans to project themselves further. Historically, Arab traders acted as middlemen, bringing spices and other goods from the Far East. The Portuguese empire thrived by cutting out these middlemen when it discovered a direct sea route around Africa to India. In addition to Asia, Portugal colonized Brazil.

Fig.1 - Portuguese Caravel Ship

As the Spanish quickly joined the Age of Exploration, rivalry grew. The Treaty of Tordesillas settled this. The treaty divided the globe between Portugal and Spain. Portugal kept their eastern focus, while Spain gained the new world of the Americas.

Spanish Colonial Empire

With the Treaty of Tordesillas signed, Spain looked westward to the Americas. Civilizations such as the Aztecs, Incas, and Mayans were all conquered and colonized by the Spanish during the sixteenth century. From 1580 to 1640, Spain absorbed the Portuguese empire in a period of unity on the Iberian Peninsula. In 1581 the Spanish-controlled Dutch was in total rebellion, giving rise to another European colonial power. By 1661, the Spanish recognized Dutch independence.

From 1808 to 1833, the Spanish empire crumbled. Inspired by Napoleon's invasion of Spain, rebellions across Latin America brought independence to many former Spanish colonies. Those colonies were maintained as the United States mainly won Spanish possessions in the 1898 Spanish-American War.

Dutch Colonial Empire

When the Dutch rebelled from Spain, they had done so during the period of the Iberian union. The Dutch were also cut off from the Portuguese-controlled Asian markets. Shortly, a Dutchman named Jan Huygen van Linshoten released three books in the 1590s that detailed previously secret Portuguese sailing and geographical knowledge. Through military victories, the Dutch mainly forced the Portuguese from the region in the 1590s.

Dutch East India Company

While the Portuguese innovated the knowledge and technology of sail, the Dutch innovated international business. The Dutch East India was the first publicly traded company and a capitalist pioneer.

Fig.3 - Dutch East India Company Flag

The company combined business interests with military and governmental powers granted by the Dutch government for the administration of the colonies and trade routes from its formation in 1602 until poor business practices forced it into bankruptcy in 1799. A Dutch West India Company also existed from 1621 to 1794, focused on Africa and the Americas, with limited success.

Decline

With the end of the Dutch Companies, many Dutch territorial holdings entered the hands of the British. What was left became known as the Dutch West Indies. Eventually, its independence as Indonesia was finally recognized in 1949. In the Americas, battles with the Portuguese over Brazil did not produce long-term gains, and the New Amsterdam colony was abandoned, later to become New York.

The African holdings left after the end of the Dutch West India Company were given over to the British after Britain outlawed human enslavement in 1807. This made the colony no longer profitable to the Dutch but attractive to the British interested in exploiting the raw materials.

French Colonial Empire

French colonial ambitions initially focused heavily on the Americas. In 1605, the Acadia colony was established in Canada to trade furs before the Louisiana Territory was established in 1682. France expanded with settlements throughout South America and the Caribbean during the seventeenth century. Most of this empire was lost by the early nineteenth century through conflicts with the British, revolts in Haiti, and the sale of the Louisiana Territory to the United States.

Second French Empire

At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, France began another run at imperialism with the invasion of Algeria in 1830. Throughout the mid-nineteenth century, the French empire expanded, primarily in Africa and Asia. After World War II, like Britain, France lost control of most of its colonies as it gained independence.

British Colonial Empire

It was not until 1585 that the British became a true colonial empire, establishing the Roanoke colony in North Carolina. Since 1497, the British had been involved in exploration, trade, and privateering but had not developed any overseas territories.

British East India Company

Founded in 1600, the East India Company was a private company organized to develop trade between Britain and Asia. It inspired the Dutch East India Company, formed two years later.

Fig.4 - Arms of the East India Company

By 1750, it was the largest company in the world. Further growth occurred when it absorbed many Dutch East India Company holdings that had dissolved in 1799.

Decline

The loss of the American colonies after independence was declared in 1776 was a significant crack in the British Empire, but it was not yet at its zenith. By the nineteenth century, it would commonly be said that "the sun never sets on the British Empire." This was because the empire had expanded so far that it was always daylight in some British holdings as the sun traveled across the sky. After the two world wars, Britain began to lose control of its colonial territories, declining as an imperial power.

Example List of Countries Gaining Independence from British Rule

Negative Effects of Colonization

There is much criticism of colonization. Frequently, Indigenous people suffered brutality at the hands of colonizing powers. While some benefits, such as health care facilities and other infrastructure, may have been built by the colonizers, the indigenous peoples usually became second-class citizens in their lands.