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An anachronistic map of the colonial empires
The colonial era was a period in history when many European and Asian great powers acquired colonies and protectorates in weaker countries all over the world. It was sometimes coupled with nationalism, and frequently saw waves of immigrants and trade goods flowing back and forth between the colonies and the mother country.
At their height, the empires commonly thought of as colonial covered some two-thirds of the world's land area. The process of decolonization began in the 1850s, until by the 1940s the majority of the world had practial independence, though they may still be loosely tied to the mother country in some way.