Geographical discoveries of the XV-XVI centuries. changed the course of world history, marking the beginning of the expansion of the leading Western European countries in various regions of the globe and the emergence of colonial empires.

The first colonial powers were Spain and Portugal. A year after the discovery of the islands of the West Indies by Christopher Columbus, the Spanish crown demanded confirmation by the Pope (1493) of its exclusive right to discover the New World. Having concluded the Tordesillas (1494) and Saragossa (1529) treaties, the Spaniards and the Portuguese divided the New World into spheres of influence. However, the agreement of 1494 on the division of spheres of influence along the 49th meridian seemed too tight for both sides (the Portuguese, contrary to him, were able to take over Brazil), and after Magellan's round-the-world trip, it lost its meaning. All newly discovered lands in America, with the exception of Brazil, were recognized as the possessions of Spain, which, in addition, captured the Philippine Islands. Brazil and lands along the coast of Africa, India and Southeast Asia went to Portugal.

The colonial activity of France, England and Holland until the beginning of the 17th century. was reduced mainly to preliminary reconnaissance of the territories of the New World, not conquered by the Spaniards and the Portuguese.

Only the crushing of Spanish and Portuguese dominance on the seas at the end of the 16th century. created the prerequisites for the rapid expansion of new colonial powers. A struggle for colonies began, in which the state-bureaucratic system of Spain and Portugal was opposed by the private entrepreneurial initiative of the Dutch and British.

The colonies became an inexhaustible source of enrichment for the states of Western Europe, but their merciless exploitation turned into disasters for the indigenous people. The natives were often subjected to wholesale destruction or forced out of the lands, used as cheap labor or slaves, and their introduction to the Christian civilization was accompanied by the barbaric extermination of the original local culture.

With all this, Western European colonialism has become a powerful lever for the development of the world economy. The colonies ensured the accumulation of capital in the mother countries, creating new markets for them. As a result of the unprecedented expansion of trade, a world market has developed; the center of economic life moved from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. Port cities of the Old World, such as Lisbon in Portugal, Seville in Spain, Antwerp and the Netherlands, have become powerful centers of trade. Antwerp became the richest city in Europe, in which, thanks to the regime of complete freedom of transactions established there, large-scale international trade and credit operations were carried out.

The countries of Europe, having carried out modernization, received huge advantages compared to the rest of the world, which was based on the principles of traditionalism. This advantage also affected the military potential. Therefore, following the era of great geographical discoveries, associated mainly with reconnaissance expeditions, already in the 17th-18th centuries. the colonialist expansion to the East of the most developed countries of Europe began. Traditional civilizations, due to the backwardness of their development, were not able to resist this expansion and turned into easy prey for their stronger opponents.

At the first stage of the colonization of traditional societies, Spain and Portugal were in the lead. They managed to conquer most of South America. In the middle of the XVIII century. Spain and Portugal began to lag behind in economic development and as maritime powers were relegated to the background. Leadership in the colonial conquests passed to England. Beginning in 1757, the trading English East India Company for almost a hundred years captured almost the entire Hindustan. Since 1706, the active colonization of North America by the British began. In parallel, the development of Australia was going on, on the territory of which the British sent criminals convicted to hard labor. The Dutch East India Company took over Indonesia. France established colonial rule in the West Indies, as well as in the New World (Canada).

African continent in the XVII-XVIII centuries. Europeans settled only on the coast and was used mainly as a source of slaves. In the 19th century Europeans moved far into the interior of the continent and by the middle of the 19th century. Africa was almost completely colonized. The exceptions were two countries: Christian Ethiopia, which offered staunch resistance to Italy, and Liberia, created by former slaves, immigrants from the United States.

In Southeast Asia, the French captured most of the territory of Indochina. Only Siam (Thailand) retained relative independence, but a large territory was also taken away from it.

By the middle of the XIX century. The Ottoman Empire was subjected to strong pressure from the developed countries of Europe. The countries of the Levant (Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine), which were officially considered part of the Ottoman Empire during this period, became a zone of active penetration of Western powers - France, England, Germany. During the same period, Iran lost not only economic but also political independence. At the end of the XIX century. its territory was divided into spheres of influence between England and Russia. Thus, in the 19th century practically all the countries of the East fell into one form or another of dependence on the most powerful capitalist countries, turning into colonies or semi-colonies. For Western countries, the colonies were a source of raw materials, financial resources, labor, as well as markets. The exploitation of the colonies by the Western metropolises was of the most cruel, predatory nature. At the cost of ruthless exploitation and robbery, the wealth of the western metropolises was created, a relatively high standard of living of their population was maintained.

