A depiction of the first medieval settlers arriving in Iceland, 1850
A settler or colonist is a person who establishes or joins a permanent presence that is separate to existing communities. The entity that settlers establish is a settlement. A settler is called a pioneer if they are among the first settling at a place that is new to the settler community.[1] While settlers can act independently, they may receive support from the government of their country or colonial empire, or from a non-governmental organization, as part of a larger campaign.
The process of settling land can be, and has often been, controversial; while human migration is itself a normal phenomenon, it has not been uncommon throughout human history for settlers to have arrived in already-inhabited lands without the intention of living alongside the native population. In these cases, the conflict that arises between the settlers and the natives, or Indigenous peoples, may result in the dispossession of the latter within the contested territory, usually violently.[2]
The lifestyle of a native population is often disturbed or destroyed if they come into contact with a settler population, particularly when the settler population seeks to mostly replace them.[3] Settlers may also engender a change in culture, or alteration of the existing culture, among the natives.[4] New populations have also been created by the mixing of settlers and natives, including Cape Coloureds in South Africa and Anglo-Indians.[5][6]
Many times throughout history, settlers occupied land that was previously inhabited by long-established peoples, who are designated as native or Indigenous. The process by which Indigenous territories are settled by foreign peoples is usually called settler colonialism.[7] It relies upon a process of dispossession, often violent.[2]
In the figurative usage, a "person who goes first or does something first" also applies to the American English use of "pioneer" to refer to a settler–a person who has migrated to a less occupied area and established permanent residence there, often to colonize the area, as first recorded in English in 1605.[8] In United States history, it refers to the Europeans who were part of the process of settling lands which here new to them.
A family of Russian settlers in the Caucasus, c.1910
Anthropologists record the tribal displacement of native settlers who drive another tribe from the lands it held, such as the settlement of lands in the area now called Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, where the Ohlone people settled in areas that were previously inhabited by the Esselen people.[10]
Modern usage
Early European settlers in North America often built crude houses in the form of log cabins.
In Canada, the term "settler" is used by some to describe "the non-Indigenous peoples living in Canada who form the European-descended sociopolitical majority" and thereby asserting that settler colonialism is an ongoing phenomenon. The usage is controversial.[11][12][13]
In the Middle East and North Africa, there are more recent examples of settler communities being established:
The reasons for the emigration of settlers vary, but often they include the following factors and incentives: the desire to start a new and better life in a foreign land, personal financial hardship, social, cultural, ethnic, or religious persecution (e.g., the Pilgrims and Mormons), penal deportation (e.g. of convicted criminals from England to Australia), political oppression, and government incentive policies aimed at encouraging foreign settlement.[22][23][24]
↑ Prehistoric Sources Technical Study, prepared for the city of Monterey by Bainbridge Behrens Moore Inc., 23 May 1977[verification needed]
↑ Denis, Jeffrey S. (February 2015). "Contact Theory in a Small-Town Settler-Colonial Context: The Reproduction of Laissez-Faire Racism in Indigenous-White Canadian Relations". American Sociological Review. 80 (1): 218–242. doi:10.1177/0003122414564998.
↑ Francis Kofi Abiew (1991). The Evolution of the Doctrine and Practice of Humanitarian Intervention. p. 146.
↑ Schneider, Jan (June 2008). "Israel". Focus Migration. 13. Hamburg Institute of International Economics. Archived from the original on 14 May 2019. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
↑ Olsen, Daniel H., and Brian J. Hill. "Pilgrimage and identity along the mormon trail." Religious pilgrimage routes and trails: sustainable development and management. Wallingford UK: CAB International, 2018. 234–246.
↑ Lambright, Bri. "The Ainu, Meiji Era Politics, and Its Lasting Impacts: A Historical Analysis of Racialization, Colonization, and the Creation of State and Identity in Relation to Ainu-Japanese History." (2022).
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