Colonialism is the pursuing, establishing and maintaining of control and exploitation of people and of resources by a foreign group of people. Implemented through the establishment of coloniality and possibly colonies, this colonization keeps the colonized territory and people socio-economically othered and subaltern to the colonizers and the metropole. While commonly advanced as an imperialist regime, colonialism can take the more particular and potentially autonomous form of settler colonialism, when colonial settlers pursue a more complete colonization of the land and people, often towards a replacement and possibly even genocide of the native populations.

किसी एक भौगोलिक क्षेत्र के लोगों द्वारा किसी दूसरे भौगोलिक क्षेत्र में उपनिवेश (कॉलोनी) स्थापित करना और यह मान्यता रखना कि यह एक अच्छा काम है, उपनिवेशवाद (अंग्रेज़ी-Colonialism) कहलाता है।