Initially, European countries did not bring their own political culture and socio-economic relations to the colonies. Faced with the ancient civilizations of the East, which had long developed their own traditions of culture and statehood, the conquerors sought, first of all, their economic subjugation. In territories where statehood did not exist at all, or was at a fairly low level (for example, in North America or Australia), they were forced to create certain state structures, to some extent borrowed from the experience of the metropolitan countries, but with greater national specifics. In North America, for example, power was concentrated in the hands of governors who were appointed by the British government. The governors had advisers, as a rule, from among the colonists, who defended the interests of the local population. Self-government bodies played an important role: an assembly of representatives of the colonies and legislative bodies - legislatures.

In India, the British did not particularly interfere in political life and sought to influence local rulers through economic means of influence (enslaved loans), as well as providing military assistance in internecine struggle.

The economic policy in the various European colonies was largely similar. Spain, Portugal, Holland, France, England initially transferred feudal structures to their colonial possessions. At the same time, plantation farming was widely used. Of course, these were not "slave" plantations of the classical type, as, say, in ancient Rome. They represented a large capitalist economy working for the market, but with the use of crude forms of non-economic coercion and dependence.

Many of the effects of colonization were negative. There was a robbery of national wealth, merciless exploitation of the local population and poor colonists. Trading companies brought stale goods of mass demand to the occupied territories and sold them at high prices. On the contrary, valuable raw materials, gold and silver, were exported from the colonial countries. Under the onslaught of goods from the metropolises, the traditional oriental craft withered, traditional forms of life and value systems were destroyed.

At the same time, Eastern civilizations were increasingly drawn into the new system of world relations and fell under the influence of Western civilization. Gradually there was an assimilation of Western ideas and political institutions, the creation of a capitalist economic infrastructure. Under the influence of these processes, the traditional eastern civilizations are being reformed.

A vivid example of the change in traditional structures under the influence of colonial policy is provided by the history of India. After the liquidation of the East India Trading Company in 1858, India became part of the British Empire. In 1861, a law was passed on the creation of legislative advisory bodies - the Indian Councils, and in 1880 a law on local self-government. Thus, the beginning of a new phenomenon for Indian civilization was laid - the elected bodies of representation. Although it should be noted that only about 1% of the population of India had the right to take part in these elections.

The British made significant financial investments in the Indian economy. The colonial administration, resorting to loans from English bankers, built railways, irrigation facilities, and enterprises. In addition, private capital also grew in India, which played a large role in the development of the cotton and jute industries, in the production of tea, coffee and sugar. The owners of the enterprises were not only the British, but also the Indians. 1/3 of the share capital was in the hands of the national bourgeoisie.

From the 40s. 19th century The British authorities began to actively work on the formation of a national "Indian" intelligentsia in terms of blood and skin color, tastes, morals and mindset. Such an intelligentsia was formed in the colleges and universities of Calcutta, Madras, Bombay and other cities.

In the 19th century the process of modernization also took place in the countries of the East, which did not directly fall into colonial dependence. In the 40s. 19th century reforms began in the Ottoman Empire. The administrative system and the court were transformed, secular schools were created. Non-Muslim communities (Jewish, Greek, Armenian) were officially recognized, and their members received admission to public service. In 1876, a bicameral parliament was created, which somewhat limited the power of the Sultan, the constitution proclaimed the basic rights and freedoms of citizens. However, the democratization of the eastern despotism turned out to be very fragile, and in 1878, after the defeat of Turkey in the war with Russia, a rollback to its original positions occurs. After the coup d'état, despotism again reigned in the empire, the parliament was dissolved, and the democratic rights of citizens were significantly curtailed.

In addition to Turkey, in the Islamic civilization, only two states began to master the European standards of life: Egypt and Iran. The rest of the huge Islamic world until the middle of the XX century. remained subject to the traditional way of life.

China has also made certain efforts to modernize the country. In the 60s. 19th century here, the policy of self-reinforcement gained wide popularity. In China, industrial enterprises, shipyards, arsenals for the rearmament of the army began to be actively created. But this process has not received sufficient impetus. Further attempts to develop in this direction resumed with great interruptions in the 20th century.

Farthest from the countries of the East in the second half of the XIX century. Japan advanced. The peculiarity of Japanese modernization is that in this country the reforms were carried out quite quickly and most consistently. Using the experience of advanced European countries, the Japanese modernized industry, introduced a new system of legal relations, changed the political structure, the education system, expanded civil rights and freedoms.

