{"id":814886,"name":"Number of colonies","unit":"countries","createdAt":"2023-10-05T08:30:00.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-11-10T14:43:39.000Z","coverage":"","timespan":"1462-2022","datasetId":6258,"shortUnit":"","columnOrder":0,"shortName":"total_colonies","catalogPath":"grapher/harvard/2023-09-18/colonial_dates_dataset/colonial_dates_dataset#total_colonies","descriptionShort":"Total number of overseas colonies per year colonized by an European colonial power, between Belgium, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Italy. Colonies are defined in terms of contemporary nation states: along current independent countries and their borders.\n","descriptionFromProducer":"","descriptionProcessing":"For each of the eight colonial powers, we count how many of today’s countries it colonized in each year. \"World\" shows the total across all powers, so a country with two colonizers in the same year counts twice. Other countries have no data.\n\nCOLDAT gives each start and end date of colonial rule in two versions: the latest of the dates its sources give, and their average. COLDAT’s author filled in by hand the few dates that no source gives. We use the latest dates, to be conservative: they mark the years by which all the sources that give a date agree colonial rule had started or ended.\n\nCOLDAT only lists the years in which each country was a colony. We fill in every year from 1462, the earliest start date in the data, to 2022, so that each country also has values before, between and after its colonial periods.","type":"int","dataChecksum":"13253035276543637391","metadataChecksum":"8899638606285122976","datasetName":"Colonial Dates Dataset (COLDAT)","updatePeriodDays":0,"datasetVersion":"2023-09-18","nonRedistributable":false,"display":{"name":"Number of colonies","unit":"countries","conversionFactor":1,"numDecimalPlaces":0,"entityAnnotationsMap":""},"schemaVersion":2,"processingLevel":"major","presentation":{"topicTagsLinks":["State Capacity"]},"descriptionKey":"- This data comes from the Colonial Dates Dataset (COLDAT), compiled by Bastian Becker at the University of Bremen. COLDAT doesn’t collect new historical evidence. Instead, it combines the start and end dates of colonial rule recorded in four existing datasets: the Correlates of War project, and datasets by Lange and coauthors (2006), Wimmer and Min (2006), and Olsson (2009).\n- COLDAT gives each start and end date of colonial rule in two versions: the latest of the dates the four datasets give, and their average. Not every colony appears in all four datasets, and COLDAT’s author filled in by hand the 25 dates that none of them gives, mostly from the CIA World Factbook. We use the latest dates. This is a conservative choice: a country only counts as a colony from the year all the datasets that give a date agree colonial rule had started, and until the year they all agree it had ended. As a result, colonial rule can start later in this data than in some of the datasets COLDAT draws on.\n- COLDAT doesn’t include every colony. For example, it doesn’t record Dutch rule in today’s Malaysia (Malacca) or Sri Lanka (Ceylon), and its author notes that colonies none of the four datasets mentions are missing. In such cases, the data can miss years in which a country was colonized, or show the wrong colonizer for them. It also leaves out colonies of European countries other than the eight it covers, such as Denmark and