Settler Colonization and Societies in World History: Patterns and Concepts

Abstract

Settler Colonization has been a widespread phenomenon in human history not confined to any particular era, region or continent. However, since the world geopolitics and economic systems have been shaped in the past several centuries by European imperialism, capitalism, and out migration, it is no wonder that Europe—originated settler economies, in which we are mainly interested here, have dominated the global scene of settler colonization in modem times. Modem settler societies of the 'Neo-Europe' type (to use Alfred Crosby's (1986) celebrated term) emerged mainly in certain 'New-World' European colonies where a specific combination of temperate climates; land abundance; marginalized and sometimes decimated indigenous populations; and large scale European migrations 'equipped' with their home based cultures, laid the foundation for new forms of state and economy within the world economic context of the late i8th and i9th Centuries. Caroline Elkins and Susan Pedersen (2005) identify rightly the modem 'New World' States evolving from these 'Neo-Europe' settler societies, as 'born of a dual defeat—the defeat of the indigenous populations, and the defeat (or weakening) of the imperial metropoles that held settlers in dependence'.