After the coup d'état of 1868, a series of radical reforms were carried out in Japan, known as the Meiji Restoration. As a result of these reforms, feudalism was ended in Japan. The government abolished feudal allotments and hereditary privileges, princes-daimyo, turning them into officials. who headed the provinces and prefectures. Titles were preserved, but class distinctions were abolished. This means that, with the exception of the highest dignitaries, in terms of class, princes and samurai were equated with other classes.

Land for ransom became the property of the peasants, and this opened the way for the development of capitalism. The prosperous peasantry, exempted from the tax - rent in favor of the princes, got the opportunity to work for the market. Small landowners became impoverished, sold their plots and either turned into farm laborers or went to work in the city.

The state undertook the construction of industrial facilities: shipyards, metallurgical plants, etc. It actively encouraged merchant capital, giving it social and legal guarantees. In 1889, a constitution was adopted in Japan, according to which a constitutional monarchy was established with great rights for the emperor.

As a result of all these reforms, Japan has changed dramatically in a short time. At the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. Japanese capitalism turned out to be quite competitive in relation to the capitalism of the largest Western countries, and the Japanese state turned into a powerful power.

1. Formation of the colonial system in the world.
The countries of Europe, having carried out modernization, received huge advantages in comparison with the rest of the world, which was based on the principles of traditionalism. This advantage also affected the military potential. Therefore, following the era of great geographical discoveries, associated mainly with reconnaissance expeditions, already in the 17th-18th centuries. colonial expansion to the East of the most developed countries of Europe began. Traditional civilizations, due to the backwardness of their development, were not able to resist this expansion and turned into easy prey for their stronger opponents. The prerequisites for colonialism originated in the era of the great geographical discoveries, namely in the 15th century, when Vasco da Gama opened the way to India, and Columbus reached the shores of America. When confronted with peoples of other cultures, Europeans demonstrated their technological superiority (ocean sailing ships and firearms). The first colonies were founded in the New World by the Spaniards. The robbery of the states of the American Indians contributed to the development of the European banking system, the growth of financial investments in science and stimulated the development of industry, which, in turn, required new raw materials.
The colonial policy of the period of primitive accumulation of capital is characterized by: the desire to establish a monopoly in trade with conquered territories, the seizure and plunder of entire countries, the use or imposition of predatory feudal and slave-owning forms of exploitation of the local population. This policy played a huge role in the process of primitive accumulation. It led to the concentration of large capital in the countries of Europe on the basis of the robbery of the colonies and the slave trade, which especially developed from the 2nd half of the 17th century and served as one of the levers for turning England into the most developed country of that time.
In the enslaved countries, the colonial policy caused the destruction of the productive forces, retarded the economic and political development of these countries, led to the plunder of vast regions and the extermination of entire peoples. Military confiscation methods played a major role in the exploitation of the colonies during that period. A striking example of the use of such methods is the policy of the British East India Company in Bengal, which it conquered in 1757. The consequence of this policy was the famine of 1769-1773, which killed 10 million Bengalis. In Ireland, during the XVI-XVII centuries, the British government confiscated and transferred to the English colonists almost all the land that belonged to the native Irish.
At the first stage of the colonization of traditional societies, Spain and Portugal were in the lead. They managed to conquer most of South America.
Colonialism in modern times. As the transition from manufactory to large-scale factory industry, significant changes took place in colonial policy. The colonies are economically more closely connected with the metropolises, turning into their agrarian and raw-material appendages with a monocultural direction in the development of agriculture, into markets for industrial products and sources of raw materials for the growing capitalist industry of the metropolises. Thus, for example, the export of British cotton fabrics to India from 1814 to 1835 increased 65 times.
The spread of new methods of exploitation, the need to create special organs of colonial administration that could consolidate dominance over the local peoples, as well as the rivalry of various sections of the bourgeoisie in the mother countries, led to the liquidation of monopoly colonial trading companies and the transfer of the occupied countries and territories under the state administration of the mother countries.
The change in the forms and methods of exploitation of the colonies was not accompanied by a decrease in its intensity. Huge wealth was exported from the colonies. Their use led to the acceleration of socio-economic development in Europe and North America. Although the colonialists were interested in the growth of the marketability of the peasant economy in the colonies, they often supported and consolidated feudal and pre-feudal relations, considering the feudal and tribal nobility in the colonized countries as their social support.
With the advent of the industrial age, Great Britain became the largest colonial power. Having defeated France in the course of a long struggle in the 18th and 19th centuries, she increased her possessions at her expense, as well as at the expense of the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal. Great Britain subjugated India. In 1840-42, and together with France in 1856-60, she waged the so-called Opium Wars against China, as a result of which she imposed favorable treaties on China. She took possession of Xianggang (Hong Kong), tried to subjugate Afghanistan, captured strongholds in the Persian Gulf, Aden. The colonial monopoly, together with the industrial monopoly, ensured Great Britain the position of the most powerful power throughout almost the entire 19th century. Colonial expansion was also carried out by other powers. France subjugated Algeria (1830-48), Vietnam (50-80s of the 19th century), established its protectorate over Cambodia (1863), Laos (1893). In 1885, the Congo became the possession of the Belgian King Leopold II, and a system of forced labor was established in the country.
In the middle of the XVIII century. Spain and Portugal began to lag behind in economic development and as maritime powers were relegated to the background. Leadership in the colonial conquests passed to England. Beginning in 1757, the trading English East India Company for almost a hundred years captured almost the entire Hindustan. Since 1706, the active colonization of North America by the British began. In parallel, the development of Australia was going on, on the territory of which the British sent criminals convicted to hard labor. The Dutch East India Company took over Indonesia. France established colonial rule in the West Indies, as well as in the New World (Canada).
African continent in the XVII-XVIII centuries. Europeans settled only on the coast and was used mainly as a source of slaves. In the 19th century Europeans moved far into the interior of the continent and by the middle of the 19th century. Africa was almost completely colonized. The exceptions were two countries: Christian Ethiopia, which offered staunch resistance to Italy, and Liberia, created by former slaves, immigrants from the United States.
In Southeast Asia, the French captured most of the territory of Indochina. Only Siam (Thailand) retained relative independence, but a large territory was also taken away from it.
By the middle of the XIX century. The Ottoman Empire was subjected to strong pressure from the developed countries of Europe. The countries of the Levant (Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine), which were officially considered part of the Ottoman Empire during this period, became a zone of active penetration of Western powers - France, England, Germany. During the same period, Iran lost not only economic but also political independence. At the end of the XIX century. its territory was divided into spheres of influence between England and Russia. Thus, in the XIX century. practically all the countries of the East fell into one form or another of dependence on the most powerful capitalist countries, turning into colonies or semi-colonies. For Western countries, the colonies were a source of raw materials, financial resources, labor, as well as markets. The exploitation of the colonies by the Western metropolises was of the most cruel, predatory character. At the cost of ruthless exploitation and robbery, the wealth of the western metropolises was created, a relatively high standard of living of their population was maintained.
2. Types of colonies
According to the type of management, settlement and economic development in the history of colonialism, three main types of colonies were distinguished:

