Colony is a settlement established by people outside their native land, and ruled by the mother country. Nations establish colonies to find more room in which people can live, to increase trade by providing a market for manufactured goods, to gain sources of raw materials, to secure military advantages, and to increase the prestige of the mother country.
Climate has often decided how a colony develops. Temperate lands, such as the areas that are now the United States, Canada, and Australia, have attracted large numbers of colonists who have pushed out the inhabitants of the region. Elsewhere, especially in Latin America, the colonists created new multiracial societies. Outside of the Western Hemisphere, tropical colonies attracted few colonists. These few, instead of pushing out the inhabitants of the region, took control of the colonized territory, as the Belgians did in the Belgian Congo in Africa.
Colonies in time became independent of the mother country. For example, the American Colonies broke away from Britain and became the United States. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and India were once British colonies. But they are now independent members of the Commonwealth of Nations, an association of nations that includes the United Kingdom and many of its former possessions. Almost half the members of the United Nations are former colonies that have become independent since World War II (1939-1945).