Sweden.","dimensions":{"years":{"values":[{"id":1462},{"id":1463},{"id":1464},{"id":1465},{"id":1466},{"id":1467},{"id":1468},{"id":1469},{"id":1470},{"id":1471},{"id":1472},{"id":1473},{"id":1474},{"id":1475},{"id":1476},{"id":1477},{"id":1478},{"id":1479},{"id":1480},{"id":1481},{"id":1482},{"id":1483},{"id":1484},{"id":1485},{"id":1486},{"id":1487},{"id":1488},{"id":1489},{"id":1490},{"id":1491},{"id":1492},{"id":1493},{"id":1494},{"id":1495},{"id":1496},{"id":1497},{"id":1498},{"id":1499},{"id":1500},{"id":1501},{"id":1502},{"id":1503},{"id":1504},{"id":1505},{"id":1506},{"id":1507},{"id":1508},{"id":1509},{"id":1510},{"id":1511},{"id":1512},{"id":1513},{"id":1514},{"id":1515},{"id":1516},{"id":1517},{"id":1518},{"id":1519},{"id":1520},{"id":1521},{"id":1522},{"id":1523},{"id":1524},{"id":1525},{"id":1526},{"id":1527},{"id":1528},{"id":1529},{"id":1530},{"id":1531},{"id":1532},{"id":1533},{"id":1534},{"id":1535},{"id":1536},{"id":1537},{"id":1538},{"id":1539},{"id":1540},{"id":1541},{"id":1542},{"id":1543},{"id":1544},{"id":1545},{"id":1546},{"id":1547},{"id":1548},{"id":1549},{"id":1550},{"id":1551},{"id":1552},{"id":1553},{"id":1554},{"id":1555},{"id":1556},{"id":1557},{"id":1558},{"id":1559},{"id":1560},{"id":1561},{"id":1562},{"id":1563},{"id":1564},{"id":1565},{"id":1566},{"id":1567},{"id":1568},{"id":1569},{"id":1570},{"id":1571},{"id":1572},{"id":1573},{"id":1574},{"id":1575},{"id":1576},{"id":1577},{"id":1578},{"id":1579},{"id":1580},{"id":1581},{"id":1582},{"id":1583},{"id":1584},{"id":1585},{"id":1586},{"id":1587},{"id":1588},{"id":1589},{"id":1590},{"id":1591},{"id":1592},{"id":1593},{"id":1594},{"id":1595},{"id":1596},{"id":1597},{"id":1598},{"id":1599},{"id":1600},{"id":1601},{"id":1602},{"id":1603},{"id":1604},{"id":1605},{"id":1606},{"id":1607},{"id":1608},{"id":1609},{"id":1610},{"id":1611},{"id":1612},{"id":1613},{"id":1614},{"id":1615},{"id":1616},{"id":1617},{"id":1618},{"id":1619},{"id":1620},{"id":1621},{"id":1622},{"id":1623},{"id":1624},{"id":1625},{"id":1626},{"id":1627},{"id":1628},{"id":1629},{"id":1630},{"id":1631},{"id":1632},{"id":1633},{"id":1634},{"id":1635},{"id":1636},{"id":1637},{"id":1638},{"id":1639},{"id":1640},{"id":1641},{"id":1642},{"id":1643},{"id":1644},{"id":1645},{"id":1646},{"id":1647},{"id":1648},{"id":1649},{"id":1650},{"id":1651},{"id":1652},{"id":1653},{"id":1654},{"id":1655},{"id":1656},{"id":1657},{"id":1658},{"id":1659},{"id":1660},{"id":1661},{"id":1662},{"id":1663},{"id":1664},{"id":1665},{"id":1666},{"id":1667},{"id":1668},{"id":1669},{"id":1670},{"id":1671},{"id":1672},{"id":1673},{"id":1674},{"id":1675},{"id":1676},{"id":1677},{"id":1678},{"id":1679},{"id":1680},{"id":1681},{"id":1682},{"id":1683},{"id":1684},{"id":1685},{"id":1686},{"id":1687},{"id":1688},{"id":1689},{"id":1690},{"id":1691},{"id":1692},{"id":1693},{"id":1694},{"id":1695},{"id":1696},{"id":1697},{"id":1698},{"id":1699},{"id":1700},{"id":1701},{"id":1702},{"id":1703},{"id":1704},{"id":1705},{"id":1706},{"id":1707},{"id":1708},{"id":1709},{"id":1710},{"id":1711},{"id":1712},{"id":1713},{"id":1714},{"id":1715},{"id":1716},{"id":1717},{"id":1718},{"id":1719},{"id":1720},{"id":1721},{"id":1722},{"id":1723},{"id":1724},{"id":1725},{"id":1726},{"id":1727},{"id":1728},{"id":1729},{"id":1730},{"id":1731},{"id":1732},{"id":1733},{"id":1734},{"id":1735},{"id":1736},{"id":1737},{"id":1738},{"id":1739},{"id":1740},{"id":1741},{"id":1742},{"id":1743},{"id":1744},{"id":1745},{"id":1746},{"id":1747},{"id":1748},{"id":1749},{"id":1750},{"id":1751},{"id":1752},{"id":1753},{"id":1754},{"id":1755},{"id":1756},{"id":1757},{"id":1758},{"id":1759},{"id":1760},{"id":1761},{"id":1762},{"id":1763},{"id":1764},{"id":1765},{"id":1766},{"id":1767},{"id":1768},{"id":1769},{"id":1770},{"id":1771},{"id":1772},{"id":1773},{"id":1774},{"id":1775},{"id":1776},{"id":1777},{"id":1778},{"id":1779},{"id":1780},{"id":1781},{"id":1782},{"id":1783},{"id":1784},{"id":1785},{"id":1786},{"id":1787},{"id":1788},{"id":1789},{"id":1790},{"id":1791},{"id":1792},{"id":1793},{"id":1794},{"id":1795},{"id":1796},{"id":1797},{"id":1798},{"id":1799},{"id":1800},{"id":1801},{"id":1802},{"id":1803},{"id":1804},{"id