immigrant colonies.
Raw colonies (or exploited colonies).
Mixed (resettlement-raw material colonies).

Migration colonialism is a type of colonization management, the main purpose of which was to expand the living space (the so-called Lebensraum) of the titular ethnos of the metropolis to the detriment of the autochthonous peoples. There is a massive influx of immigrants from the metropolis into the resettlement colonies, who usually form a new political and economic elite. The local population is suppressed, forced out, and often physically destroyed (i.e. genocide is carried out). The metropolis often encourages resettlement to a new place as a means of regulating the size of its own population, as well as how it uses new lands to exile undesirable elements (criminals, prostitutes, recalcitrant national minorities - Irish, Basques and others), etc. Israel is an example of a modern migrant colony.
The key points in the creation of resettlement colonies are two conditions: low density of the autochthonous population with a relative abundance of land and other natural resources. Naturally, migrant colonialism leads to a deep structural restructuring of the life and ecology of the region in comparison with resource (raw material colonialism), which, as a rule, sooner or later ends with decolonization. In the world there are examples of mixed migration and raw materials colonies.
The first examples of a mixed-type migrant colony were the colonies of Spain (Mexico, Peru) and Portugal (Brazil). But it was the British Empire, followed by the United States, the Netherlands and Germany, that began to pursue a policy of complete genocide of the autochthonous population in the new occupied lands in order to create homogeneously white, English-speaking, Protestant migrant colonies, which later turned into dominions. Having once made a mistake with regard to 13 North American colonies, England softened its attitude towards the new settler colonies. From the very beginning, they were granted administrative and then political autonomy. These were the settlement colonies in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. But the attitude towards the autochthonous population remained extremely cruel. The Road of Tears in the United States and the White Australia policy in Australia gained worldwide fame. No less bloody were the reprisals of the British against their European competitors: the "Great Trouble" in French Acadia and the conquest of Quebec, the French settler colonies of the New World. At the same time, British India with its rapidly growing population of 300 million, Hong Kong, Malaysia turned out to be unsuitable for British colonization due to its dense population and the presence of aggressive Muslim minorities. In South Africa, the local and migrant (Boer) population was already quite numerous, but institutional segregation helped the British carve out certain economic niches and land for a small group of privileged British colonists. Often, to marginalize the local population, white settlers also attracted third groups: black slaves from Africa in the USA and Brazil; Jewish refugees from Europe in Canada, laborers from the countries of Southern and Eastern Europe who did not have their own colonies; Hindus, Vietnamese and Javanese coolies in Guiana, South Africa, USA, etc. The conquest of Siberia and America by Russia, as well as their further settlement by Russian and Russian-speaking settlers, also had much in common with resettlement colonialism. In addition to the Russians, Ukrainians, Germans and other peoples took part in this process.
As time passed, the migrant colonies turned into new nations. This is how Argentines, Peruvians, Mexicans, Canadians, Brazilians, US Americans, Guiana Creoles, New Caledonian Caldoches, Breyons, French-Acadians, Cajuns and French-Canadians (Quebecs) arose. They continue to be connected with the former metropolis by language, religion and common culture. The fate of some resettlement colonies ended tragically: the pied-noirs of Algeria (Franco-Algerians), since the end of the 20th century, European settlers and their descendants have been intensively leaving the countries of Central Asia and Africa (repatriation): in South Africa, their share fell from 21% in 1940 to 9% in 2010; in Kyrgyzstan from 40% in 1960 to 10% in 2010. In Windhoek, the share of whites fell from 54% in 1970 to 16% in 2010. Their share is also rapidly declining throughout the New World: in the USA it fell from 88% in 1930 up to about 64% in 2010; in Brazil from 63% in 1960 to 48% in 2010.
3.Features of colony management.
Colonial dominance was administratively expressed either in the form of a "dominion" (direct control of the colony through a viceroy, captain-general or governor-general) or in the form of a "protectorate". The ideological substantiation of colonialism proceeded through the need to spread culture (culturism, modernization, westernization - this is the spread of Western values ​​around the world) - "the burden of the white man."
