Colonialism is the formation and control of colonies in one territory by people of another territory.

For example, British and European settlers colonized Africa. Ostensibly to resolve boundary and trade issues, their Berlin Conference (1884) carved the continent into colonized territories. In 1914, except for Liberia and Ethiopia, Africa remained under whites’ rule. They controlled wealth and power as Africans resisted, often violently. After 1945 the United Nations supported their anticolonial and liberation struggles, which helped to forge independence for many nations ca. 1956–74. These developments galvanized African American activists, who viewed US black inequality as “internal colonialism.”