colonizers

Colonizers are individuals or groups that establish control over new lands by founding colonies. Throughout history, colonizers have included ancient seafaring peoples, such as Phoenicians and Greeks, as well as empire-building states. In the modern era, European powers from the 15th to the 20th centuries established large overseas empires, colonizing the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. Colonization typically involved settlement or exploitation, political control, economic extraction, and cultural influence, often supported by military force, treaties, and the establishment of colonial administrations.

Motivations included access to resources, markets, strategic positions, religious or ideological aims, and prestige. The processes varied by region, but frequently involved displacement of indigenous populations, the transference of land through conquest or treaties, and the imposition of new legal systems, languages, and social structures. The consequences were complex: demographic decline from disease and conflict, cultural changes, economic disruption or integration into global trade, and long-lasting political borders and institutions.

Decolonization in the 20th century led to sovereign states, though the legacies of colonization persist in many parts of the world. The term "colonizers" is often used in historical and postcolonial scholarship to refer to actors who engaged in establishing colonies, sometimes with critical judgments about coercive methods and unequal power relations. In biology, the term can describe organisms that establish populations in new environments, independent of human activity.