Colonial war

The "Battle of Isandhlwana" by Charles Edwin Fripp. Fought between the Zulu of South Africa and the British Empire.

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Colonial war is a blanket term relating to the various conflicts that arose as the result of overseas territories being settled by foreign powers creating a colony. The term especially refers to wars fought during the nineteenth century between European armies in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.

The wars may be split into several categories.

First, a revolt of the indigenous population against rule by the Imperial power. In the 19th century these were rarely successful due to the technological and organisational superiority of the Imperial forces. One notable success was the Haitian slave revolt against French rule. In the 20th century these types of conflict were often termed "Wars of National Liberation" and due to better armaments and a heavily politicised leadership strategy achieved much better results by wearing down the will of the Imperial power to continue with an expensive and politically unpopular struggle rather than militarily defeating them, although the Vietnamese also managed the latter against the French at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 leading to their expulsion from Indo-China.

Second, war of self-determination by settlers and descendants of settlers against rule by the "mother country". This did not necessarily involve any of the indigenous population but often took the form of a civil war between supporters of the status quo and separatist revolutionaries. The prime example of this was the American War of Independence against British rule followed by the various Latin American wars of independence against the Spanish Empire. Success was often dependent on external factors and alliances; the rebellious North American colonists were helped by their French allies winning naval superiority at a crucial time.

Third, a conflict with neighbours of the colony as part of Imperial policy, either expansionism such as the Anglo-Zulu and Anglo-Boer wars of the late nineteenth century and the Italian invasion of Abyssinia or as part of a wider conflict such as the World War I campaigns between British/Belgian/French colonial forces and their German neighbours in Africa and Asia.

Examples

Examples of colonial wars include the Java War, the Indian Rebellion, and various conflicts waged during the Scramble for Africa, such as the Anglo-Zulu War and the Mahdist War. The Anglo-Ashanti Wars of the late 1800s were a typical example of colonial warfare, in which small British armies, equipped with modern artillery and machine guns, repeatedly defeated much larger forces of local warriors. During the 19th century and early 20th century colonial period there was endemic warfare on the frontiers of many colonies in tribal areas, notably for the British Empire on the North West frontier of India, for the French and Spanish in their North African colonies and for the United States in North America.

References

Colonization and decolonization

Earth

Exploration	Europe Americas Africa Asia Oceania Antarctica — World oceans

Colonization	Europe Americas Africa Asia Oceania Antarctica World oceans Subterranea

Decolonization	Europe Americas Africa Asia Oceania

General
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Exploration	Maritime history (European) Age of Discovery Solar System discovery

Colonization	Antiquity — Imperialism Chartered companies Intervention philosophy Colonialism chronology history empires Current: Non-Self-Governing Dependent Space Station — Space Militarization Space Commercialization

Empires in Modernity	Overseas, major: British Dutch French German Italian Portuguese Spanish Overseas, minor: American Australian Austro-Hungarian Belgian Danish New Zealand Norwegian Polish-Lithuanian Swedish Mostly contiguous: American Chinese Japanese Ottoman Russian South African

Decolonization	Wars of national liberation — Predecessors of sovereign states in Europe in South America Sovereign states formation dates

Postcolonialism	Independence Nation-building Post-communism Postcolonialism (international relations)

Terra nullius Indigenous peoples Uncontacted people

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Colonization	Mercury Venus Moon Lagrangian points Mars Phobos Asteroids Outer Solar System: Jupiter Europa Callisto Saturn Titan Uranus Neptune trans-Neptunian objects Pluto

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Colonial war

Examples

See also

References