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1. IntroductionThe European voyages of discovery undertaken for various reasons between the 15th and 19th centuries are a defining feature of the history of the early modern period. Traditional historiography saw them as a key element of European expansionism and the beginning of the “Europeanization of the world.” The discovery in 1492 of what to Europeans was a New World in the Americas (America, discovery of) has often been (and still is) portrayed as a historical watershed (Epoch) se…

1. Introduction Colony (from the Latin  colere, “to cultivate”, “to till”) originally meant a human “plantation” or “offshoot” of the original society, and hence essentially a settlement. The word became more closely associated with foreign rule in the 19th century [5. 47 f.] (Colonialism). Since then, “settler colony” has become a sub-category of colony (alongside, for instance, “colony of control” and “trading colony” [8. 16–18]), particularly associated with aspects of inequality, difference, and gradients of authority. Until the 19th century and long…