When foreign people move and settle down on a piece of land that is already occupied by other people this is called settler colonialism. It is a form of colonialism.The people that were there before are called indigenous, or native. The new people will take away the land of the people who were already there, and replace them with what is called a settler society.^[1][2] Many people say that this is like a genocide.^[3] There are different ways in which this can be done,ranging from violent depopulation of the previous inhabitants to less deadly means, such as assimilation or recognition of Indigenous identity within a colonial framework.^[4]

Like other forms of colonialism, this kind is organized or supported by a central authority, for example a kingdom or empire.^[1] Settler colonialism contrasts with exploitation colonialism, which results from an economic policy of conquering territory to exploit its population as cheap or free labor and its natural resources as raw material. In this way, settler colonialism lasts indefinitely, except in the rare event of complete evacuation or settler decolonization.^[4] Political theorist Mahmoud Mamdani suggested that settlers could never succeed in their effort to become native, and therefore the only way to end settler colonialism was to erase the political significance of the settler–native dichotomy.^[5]

During the 1960s, settlement and colonization were seen as separate phenomena from colonialism. Settlement endeavors were seen as taking place in empty areas, downplaying the Indigenous inhabitants. Later on in the 1970s and 1980s, settler colonialism was seen as bringing high living standards in contrast to the failed political systems associated with classical colonialism. Beginning in the mid-1990s, the field of settler colonial studies was established.^[6] It is different from Indigenous studies but connected to it.^[7] Patrick Wolfe theorized settler colonialism as a structure (rather than an event) focused on the elimination rather than exploitation of the native population. He distinguished it from classical colonialism. Wolfe also argued that settler colonialism was centered on the control of land and that it continued after the closing of the frontier. His approach was defining for the field, but has been challenged by other scholars on the basis that many situations involve a combination of elimination and exploitation.^[5]

Settler colonial studies has often focused on British colonies in North America, Australia and New Zealand, which are close to the complete, prototypical form of settler colonialism, but is also applied to other cases including British Kenya, the Canary Islands, French Algeria, Generalplan Ost, German South West Africa, Hokkaido, Ireland, Israel/Palestine, Italian Libya and East Africa, Korea, Latin America, Liberia, Manchukuo, Posen and West Prussia, Rhodesia and South Africa.^{[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][5]}