The Spanish version of colonization meant the expansion of Catholicism, the Spanish language through the encomienda system. Encomienda (from the Spanish encomienda - care, protection) is a form of dependence of the population of the Spanish colonies on the colonizers. Introduced in 1503. Abolished in the 18th century. The Dutch version of the colonization of South Africa meant apartheid, the expulsion of the local population and its imprisonment in reservations or bantustans. The colonists formed communities completely independent of the local population, which were recruited from people of various classes, including criminals and adventurers. Religious communities (New England Puritans and Old West Mormons) were also widespread. The power of the colonial administration was exercised according to the principle of "divide and conquer" by pitting local religious communities (Hindus and Muslims in British India) or hostile tribes (in colonial Africa), as well as through apartheid (racial discrimination). Often the colonial administration supported oppressed groups to fight against their enemies (the oppressed Hutus in Rwanda) and created armed detachments from the natives (sepoys in India, Gurkhas in Nepal, Zouaves in Algeria).
Initially, European countries did not bring their own political culture and socio-economic relations to the colonies. Faced with the ancient civilizations of the East, which had long developed their own traditions of culture and statehood, the conquerors sought, first of all, their economic subjugation. In territories where statehood did not exist at all, or was at a fairly low level (for example, in North America or Australia), they were forced to create certain state structures, to some extent borrowed from the experience of the metropolitan countries, but with greater national specifics. In North America, for example, power was concentrated in the hands of governors who were appointed by the British government. The governors had advisers, as a rule, from among the colonists, who defended the interests of the local population. Self-government bodies played an important role: an assembly of representatives of the colonies and legislative bodies - legislatures.
In India, the British did not particularly interfere in political life and sought to influence local rulers through economic means of influence (enslaved loans), as well as providing military assistance in internecine struggle.
The economic policy in the various European colonies was largely similar. Spain, Portugal, Holland, France, England initially transferred feudal structures to their colonial possessions. At the same time, plantation farming was widely used. Of course, these were not "slave" plantations of the classical type, as, say, in ancient Rome. They represented a large capitalist economy working for the market, but with the use of crude forms of non-economic coercion and dependence.
Many of the effects of colonization were negative. There was a robbery of national wealth, merciless exploitation of the local population and poor colonists. Trading companies brought stale goods of mass demand to the occupied territories and sold them at high prices. On the contrary, valuable raw materials, gold and silver, were exported from the colonial countries. Under the onslaught of goods from the metropolises, the traditional oriental craft withered, traditional forms of life and value systems were destroyed.
At the same time, Eastern civilizations were increasingly drawn into the new system of world relations and fell under the influence of Western civilization. Gradually there was an assimilation of Western ideas and political institutions, the creation of a capitalist economic infrastructure. Under the influence of these processes, the traditional eastern civilizations are being reformed.
A vivid example of the change in traditional structures under the influence of colonial policy is provided by the history of India. After the liquidation of the East India Trading Company in 1858, India became part of the British Empire. In 1861, a law was passed on the creation of legislative advisory bodies - the Indian Councils, and in 1880 a law on local self-government. Thus, a new phenomenon for Indian civilization was laid - the elected bodies of representation. Although it should be noted that only about 1% of the population of India had the right to take part in these elections.
The British made significant financial investments in the Indian economy. The colonial administration, resorting to loans from English bankers, built railways, irrigation facilities, and enterprises. In addition, private capital also grew in India, which played a large role in the development of the cotton and jute industries, in the production of tea, coffee and sugar. The owners of the enterprises were not only the British, but also the Indians. 1/3 of the share capital was in the hands of the national bourgeoisie.
From the 40s. 19th century The British authorities began to actively work on the formation of a national "Indian" intelligentsia in terms of blood and skin color, tastes, morals and mindset. Such an intelligentsia was formed in the colleges and universities of Calcutta, Madras, Bombay and other cities.
In the 19th century the process of modernization also took place in the countries of the East, which did not directly fall into colonial dependence. In the 40s. 19th century started
etc.................

