Imperial Colonies throughout the world

[soibean]

When did the powers of Europe begin to expand and create colonies in the other continents? Does anyone know of a map showing the expansion of say... Great Britain or Spain?

[matteus the inbred]

Money. Trade and therefore money, basically, including the acquisition of resources like gold from the Americas and spices and silk from the far east. England and the Netherlands in particular were moving from agriculture to trade throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. And of course with money comes power and influence and eventually an Imperialist mindset, add to that the commonly held European view that it was 'the white man's destiny', God must have wanted it that way and you get an Imperial power like the Victorian British Empire or the Spanish under the Hapsburgs.

[Duke Malcolm]

www.britishempire.co.uk provides good information on the Territories of the British Empire.


The highlighted land is all the territories of the British Empire. Red is the Empire after WW1. The Pink is the 13 colonies.

[Watchman]

They got started right soon after Columbus and others had done some sailing. The Portugese may have been setting up small pockets of semi-permanent presence around India even earlier to serve as trading-posts and supply bases, but I don't really know about that.

However, aside from the Americas and the Caribbean most of the colonies stayed pretty small before the 1800s, really more trade enclaves and places to dump undesirables from home into than what is usually though of as "colonies". The natives usually could, and occasionally did, sweept them into the sea if they got sufficiently pissed off. But the pesky whiteys always came back if they had a motivation to - or another bunch of pesky whiteys would come instead to take over the trade.

[Avicenna]

Spain had most of South America, quite a large chunk of Central America, and I think even some of North America. They also had the Philippines, Cuba and some other colonies.

France had at least half of Africa, at one stage had some American states until Napoleon sold them, and that should be about it.

They all wanted money. Rare resources in Europe were common in other areas, which is why they were major money makers. The rare goods could be obtained cheaply from colonies, processed and made into goods, and then sold for a very high profit elsewhere. Also, all the important people, such as the monarchs, would want more power. Power corrupts.

[Brenus]

Answer for France.
The process took roughly 480 years.
France started the exploration quite soon, under Francois the 1st (Francis the 1st, in English): From Jacques Cartier in 1543 who explored Terra Nova, followed by Champlain (Canada), Cavelier de la Salle (Louisiana & Mississippi) to de La Vérendrye who will go to the Rockies (1738), France will extend her expansion until Louis XV lost them to the British.
The French controlled territories were (more or less): Canada, Mississippi and Missouri basins and the Great Lakes.
Don’t forget the French Guyana in South America. And some islands in the Caribbean.
You can add India, half of the territory until the lost to the English except 5 towns. Louis the XV wasn’t the best Statesman of his time.

The next wave of the French expansion took place in the 19th Century after the Franco-Prussian War:
North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia),
West Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali –French Sudan-, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Togo),
Equatorial Africa (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Gabon, Republic of Congo),

Indian Ocean: Comoros, Madagascar, , Mayotte, Reunion, and few islands

Red Sea: Djibouti and Yemen (Cheik-Saïd peninsula).

East Asia: Cambodia, China (leased territory of Kwan-Chou-Wan), French concessions (Shangai, Guangzhou, Tianjian and Hankou), Laos and Vietnam.

You can add various Protectorates and other little things in the Middle East, Lebanon, Syria and a part of Turkey (Sandjak of Alexandretta).

It is a summary.

[Csargo]

Didnt Britain control 1/3 of all the land of the world at one time. I heard that somewhere.