COLONY 69 COLONY Cape Verde and other islands; settle- ments in Senegambia, Guinea, Mozam- bique, Sofala, Angola, Benguela, Mossa- medes, amounting in area to about 700,000 square miles; but Portuguese influence is really limited to a very small portion of this. Spanish. — Soon after the Portuguese the Spaniards began the work of colo- nization. In 1492 Columbus, on board of a Spanish vessel, discovered the island of San Salvador. Haiti, or San Domingo, Porto Rico, Jamaica and Cuba were soon colonized, and before the middle of the 16th century Mexico, Ecuador, Venezue- la, New Granada, Peru, and Chile were subdued, and Spain took the first rank among the colonizing powers of Europe. In 1899 Spain sold to Germany the Caro- line Islands; all of the Ladrones except- ing Guam, which had been ceded to the United States in 1898; and the Pelew or Palaos group; and only retained her African possessions. Dutch. — Philip II. barred Dutch ves- sels from the port of Lisbon, and this forced the Dutch to import directly from India. Several companies were soon formed, and in 1602 they were united into one, the Dutch East India Company, with a monopoly of the East India trade and sovereign powers over all conquests and colonies in India. The Dutch now rapidly deprived the Portuguese of nearly all their East Indian territories, settled a colony at the Cape of Good Hope (1650), established a West India Company, made extensive conquests in Brazil (1623-1660), which were soon lost, and more permanent ones on some of the smaller West India Islands, as San Eustatia, Curasao, Saba, etc. The Dutch still possess numerous colonies in the East Indies, the most important of which are Java, Sumatra, Dutch Borneo, the Molucca Islands and part of New Guinea; also several small islands in the West Indies, and Surinam. English. — No colonizing power of Eu- rope has had a career of such uniform prosperity as Great Britain. After many fruitless attempts to find a N. E. or N. W. passage to the East Indies, English vessels found their way round the Cape of Good Hope to the East In- dies in 1591, and the East India Com- pany was established in 1600. On the suppression of the Indian mutiny (1857- 1858) the government of India was transferred to the crown by act of par- liament in 1858. The English claim to North America, though allowed to lie dormant for nearly a century, was not relinquished and in the reign of Eliza- beth, led to colonization on a large scale. Australia was discovered in the begin- ning of the 17th century, and the first Australian settlements were British penal colonies. In 1851 the discovery of the abundance of gold in Victoria gave a great impetus to the prosperity of the Australian colonies. In 1874 the Fiji Islands, and in 1884 part of New Guinea, were annexed as crown colonies. In south Africa, Cape Colony, first settled by the Dutch in 1652, became an English colony in 1814. The latest annexations in this quarter are Griqualand West (1880), the Transkeian Territories (1875-1884), Walfisch Bay (1884), Bechuanaland (1885), the former Orange Free State and Transvaal Republics (1900). The Protectorate of Southwest Africa, taken from Germany in 1915, and administrated under a mandate by the Union of South Africa. Further N. are the crown colonies, Lagos, the Niger Districts, the Gold Coast, Gambia, and Sierra Leone, all, except Lagos, which was acquired in 1851, ancient possessions of the British Crown. Togoland and a part of Cameroon, both conquests from the Germans. In Europe, Great Britain has a few colonies acquired for military reasons, Gibraltar in 1704, Malta and Gozzo, 1800. French. — Among the most important are Pondicherry, and a few other small territories in India; Cochin-China, Ton- quin, and the protectorates of Annam and Cambodia in southeastern Asia; New Caledonia, the Loyalty and Marquesas Islands, etc., in Oceania; in Africa, Al- geria, Tunis, Senegambia, Islands of Re- union, the protectorate of Madagascar, etc.; in America, Martinique, Guade- loupe, St. Bartholomew, and Guiana. Al- geria is now officially a French depart- ment. One senator and one deputy are allowed to represent French Indo-China in the Chambers of Paris. Cochin-China, populated by Annamites, Cambodians, Chinese, Malays and Malabarians, is en- titled, however, to but one representative, a deputy. Tonquin, the adjacent French colony, is not represented, the govern- ment being administered by resident French officials. The African colonists are administered by the Minister of the Colonies through governors or commis- sioners-general. Algeria, however, on the N. coast, i.s given a distinct govern- ment and laws, and is looked upon as a part of the Republic, the Chambers alone having the right to legislate for it. Crossing to the West Indies, France allows Martinique and Guadeloupe each one senator and two deputies. French Guiana, however, has only one repre- sentative, a deputy. Germans and Danes. — Germany made a strong effort to take rank as a colonial