Topic: "The formation of the colonial system, the impact of colonialism on the development of Europe"

Specialty 18.02.09. Oil and gas processing.

Performed):

Group student gr.

Checked by teacher
stories:

Volgograd
2016

1.1 Formation of the colonial system in the world………………………….3-7

1.2. Types of colonies……………………………………………………….……8-10

1.3.Features of colony management………………………………….11-16

1.4. The collapse of the colonial system and its consequences……………...…….17-25

List of used literature……………………………………………...26

Appendix

Formation of the colonial system in the world.

The countries of Europe, having carried out modernization, received huge advantages in comparison with the rest of the world, which was based on the principles of traditionalism. This advantage also affected the military potential. Therefore, following the era of great geographical discoveries, associated mainly with reconnaissance expeditions, already in the 17th-18th centuries. colonial expansion to the East of the most developed countries of Europe began. Traditional civilizations, due to the backwardness of their development, were not able to resist this expansion and turned into easy prey for their stronger opponents. The prerequisites for colonialism originated in the era of the great geographical discoveries, namely in the 15th century, when Vasco da Gama opened the way to India, and Columbus reached the shores of America. When confronted with peoples of other cultures, Europeans demonstrated their technological superiority (ocean sailing ships and firearms). The first colonies were founded in the New World by the Spaniards. The robbery of the states of the American Indians contributed to the development of the European banking system, the growth of financial investments in science and stimulated the development of industry, which, in turn, required new raw materials.

The colonial policy of the period of primitive accumulation of capital is characterized by: the desire to establish a monopoly in trade with conquered territories, the seizure and plunder of entire countries, the use or imposition of predatory feudal and slave-owning forms of exploitation of the local population. This policy played a huge role in the process of primitive accumulation. It led to the concentration of large capital in the countries of Europe on the basis of the robbery of the colonies and the slave trade, which especially developed from the 2nd half of the 17th century and served as one of the levers for turning England into the most developed country of that time.

In the enslaved countries, the colonial policy caused the destruction of the productive forces, retarded the economic and political development of these countries, led to the plunder of vast regions and the extermination of entire peoples. Military confiscation methods played a major role in the exploitation of the colonies during that period. A striking example of the use of such methods is the policy of the British East India Company in Bengal, which it conquered in 1757. The consequence of this policy was the famine of 1769-1773, which killed 10 million Bengalis. In Ireland, during the XVI-XVII centuries, the British government confiscated and transferred to the English colonists almost all the land that belonged to the native Irish.

At the first stage of the colonization of traditional societies, Spain and Portugal were in the lead. They managed to conquer most of South America.

Colonialism in modern times. As the transition from manufactory to large-scale factory industry, significant changes took place in colonial policy. The colonies are economically more closely connected with the metropolises, turning into their agrarian and raw-material appendages with a monocultural direction in the development of agriculture, into markets for industrial products and sources of raw materials for the growing capitalist industry of the metropolises. Thus, for example, the export of British cotton fabrics to India from 1814 to 1835 increased 65 times.

The spread of new methods of exploitation, the need to create special organs of colonial administration that could consolidate dominance over the local peoples, as well as the rivalry of various sections of the bourgeoisie in the mother countries, led to the liquidation of monopoly colonial trading companies and the transfer of the occupied countries and territories under the state administration of the mother countries.

