What is colonization
Colonization is called action and effect of colonizing. As such, it assumes the establishment of a colony by a country in a foreign territory or far from its borders.
It can also refer to establishment of a group of people in a territory other than that of their origin with the purpose of populating it, if it was not previously inhabited, or repopulating it, if it had been previously.
Colonization is also a term used by biogeography to describe the population relationship or occupation of a space by a group of living beings, which can be animals, plants or microorganisms, which come to populate a place where they were not previously found.
See also Cologne.
Colonization in history
Colonization, in history, refers to any historical event or process in which a foreign State, generally an economic and military power that we will call a metropolis, occupies a foreign territory, which we will call a colony, far from its borders with the purpose to exploit its economic resources and dominate it politically, militarily and culturally.
As such, colonization can develop in ways violentwhen it involves the forcible subjugation of the local population, or peacefulwhen the inhabitants do not put up any resistance or when there are, in fact, no inhabitants in the area.
In the colonization processes, characteristic social dynamics are created according to which the dominance of a colonial caste, coming from the metropolis, is established over the indigenous population of the colony, enjoying the first of a series of political and social privileges above the second.
See also:
Colonization in America
The colonization of America by Europeans began at the end of the 15th century, with the arrival of Christopher Columbus, under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs, in 1492, to the American continent.
American colonization by Europe entailed the political and military domination of the subject territories, as well as the exploitation of economic resources and the establishment of a supposed cultural superiority, according to which the Europeans claimed the right to subjugate the indigenous inhabitants. of the continent.
The two European powers that would be at the beginning of the colonization process would be the Spanish Empire and the Portuguese Empire, which were followed, starting in the 17th century, by the British Empire, France and the Netherlands. Currently, only Spain and Portugal do not maintain American colonial possessions, unlike other powers, such as the United Kingdom, France, and the Netherlands.
See also Colonialism.
Spanish colonization
Colonization by the Spanish Crown over a large part of the territory that makes up America was a historical process that consisted of the implantation and establishment of the political, administrative, economic, military and cultural dominance of the Spanish Empire in American lands.
As such, it was fundamentally an act of force through which the Spanish subjugated the indigenous inhabitants of each of the regions, from North America, through Central America and the Caribbean, to South America, with the excuse of evangelizing them.
Spanish colonization as a historical period begins on October 12, 1492, with the arrival of Christopher Columbus to America, and extends until August 13, 1898, the day in which Spain loses its last American possessions to the United States. .
See also October 12.