COLONIALISM – The policy of a country/ nation attempting to retain or extend its current authority over other territories or people – Usually for economic terms. Colonialism is the subjugation by physical force of one culture by another – a colonizing power – through military conquest of territory and reconstructing the relation between the two cultures. It predates the era of European expansion (15th – 20th centuries) and extends to Japanese colonialism in the twentieth century and, most recently Chinese colonization of Tibet.

Between 1500 and 1800 Holland, England, Spain, Portugal and France all practiced colonial campaigns motivated by the profits that could be gained by occupying less powerful nations in Africa and the Americas and exploiting their resources.

Colonising powers often justified their treatment of indigenous populations by asserting that those from the colonising nation were somehow naturally ‘superior’ to native peoples.

During the slave trade European colonising nations treated black Africans as a source of labour, to be bought and sold. The transatlantic slave trade is often referred to as ‘The triangular trade’ as it consisted of three journeys – each journey forming one side of a triangle.

• One side of the triangle was formed by the journey from Europe to Africa, carrying manufactured goods such as cloth, glassware, guns and ammunition

• The second side of the triangle was called ‘The Middle Passage’ which took an enormous toll on the slaves who were forcibly shipped from Africa to work on plantations in the Americas and the Caribbean (see the information sheet ‘About Slavery’)

• The third side of the triangle saw the transport of sugar, rum, cotton and other goods produced by plantations to Europe.