The change in the forms and methods of exploitation of the colonies was not accompanied by a decrease in its intensity. Huge wealth was exported from the colonies. Their use led to the acceleration of socio-economic development in Europe and North America. Although the colonialists were interested in the growth of the marketability of the peasant economy in the colonies, they often supported and consolidated feudal and pre-feudal relations, considering the feudal and tribal nobility in the colonized countries as their social support.

With the advent of the industrial age, Great Britain became the largest colonial power. Having defeated France in the course of a long struggle in the 18th and 19th centuries, she increased her possessions at her expense, as well as at the expense of the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal. Great Britain subjugated India. In 1840-42, and together with France in 1856-60, she waged the so-called Opium Wars against China, as a result of which she imposed favorable treaties on China. She took possession of Xianggang (Hong Kong), tried to subjugate Afghanistan, captured strongholds in the Persian Gulf, Aden. The colonial monopoly, together with the industrial monopoly, ensured Great Britain the position of the most powerful power throughout almost the entire 19th century. Colonial expansion was also carried out by other powers. France subjugated Algeria (1830-48), Vietnam (50-80s of the 19th century), established its protectorate over Cambodia (1863), Laos (1893). In 1885, the Congo became the possession of the Belgian King Leopold II, and a system of forced labor was established in the country.

In the middle of the XVIII century. Spain and Portugal began to lag behind in economic development and as maritime powers were relegated to the background. Leadership in the colonial conquests passed to England. Beginning in 1757, the trading English East India Company for almost a hundred years captured almost the entire Hindustan. Since 1706, the active colonization of North America by the British began. In parallel, the development of Australia was going on, on the territory of which the British sent criminals convicted to hard labor. The Dutch East India Company took over Indonesia. France established colonial rule in the West Indies, as well as in the New World (Canada).

African continent in the XVII-XVIII centuries. Europeans settled only on the coast and was used mainly as a source of slaves. In the 19th century Europeans moved far into the interior of the continent and by the middle of the 19th century. Africa was almost completely colonized. The exceptions were two countries: Christian Ethiopia, which offered staunch resistance to Italy, and Liberia, created by former slaves, immigrants from the United States.

In Southeast Asia, the French captured most of the territory of Indochina. Only Siam (Thailand) retained relative independence, but a large territory was also taken away from it.

By the middle of the XIX century. The Ottoman Empire was subjected to strong pressure from the developed countries of Europe. The countries of the Levant (Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine), which were officially considered part of the Ottoman Empire during this period, became a zone of active penetration of Western powers - France, England, Germany. During the same period, Iran lost not only economic but also political independence. At the end of the XIX century. its territory was divided into spheres of influence between England and Russia. Thus, in the XIX century. practically all the countries of the East fell into one form or another of dependence on the most powerful capitalist countries, turning into colonies or semi-colonies. For Western countries, the colonies were a source of raw materials, financial resources, labor, as well as markets. The exploitation of the colonies by the Western metropolises was of the most cruel, predatory character. At the cost of ruthless exploitation and robbery, the wealth of the western metropolises was created, a relatively high standard of living of their population was maintained.

Colony types

According to the type of management, settlement and economic development in the history of colonialism, three main types of colonies were distinguished:

Resettlement colonies.

· Raw colonies (or exploited colonies).

· Mixed (resettlement-raw material colonies).

Migration colonialism is a type of colonization management, the main purpose of which was to expand the living space (the so-called Lebensraum) of the titular ethnos of the metropolis to the detriment of the autochthonous peoples. There is a massive influx of immigrants from the metropolis into the resettlement colonies, who usually form a new political and economic elite. The local population is suppressed, forced out, and often physically destroyed (i.e. genocide is carried out). The metropolis often encourages resettlement to a new place as a means of regulating the size of its own population, as well as how it uses new lands to exile undesirable elements (criminals, prostitutes, recalcitrant national minorities - Irish, Basques and others), etc. Israel is an example of a modern migrant colony.

The key points in the creation of resettlement colonies are two conditions: low density of the autochthonous population with a relative abundance of land and other natural resources. Naturally, migrant colonialism leads to a deep structural restructuring of the life and ecology of the region in comparison with resource (raw material colonialism), which, as a rule, sooner or later ends with decolonization. In the world there are examples of mixed migration and raw materials colonies.

