A colony is a territory controlled and often settled by people from another country. It can also mean a group of the same kind of animals or plants living together in one place, like a colony of ants.
“Colony” comes from Latin “colonia,” meaning “settlement” or “farm,” from “colonus” (farmer or settler), related to “colere” (to cultivate). The political sense grew from the idea of settlers sent out to inhabit new land.
Biologists talk about “colonies” of bacteria or penguins using the same word once used for overseas human settlements. Both senses carry a quiet idea of expansion: life pushing out to occupy new territory.
'Colony' describes territories controlled by external powers; colonial systems frequently imposed patriarchal legal codes and exploited both women’s and men’s labor differently. Language about colonies often ignored or minimized the roles of women in resistance and community survival.
Use 'colony' precisely for political-historical entities, not metaphorically for groups of people in ways that dehumanize or erase their agency.
["territory","settlement","dependent territory"]
Women in colonized regions organized mutual aid, underground education, and political mobilization that were crucial to anti-colonial struggles but often omitted from official records.
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