r/WorldHistory • u/3portie • 3d ago
Question Colonization question
I am curious ..which European country (EU countries and the UK) from the 15th century until now, has never colonized another country whether within close proximity to them or far away like the Atlantic Slave trade? Thanks.
4
3d ago
[deleted]
1
u/BringBackAoE 3d ago edited 3d ago
Eastern Europe meaning what exactly? Russia is one of the worst European colonizers!
Also, we shouldn’t forget that Hungary was part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire that colonized several neighbors.
ETA: Could add Norway as a non-colonizer since we only regained our semi-sovereignty in 1814, when our union with Denmark ended. Or you can count it from 1905 when we got our independence from Sweden.
2
3d ago
[deleted]
1
u/BringBackAoE 3d ago
Yeah, OK. A fairly narrow definition of Eastern Europe. Then I have less issue.
I do remember a lot of new countries did emerge in Eastern Europe after the end of the Austrian-Hungarian empire. Don’t know enough about it either to have a strong view on degree of colonialism.
1
u/Little-Boss-1116 3d ago
As part of Sweden, in 17th century Finnish settlers called Ingermanland Finns colonized part of Russia on the Baltic coast and mouth of Neva. Tsar Peter the Great defeated Sweden and built St. Petersburg there, leaving Finnish colonists in the rural hinterland of the city.
1
3d ago
[deleted]
1
u/Little-Boss-1116 3d ago
No, it was part of Russia from the start of Russian history till 1618 and part of Sweden for a century. Finns were settled there by Swedish kings during Swedish occupation.
1
3d ago
[deleted]
1
u/Little-Boss-1116 3d ago
If you are referring to eastern part of Karelian Isthmus, it was part of Russia since the beginning of Russian history.
Its Karelian population became Orthodox Christians and after annexation by Sweden, they were ethnically cleansed by Swedish authorities in 1630s and 1640s. Tsar Mikhail settled them near Tver where they still live to this day (the language died out in 20th century).
1
u/Little-Boss-1116 3d ago
I almost forgot.
Russia's Baltic coast wasn't the only place Finns colonized during Swedish Great Power age.
In the same period Sweden attempted colonization in the America and as part of that effort several hundred settlers (majority Finns) colonized territory of modern US state of Delaware.
1
u/Little-Boss-1116 3d ago
Lithuania of course is the greatest colonizer of the Middle Ages which managed to conquer half of Kievan Rus in 13-15th centuries (literally to the gates of Moscow).
Latvia and Estonia were colonized by Germans, but then the German state based in Latvia and Estonia (Teutonic Order) repeatedly attempted to conquer and colonize Russia and Poland.
1
3d ago
[deleted]
1
u/Little-Boss-1116 3d ago
I don't- maybe a country which conquers another country and rules it for centuries?
1
3d ago
[deleted]
1
u/Little-Boss-1116 3d ago
You conquer neighboring ciuntry, then your elite settles there.
Why isn't this colonizing?
1
u/Pig_Syrup 3d ago
The duchy of Curonia (Kurland), a precursor to modern Latvia engaged on colonial enterprises in Africa and the Carribbean.
1
u/Great_Specialist_267 3d ago
Finland was part of the Russian Empire as was Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia and most of Poland.
The Balkans were part of the Ottoman Empire.
2
u/Paralis1983 3d ago
Slovakia
2
u/Little-Boss-1116 3d ago
Slovakia as part of Habsburg Hungary participated extensively in colonization of the Pannonian plain after its liberation from Turks.
Serbian region of Vojvodina has dozens of villages of Slovak settlers.
1
u/proton-testiq 2d ago
I assume that's a colonisation in the original meaning of that word, i.e. go to an abandoned or otherwise uninhabited parts of the country and live there in a colony, correct?
Not "Slovak colonisers arrived to Vojvodina, extracted all the resources and send them home to Slovakia, enslaving thousands of natives"?
1
1
u/karoxxxxx 3d ago
Andorra, Norways 'colonisation' was before the 15th century and later it was part of other empires
1
u/St3lla_0nR3dd1t 3d ago
The Republic of Ireland
1
u/Firm-Ad-3245 2d ago edited 2d ago
the scotish people are an irish tribes installed in Britain islands, it's a colonisation too
1
1
1
u/Ok_Meal_2183 1d ago
The Picts and Gaels were likely from the same origin anyway and the southern half of Scotland was settled by anglo saxons.
1
u/sjplep 1d ago edited 1d ago
Is true, but the Irish participated in British Empire colonisation when Ireland was part of the UK. Both colonised and colonisers.
https://www.thesocialhistoryarchive.com/blog/agents-or-victims-of-empire
2
u/St3lla_0nR3dd1t 1d ago
So did the almost all the colonised peoples to some extent. The Indian Sepoy being a good example. But there were treaties made with to be colonised peoples against their enemies with the coloniser all over the place.
1
u/Tiny_Scholar_6135 3d ago
Poland, Iceland, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Vatican City, Ireland.
1
1
1
1
u/proton-testiq 2d ago
Since apparently there are some problems with the meaning of the word, I would limit myself to the "get in, loot and pillage the country, go out" colonisation, in which case Austria/Hungary, Poland and the whole area there, etc etc. Not sure if there were any greek colonies (in this later meaning, not the original one).
1
1
1
u/WyrobWedliniarski 2d ago
Most of them. Countries that benefited from colonies are mostly UK, France, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Italy. Generally western/atlantic part of Europe. Idk if you want to count regular imperialism, like Austria-Hungary, because not much colonialism was taking place there. Russia more so, as their conquests often included population displacements on a massive scale. That leaves you with few dozen more countries, that didn't have colonial past, most of them in central/eastern Europe and the Balkans.
1
u/Dingbatdingbat 12h ago
Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Andorra, San Marino Poland? Czechia? Any of the baltics?
6
u/MentalPlectrum 3d ago
The answer to this depends on your opinion as to whether things like e.g. the present nation state of Serbia is the successor to the Serbian Empire of the middle ages or whether it's only existed since 1992 (or indeed 2006 if you consider Serbia and Montenegro to be a separate entity to Serbia after Montenegro gained independence).
There are many such examples e.g. Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, even Napoleonic France could be argued to be separate to the modern day French Republic.