Internal colonialism

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Internal Colonialism refers to political and economic inequalities between regions within a single society. The term may be used to describe the uneven effects of state development on a regional basis and to describe the exploitation of minority groups within the wider society. The relationship between colonizer and colony is similarly unequal and exploitative in colonialism and internal colonialism. An internal colony typically produces wealth for the benefit of those areas most closely associated with the state, usually the capital area. The members of the internal colonies are distinguished as different by a cultural variable such as ethnicity, language, or religion. They are then excluded from prestigious social and political positions, which are dominated by members of the metropolis (Abercrombie et al., 2000:183). The main difference between neocolonialism and internal colonialism is the source of exploitation. In the former, the control comes from outside the nation-state, while in the latter it comes from within. One of the pivotal publications on the subject is Michael Hechter's Internal Colonialism: The Celtic Fringe in British National Development (1975).