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Settler

A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. Settlers are generally people who take up residence on land and cultivate it, as opposed to nomads. The word "settler" is synonymous with terms such as pioneers, colonists, or "colonials".

Causes of Emigration

The reason for emigration of settlers varies, but often includes one or more factors such as: economic or personal financial hardship; social, cultural, ethnic, or religious persecution (e.g. the Pilgrims, Mormons and Zionists), or; political oppression and/or policies aimed at encouraging foreign settlement.

The colony concerned is sometimes controlled by the government of a settler's home country, and emigration is sometimes approved by an imperial government. The term settler is not usually used in relation to the later histories of well-established and/or independent, postcolonial countries with continuing immigration, like the present-day United States, Canada or Australia, where terms like immigrants are preferred.

Historical usage

In almost every real historical case, settlers live on land which previously belonged to long-established peoples, known as indigenous people (often called "natives", "Aborigines" or, in the Americas, "Indians"). This land is usually settled against the wishes of the indigenes, and then controlled, defended and expanded by force, or it is bought or leased from indigenous people on terms highly favourable to the settlers, sometimes under a treaty (e.g. the Treaty of Waitangi in New Zealand). In some cases (such as Australia), the legal ownership of some lands is contested much later by indigenous people, who seek or claim traditional usage, land rights, native title and related forms of ownership or partial control.

The word "settler" was not originally usually used in relation to unfree labour immigrants, such as slaves (e.g. in the United States), indentured labourers (such as in Colonial America),Indentured Servitude in Colonial America or convicts (such as in New York, 1674-1775; Australia 1788-1868). More recently descendants of these immigrants may argue that they have as much right to use the word "settler" as the descendants of free immigrants.

In Imperial Russia, the government invited Russians or foreign nationals to settle in sparsely populated lands.Robert Greenall, Russians left behind in Central Asia, BBC News, 23 November 2005. These settlers were called "colonists". See, e.g., articles Slavo-Serbia, Volga German, Volhynia, Russians in Kazakhstan.

Although they are often thought of as traveling by sea — the dominant form of travel in the early modern era — significant waves of settlement could also use long overland routes, such as the Great Trek by the Boer-Afrikaners in South Africa, or the Oregon Trail in the United States.

Modern usage

However, sometimes one tribe of native settlers drove another tribe from the lands it held, such as the settlement of lands in the area now called Carmel-by-the-Sea, California where Ohlone peoples settled in areas previously inhabited by the Esselen tribe (Bainbridge, 1977).
Prehistoric Sources Technical Study, prepared for the city of Monterey by Bainbridge Behrens Moore Inc., May 23, 1977

In the Middle East, Israeli settlers are Jews who live in areas captured during the Six-Day war and claimed by Palestinians and Syria. Some historians and scientists maintain that Palestinians are descended mostly from Arab settlers in Palestine, after the Caliphate conquered the area in the 7th century. However, both Israelis and Palestinians claim partial descent from peoples who lived in the region in prehistoric times (see: History of ancient Israel and Judah, Ancestry of the Palestinians).

Other usage

Settlers in hypothetical societies, such as on other planets, often feature in science fiction or fantasy fiction and/or video games.

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