The first examples of a mixed-type migrant colony were the colonies of Spain (Mexico, Peru) and Portugal (Brazil). But it was the British Empire, followed by the United States, the Netherlands and Germany, that began to pursue a policy of complete genocide of the autochthonous population in the new occupied lands in order to create homogeneously white, English-speaking, Protestant migrant colonies, which later turned into dominions. Having once made a mistake with regard to 13 North American colonies, England softened its attitude towards the new settler colonies. From the very beginning, they were granted administrative and then political autonomy. These were the settlement colonies in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. But the attitude towards the autochthonous population remained extremely cruel. The Road of Tears in the United States and the White Australia policy in Australia gained worldwide fame. No less bloody were the reprisals of the British against their European competitors: the "Great Trouble" in French Acadia and the conquest of Quebec, the French settler colonies of the New World. At the same time, British India with its rapidly growing population of 300 million, Hong Kong, Malaysia turned out to be unsuitable for British colonization due to its dense population and the presence of aggressive Muslim minorities. In South Africa, the local and migrant (Boer) population was already quite numerous, but institutional segregation helped the British carve out certain economic niches and land for a small group of privileged British colonists. Often, to marginalize the local population, white settlers also attracted third groups: black slaves from Africa in the USA and Brazil; Jewish refugees from Europe in Canada, laborers from the countries of Southern and Eastern Europe who did not have their own colonies; Hindus, Vietnamese and Javanese coolies in Guiana, South Africa, USA, etc. The conquest of Siberia and America by Russia, as well as their further settlement by Russian and Russian-speaking settlers, also had much in common with resettlement colonialism. In addition to the Russians, Ukrainians, Germans and other peoples took part in this process.

As time passed, the migrant colonies turned into new nations. This is how Argentines, Peruvians, Mexicans, Canadians, Brazilians, US Americans, Guiana Creoles, New Caledonian Caldoches, Breyons, French-Acadians, Cajuns and French-Canadians (Quebecs) arose. They continue to be connected with the former metropolis by language, religion and common culture. The fate of some resettlement colonies ended tragically: the pied-noirs of Algeria (Franco-Algerians), since the end of the 20th century, European settlers and their descendants have been intensively leaving the countries of Central Asia and Africa (repatriation): in South Africa, their share fell from 21% in 1940 to 9% in 2010; in Kyrgyzstan from 40% in 1960 to 10% in 2010. In Windhoek, the share of whites fell from 54% in 1970 to 16% in 2010. Their share is also rapidly declining throughout the New World: in the USA it fell from 88% in 1930 up to about 64% in 2010; in Brazil from 63% in 1960 to 48% in 2010.

In parallel with the discovery of new lands, they were studied, described and conquered. In the new lands, the interests of different countries clashed, disputes and conflicts arose, often armed.

Earlier than others, Portugal and Spain entered the path of colonial conquests. They also made the first attempt to delimit the spheres of their interests. To prevent the possibility of clashes, both states entered into a special agreement in 1494, according to which all newly discovered lands to the west of the 30th meridian were to belong to the Spaniards, and to the east - to the Portuguese. However, the dividing line ran only along the Atlantic Ocean, and later this led to controversy when the Spaniards, approaching from the east, and the Portuguese from the west, met in the Moluccas.

Invaders - conquistadors conquered vast territories, turning them into colonies, appropriated and ruthlessly exploited their wealth, converting pagan natives to Christianity, wiped entire civilizations off the face of the earth. By the middle of the XVII century. Spain, Portugal, Holland, France and England had the largest overseas territories.

Conclusion

Until the XV-XVII centuries. The West was a relatively closed region, and at the stage of the decomposition of feudalism, the boundaries of the Western world moved apart, the process of forming a pan-European and world market began, and the horizons of Europeans expanded.

Such shifts were caused by the Great geographical discoveries that covered these two and a half centuries. Great geographical discoveries became possible thanks to the organization of expeditions across the oceans by Europeans to find new ways to India - a country of untold riches. The former routes to this distant fairy-tale country through the Mediterranean Sea and Western Asia were blocked by Arab, Turkish, Mongol-Tatar conquerors. And Europe during this period experienced a significant significant shortage of gold and silver as a means of circulation.

The great geographical discoveries had very important economic consequences, although not the same for different countries.

First of all, the development of the world's productive forces has advanced; the territory known by that time increased only in the 16th century. six times, there were less and less white spots on it.

Trade routes from the North, Baltic and Mediterranean seas moved to the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans. Thanks to this, trade routes connected the continents with each other. Navigation made it possible to establish stable economic ties between separate parts of the world and led to the formation of world trade.

The great geographical discoveries contributed to the disintegration of feudalism and the development of capitalist relations, laying the foundations of the world market.

However, there are also negative consequences, which was expressed in the formation of the colonial system of emerging capitalism.