COLONY (Lat. eolonia, from eolonus, a hus bandman, colonist. from co/crc, to till). In its proper sense, colony denotes a body of immi grants living in a foreign land under the laws and protection of the mother country; but the term has been used loosely to describe all classes of distant territories dependent in any form on a ruling power, from mere military posts like Gibraltar or Port Arthur to practically autono mous States like Canada or Australia. The Creeks were pr6;minently a colonizing people. They established communities in Asia Minor, in Thrace and the Crimea, on the coast of Africa, in Italy and Sicily. and in Gaul. Marseilles was a Greek town, founded by the inhabitants of Phocau about six centuries before the Chris tian Era. The first great colonization move ment of the Greeks followed as a conse quence of the so-called Dorian migration, when the conquered peoples were driven from their lands and compelled to find new homes. The sec ond movement, which took place in the period between the eighth and the sixth centuries B.C., was due to political disturbances at home, the necessity of drawing off the surplus of popula tion, and military and commercial interests. When it had been determined to send out a colony, the oracle was consulted, and a leader, called oikist, olstaris, was duly appointed; fire was taken from the sacred fire that burned in the Prytaneum, and the new society, though politically independent, patterned itself after the mother city. The relation between the two communities was one of mutual affection only: but, if the new colony undertook it self to found a colony, it went, through cus tom, for its oikist to the mother city. Differ ing from the colony as thus described was the eleraehy tanpoinda, allotment or apportion ment. from lot, and exec'', have), the mem bers of which remained in close connection with the mother city and did not form an independent community. The Athenian cleruehies, the only ones of which we have any detailed knowledge, possessed a certain measure of autonomy, but only in internal affairs. The citizens were still citizens of Athens. with the rights and duties of the position. In the case of a cleruchy, the con quered territory was divided into parcels and assigned to the poorer citizens by lot. The original inhabitants. though. according to cir cumstances. differently treated, were generally made dependents of the settlers. The first Athe nian eleruchy was sent to the land of Chalcis in Enbcea, about DX. 506.
It was one of the triumphs of the organizing genius of the Romans to develop the colony to its most perfect It was a principle of Roman policy that not only every conquered territory, but every district where Roman chi yens settled. should be an integral part of the
Empire. The colonia was one of the municipal institutions of the Empire. having its own gov erning corporation dependent on Rome. There were various grades of colonies—some where there was the high privilege of Roman citizen ship, and others where the citizenship was of a bumbler grade. Corresponding • with the con suls in Rome, there were municipal officers in the colonies ((Iannirini. quatnorviri), in whom were preserved, after the Empire was formed, the old republican institutions. The Romans appointed men of very high rank to the govern ment of their provinces or colonies—men who had held such offices as the consulship or pretor ship at home. It was a feature of the Roman system to limit their period of government, lest they should become independent of the Empire and establish separate States.
After the fall of Rome. centuries passed be fore colonization reeommenced; for the various tribes who broke into the Empire were not con nected with any parent State, and the Normans who spread themselves over Europe at a later period were utterly unconnected, in the coun tries where they settled, with the government of the northern States whence they migrated. When Venice and Genoa were at the height of their power. they sought to advance their com mercial interests by the establishment of colo nies in the islands of the Mediterranean and on the shores of the Hellespont and the Black Sea. At the close of the Middle Ages the Portuguese and Spaniards became the great colonizing na tions of Europe. Portugal was first in the field, establishing settlements along the western coast of Africa in the fifteenth century. After the rounding of the Cape of Good Hope by Bartholo men Diiis in 1488, which was followed ten years Inter by the voyage of Vasco da Gama, she ex tended her settlements along the eastern coast and into India, finally penetrating to the islands of the Pacific. The Emperor Charles V., who ruled Spain when at the height of her power, aimed not only at. the restoration of the Boman Empire in Europe, but at the creation of a new empire in America. Neither Spain nor Portu gal followed the policy of developing the agri cultural resources of the regions which they oc cupied, but merely used the colonies as a basis of profitable trade with the home country and as an asylum for high-salaried officials. Portu gal established mere trading factories. The Spanish colonies were chiefly concerned with mining. They were governed by an official hier archy. under the genera) direction of an execu tive department in Spain. The other govern ments of Europe—Great Britain, France, Hol land, and the minor States—subsequently colo nized in America, the East Indies, and Africa.