Internal colonialism

Internal colonialism is the uneven effects of economic development on a regional basis, otherwise known as "uneven development" as a result of the exploitation of minority groups within a wider society which leads to political and economic inequalities between regions within a state. This is held to be similar to the relationship between a metropole and a colony, in colonialism proper. The phenomenon leads to the distinct separation of the dominant core from the periphery in an empire.^[1]

Robert Blauner is regarded as the developer of the theory of internal colonialism.^[2] The term was coined to highlight the "blurred" lines between geographically close locations that are clearly different in terms of culture.^[3] Some other factors that separate the core from the periphery are language, religion, physical appearance, types and levels of technology, and sexual behavior.^[4] The cultural and integrative nature of internal colonialism is understood as a project of modernity and it has been explored by Robert Peckham in relation to the formation of a national modern Greek culture during the nineteenth century, when Greece gained its independence from the Ottoman Empire.^[5]

The main difference between neocolonialism and internal colonialism is the source of the exploitation. In the former, the control comes from outside the nation-state, while in the latter it comes from within.