History of colonialism facts for kids

The history of colonialism goes back thousands of years, colonialism is the taking over of one country by another. In ancient times peoples such as the Hittites and the Incas were involved in colonialism.

However people usually use the word colonialism to talk about the European overseas empires rather than land-based empires. Overseas empires include British rule in India and French rule in Algeria - both of which could only be reached by ships.

Land based empires are usually described as imperialism and include:

• The Mongol Empire, a large empire stretching from the Western Pacific to Eastern Europe
• The Empire of Alexander the Great
• The Umayyad Caliphate
• The Persian Empire
• The Roman Empire
• The Byzantine Empire.
  

  European claims in Africa, 1914, following the Scramble for Africa.

The Ottoman Empire was created across Mediterranean, North Africa and into Southern Europe and existed during the time of European colonization of the other parts of the world.

European colonialism began in the fifteenth century when the Spanish and Portuguese began exploring the Americas, and the coasts of Africa, the Middle East, India, and East Asia.

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, England, France and Holland made their own overseas empires. However the end of the eighteenth and early nineteenth century many European colonies in the Americas gained their independence.

Spain and Portugal became weakened after the loss of their New World colonies and could not get back the power they once had. But Britain, France and Holland turned their attention to South Africa, India and South East Asia and began expanding.

In the nineteenth century Europe underwent industrialisation, the population got larger, armies became more organised and had better weapons produced in factories. This time became known as the era of New Imperialism. Very quickly European powers were able to take over land and included the Scramble for Africa.

After World War I the European countries who had lost the war had to give up their colonies to the countries that had won the war. For instance Britain which won the war took over Tanzania from Germany (which had lost the war)

After World War II however Europe's colonies started to become independent. In 1999 Portugal returned the last of Europe's colonies in Asia, Macau, to China, ending an era that had lasted five hundred years.

Images for kids

• 

  Territories colonized by European, American and Japanese powers since 1492

• 

  Colonial powers and their expansion since 1492.

• 

  Elmina Castle, Ghana, one in a chain of about fifty fortified factories to enforce Portuguese trade rule along the coast. View from the sea in 1668.

• 

  Map indicating the territories colonized by the European powers over the Americas in 1750 (mainly Spain, Portugal and France at the time).

• 

  Lord Clive meeting with Mir Jafar at the Battle of Plassey in 1757, painted by Francis Hayman

• 

  Independent states in the Americas, c. 1830.

• 

  The British Indian Empire and surrounding countries in 1909

• 

  European settlements in India (1501–1739)

• 

  Empires of the world in 1910

• 

  World map of colonization at the end of the Second World War in 1945

• 

  Map of the European Union in the world, with Overseas Countries and Territories and Outermost Regions.