Colonialism (Superpowers)

Colonialism is the building and maintaining of colonies in one territory by people in another territory. Sovereignty over the colony is claimed by a metropole, from which the colonial population originates, and which often takes the role of the colonial governor. Colonialism mostly deals with the relationship between metropole and colony, and then colony and indigene.

Like in OTL, the Europeans, Romans and Danes, began a period of sending ships to the New World during the IInd Millennium. Naming the new continent Columbia and Vinland respectively, both empires would quickly find that not only was it inhabited already, but that many of the inhabitants were almost as technologically advanced as they were. These inhabitants would themselves later begin to colonize the Old World, specifically, Africa.

Beginning with the colonization of Groenland in 957 CE by the Danes, the process slowly accelerated till the entire New World was claimed by one civilization or another by 1649 CE after the Mongol's annexation of Alyeska. This colonialism would be one of the major causes of the Great War at the turn of the XVIIIth Century. If not only a cause of the War itself but definitely the cause for the War being brought over to the New World.

At present, nearly half of Columbia Australis is owned by foreigner, virtually all Caribbean Islands are owned by foreigners, and over a third of North Columbia is either owned by foreigners, or owned by a nation directly spawned by a foreign one. Of all non-Columbian nations, the Roman Empire owns the most land in the New World. The only nation in general that owns more Columbian land is the Mayan Conglomerate, and they are one of the continent's three native empires.

Early Colonialism (957-1220)
The Viking settlement of Brattahlíð was the firs human colony to be established on Groenland, and the first European colony to be set up in the Columbias. It was founded in the same place and with the same name as the OTL settlement of Brattahlíð and its founder was of identical descent to Eric the Red, though the changes to the timeline resulted in him being born in 936 instead of between 940-960.

Erik brought with him many of his people and so the initial settlement had a population of over 300 Norse men, women and children. This grew as news spread to Scandinavia and soon the reputation of Erik the Wise was spread throughout the Viking people. When he took command of the United Danish Kingdoms in 961 a new wave of colonists set out to populate Brattahlíð. On his death in 986 CE, the colony had over 10,000 people living in it, and three other settlements were in their development stage.

For the next 166 years, the Groenland Kingdom of the Danes continued to expand along the coastline, covering most of the southern coast by 1072 CE. It was not until 1123 however that the first Europeans would set foot on Columbian soil. These Danes were meant as basically suicide scouts to attempt and find either new land to the West, or the theorized Edge of the World. Luckily they found the former and after reporting back, a group of colonists was launched to set up a fishing outpost in the reportedly rich waters.

The new land was dubbed Vinland, and so both the new Danish Kingdom, (a kingdom to the Danes was like a State to America), the new land and the new island were all known by that name. The settlement was however called Røngsbruk, based on the lead colonist's name. Similarly to Groenland, colonization happened rapidly, with many Danes even coming as far as Scandinavia to settle the discovered island. The pace at which this happened was even quicker than before, as the news came back that Vinland was full of rich fields and streams.

When the new Vinlandic capital of Skálovitá was founded in 1219, the population of the Kingdom had already passed 45,000 and was still being settled at an increasingly faster rate. The mainland was discovered 47 years later and the efforts to colonize it were made almost immediately, and began faster than the last two attempts as a "Home base" was already much closer.

The Romans first pondered sailing to the west after some geographers in Gallia theorized the existence of a new continent between Europe and East Asia in 1087. They called it Columbia after the current Emperor, and immediately, Roman philosophers began to think of ways of reaching this far off land. Therefore no ship was sent to locate the land until 1142, finally arriving on the island of Hispaniola the following year. Once the Emperor Magnus I heard the news, he quickly put together a large team of colonists and had seven galleons sent to Hispaniola in 1146.

For the next 20 years, 9-15 galleons would be sent yearly to continue on the expansion of the city of Colona, founded in 1947. It is from this city that the term Colonantes ("Colonizing") was coined, and it is a rough equivalent to the English word of Colonialism.