{"id":815747,"name":"Number of colonies by region","unit":"countries","createdAt":"2023-10-27T04:17:30.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-11-10T14:43:40.000Z","coverage":"","timespan":"1462-2022","datasetId":6258,"shortUnit":"","columnOrder":0,"shortName":"colony_number","catalogPath":"grapher/harvard/2023-09-18/colonial_dates_dataset/colonial_dates_dataset#colony_number","descriptionShort":"Total number of overseas colonies per year colonized in each region 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 region and income group, we count how many countries were colonies in each year.\n\nRegions follow Our World in Data’s definitions, and income groups follow the World Bank’s classification. Europe is included because we count Cyprus as a European country, while COLDAT treats it as a European overseas colony.\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":"14265046201518375029","metadataChecksum":"610900234803813036","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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Union (27)","code":"OWID_EU27"},{"id":457,"name":"High-income countries","code":"OWID_HIC"},{"id":461,"name":"Low-income countries","code":"OWID_LIC"},{"id":460,"name":"Lower-middle-income countries","code":"OWID_LMC"},{"id":294,"name":"North America","code":"OWID_NAM"},{"id":277,"name":"Oceania","code":"OWID_OCE"},{"id":295,"name":"South America","code":"OWID_SAM"},{"id":459,"name":"Upper-middle-income countries","code":"OWID_UMC"},{"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"}}]}