Political and Economic Colonisation

In this chapter, we elucidate the concept and practice of political and economic colonisation. It is possible to develop a typology of these types of colonisation, although we should be aware that there are other and more powerful forms of colonisation. These include: epistemic colonisation; settler colonisation (large numbers of settlers claim sovereignty over land and then become the majority); planter colonisation (a form of economic colonisation where a group of colonisers control the mass production of a single crop, for example, sugar, coffee, cotton or rubber, using native labour); extractive colonisation (the coloniser’s intention is to extract from a particular land a raw material – a ‘slash-and-burn’ operation that does not entail permanent occupation); trade colonisation (the coloniser’s intention is to control trading relationships with colonised countries – another form of economic colonisation); transport colonisation (this form of colonisation does not mandate the displacement of native peoples, but it does have an impact on local economies and cultures by creating transport hubs); imperial power colonisation (the purpose of this form of colonialism appears to be simply land expansion); externalising colonisation (sometimes colonisers want a safe space away from the homeland to house convicts or conduct dangerous experiments); taxonomic colonisation (the coloniser gives a legal authority to a principle of unequal esteem for colonisers and those being colonised); rogue colonisation (the coloniser is not a state or a country but an individual who is supported by a state or country); missionary colonisation (the principal aim of the coloniser is to convert the colonised to a religious faith); postcolonial colonisation (the coloniser seeks to influence the way of life of their previous colony); epistemic colonisation (the principal feature here is the control over the spread and extent of ideas in the colonised country); and cultural colonisation (this is where the primary focus of the coloniser is the transmission and enculturation of a particular way of life). All these forms of colonialism are essentially political and social.