":1805},{"id":1806},{"id":1807},{"id":1808},{"id":1809},{"id":1810},{"id":1811},{"id":1812},{"id":1813},{"id":1814},{"id":1815},{"id":1816},{"id":1817},{"id":1818},{"id":1819},{"id":1820},{"id":1821},{"id":1822},{"id":1823},{"id":1824},{"id":1825},{"id":1826},{"id":1827},{"id":1828},{"id":1829},{"id":1830},{"id":1831},{"id":1832},{"id":1833},{"id":1834},{"id":1835},{"id":1836},{"id":1837},{"id":1838},{"id":1839},{"id":1840},{"id":1841},{"id":1842},{"id":1843},{"id":1844},{"id":1845},{"id":1846},{"id":1847},{"id":1848},{"id":1849},{"id":1850},{"id":1851},{"id":1852},{"id":1853},{"id":1854},{"id":1855},{"id":1856},{"id":1857},{"id":1858},{"id":1859},{"id":1860},{"id":1861},{"id":1862},{"id":1863},{"id":1864},{"id":1865},{"id":1866},{"id":1867},{"id":1868},{"id":1869},{"id":1870},{"id":1871},{"id":1872},{"id":1873},{"id":1874},{"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Kingdom","code":"GBR"},{"id":355,"name":"World","code":"OWID_WRL"}]}},"origins":[{"id":144,"title":"Colonial Dates Dataset (COLDAT)","description":"The Colonial Dates Dataset (COLDAT) aggregates information on the reach and duration of European colonial empires from renowned secondary sources. By aggregating secondary sources, rather than collecting from primary sources, the new dataset reflects the accumulated knowledge in the discipline and relieves researchers from making hard to justify choices between different historical datasets.\nThe dataset only considers the colonial status of countries that are independent today. It also includes overseas colonies only.","producer":"Bastian Becker","citationFull":"Becker, Bastian (2019), Introducing COLDAT: The Colonial Dates Dataset, SOCIUM/SFB1342 Working Paper Series, 02/2019. url: https://www.socium.uni-bremen.de/f/51ebd445c4.pdf","versionProducer":"3.0","urlMain":"https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/T9SDEW","dateAccessed":"2023-09-22","datePublished":"2023-09-21","license":{"url":"https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/T9SDEW","name":"CC0"}},{"id":21118,"title":"Population","description":"Gapminder's population data is divided into two chunks: One long historical trend for the global population that goes back to 10,000 BC. And the second chunk is country estimates that only reaches back to 1800.\n\nFor the first chunk, several sources were used. You can learn more at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hkLbEilJbl630IG68q-aQJlUjuTFm9b_12nQMVd1sZM/edit#gid=0. For the second chunk, Gapminder uses UN population data between 1950 to 2100 from the UN Population Division World Population Prospects 2019, and the forecast to the year 2100 uses their medium-fertility variant.\n\nFor years before 1950, this version uses the data documented in greater detail by Mattias Lindgren in version 3. The main source was Angus Maddison's data, which CLIO Infra Project maintained and improved. Note that when combining version 3 with the new UN data, the trends for a few countries didn't match up in the overlapping year 1950.\n\nMinor adjustments were made to the years before and after to smooth out discrepancies between the two sources and avoid spurious jumps in Gapminder's visualizations.\n\nVisit https://www.gapminder.org/data/documentation/gd003/ to learn more about the methodology used and the data from back to 10,000 BC.","producer":"Gapminder","citationFull":"Gapminder Population v7 (2022)","attribution":"Gapminder, Population v7 (2022)","attributionShort":"Gapminder","versionProducer":"v7","urlMain":"http://gapm.io/dpop","urlDownload":"https://gapm.io/dl_popv7","dateAccessed":"2023-03-31","datePublished":"2022-10-19","license":{"url":"https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-RmthhS2EPMK_HIpnPctcXpB0n7ADSWnXa5Hb3PxNq4/edit?usp=sharing","name":"CC BY 4.0"}}]}