self-colonize

Verb

self-colonize (third-person singular simple present self-colonizes, present participle self-colonizing, simple past and past participle self-colonized)

1. To regain power (by indigenous people) after having been under colonial rule by another country, typically with the adoption of some of the culture of the former colonizers.
   • Nazi-era Schlager are thus reappropriated as part of the FRG after 1989 and help to self-colonize the previously alien(ated) nation of Germany for the Germans.2010, Susan G. Figge, Jenifer K. Ward, Reworking the German Past, →ISBN
   • The legacy of colonialism continues and expands to include those who self-colonize thereby reaffirming Weber's caricatures and uncritical idealisations of Westernisation and law or even to idealisations of Islamic law.2013, Keebet von Benda-Beckmann, Franz von Benda-Beckmann, Anne Griffiths, The Power Of Law In A Transnational World: Anthropological Enquiries, →ISBN
2. To be introduced into an ecosystem through natural processes, as opposed to deliberate introduction by people.
   • Cordgrass will be planted, not left to self-colonize.2001, Bolsa Chica Lowlands Restoration Project: Environmental Impact Statement
   • If not, expect an abundance of weeds, by which we mean invasive and nonnative species that self- colonize.2008, Sally Stenhouse Kneidel, Sadie Kneidel, Going Green: A Wise Consumer's Guide to a Shrinking Planet, page 95