Settler colonialism

Settler conquest of native land in the USA from 1783 to 1893

Zionist conquest of Palestinian land from 1947 to the present

Settler colonialism is a form of colonialism in which one population attempts to supplant another by dispossessing them of their land, creating a class relation between the settler population (which owns the land) and the indigenous population (which is being dispossessed). This involves the destruction of the previously-existing society and the annihilation of its people through mass murder, deportation, and/or forced assimilation. Modern examples of settler colonial states include Australia, Canada, South Africa, the Zionist Entity, New Zealand, and the United States. The ruling class often uses settler colonialism as a tool to appease disgruntled members of society, allowing them to settle on indigenous land as a concession to prevent revolution.

Resistance

United States

The Shawnee leaders Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa organized a pan-indigenous resistance against settler colonialism in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. In the late 19th century, the Paiute leader Wovoka founded the Ghost Dance movement.

Palestine

See main article: Hamas

Zimbabwe

In the 1890s, indigenous peoples of Zimbabwe fought against the invading settler-colonial forces of the British South Africa Company's "Pioneer Column" in a series of battles and uprisings, including what is known as the First Chimurenga in 1896. The word "chimurenga" is a Shona word which means rebellion or resistance.

Though these initial uprisings did not ultimately repel the settler forces, the peoples of Zimbabwe continued to resist settler colonialism. Over time, organizations such as the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) and Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) and their respective military wings were formed to combat the settler regime. As ZANU leader Herbert Chitepo explained in 1973, "No doubt our old people then, our grandfathers in 1893, '94, '95, '96, '97, during those wars, fought gallantly with bows and arrows [...] and they were faced against muskets, they were faced against Maxim guns. And they were defeated. To that day our African people have never accepted that position. Quietly, sometimes, without words, they have continued to look upon that land as theirs, continued to prepare the day, for the day when they must wrest it back into their own control."

The later phase of national liberation struggle in Zimbabwe against the settler regime of "Rhodesia" came to be known as the Second Chimurenga. The Battle of Chinhoyi in 1966 is often regarded as the opening battle of the Second Chimurenga. Zimbabwe achieved independence in 1980, although the struggle against imperialism, neocolonialism, and the effects of settler colonial rule and land dispossession have continued.