Has there been other settlements in occupied territories in recent history?

score:9

Accepted answer

I can think of several examples which are big enough, recent enough and well known enough not to be disputed.

  1. In 1938 the Germans occupied Czechoslovakia, and civilians were free to settle there under the "Lebensraum" (breathing room) philosophy. The occupation was (at first) of an area populated mostly by ethnic Germans, but legally at least that doesn't matter.
  2. The Chinese occupation (and annexation) of Tibet, in which people who are ethnically Han Chinese are settling in areas of TIbet for many years now. If I remember correctly, they are now about 50% of the population.
  3. Israel again, this time in the Sinai peninsula. The territory was conquered from Egypt in 1967, and civilian settlements were built in the 1970's. The settlements were entirely (and forcibly) dismantled as part of the Begin-Saadat peace treaty in 1980-82 and the territory was handed back to the Egyptian government.

Upvote:2

One example is the Russian population in Kazakhstan. (The USSR transferred large populations around, so this is probably not the only example.) Settlement started in the 19th century, but increased in the 20th century. According to Wikipedia, by 1917, 30% of the population was Russian.

Many more Russians arrived in the years 1953-1965,during the so-called Virgin Lands Campaign of Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev. Still more settlers came in the late 1960s and 70s, when the government paid bonuses to workers participating in a program to relocate Soviet industry close to the extensive coal, gas, and oil deposits of Central Asia. By 1979 ethnic Russians in Kazakhstan numbered about 5,500,000, almost 40% of the total population.

Following independence, Kazakhstan instituted policies to reaffirm its cultural dominance, such as requiring Kazakh be spoken as the only official language. Ethnic Russians found the policy discriminatory and now the percentage of Russians stands at 30%. Repatriation of Russians was discussed with the Russian government, but found to be inappropriate. At this time, the issue remains unresolved and is a source of conflict and political dispute. So large and entrenched of a minority group is considered to be nearly impossible to resettle.

I'm not sure about the international reaction, the policies of the USSR were routinely condemned in the West, although many still supported them as a positive quality of ruthless pragmatism.

Upvote:3

How about in 1948 when India invaded Hyderabad and conquered it? Any Indians who since moved to the area are also occupying settlers.

Upvote:4

French Algeria might qualify.

Algeria was conquered militarily (in 1830) and maintained under French control against regular rebellions until 1962. Its status within the empire was very different from that of other French colonies, with a tight integration to France itself, while maintaining a sharp distinction between “natives” and “Europeans” (which included not only settlers coming from mainland France but also immigrants from Spain, Italy and other countries and Jews - there was a Jewish population in Algeria before the French conquest but all Jews were granted citizenship by the décret Crémieux and thus kind of assimilated to the “settlers”).

Upvote:5

  • Crimea (occupied by Russia from Crimean tatars, with tatars forcibly deported and Russians moved in). Later re-occupied in 2014, with both Ukrainians and Crimean tatars being discriminated against (the leader of Crimean tatars was exiled).

  • Königsberg, which USSR occupied, de-germanized, and turned into Russian-majority Калинингра́д (Latin: Kaliningrad).

Upvote:13

Where to start? Starting from the forced exchange of population between Greece and Turkey in 1923, you will find no shortage of examples, some of truly unbelievable scale. Among the most prominent ones are population transfer and Russian settlements in the former USSR (considering the brutality of the regime, I think it is beyond dispute that these satisfy your second criteria) and the numerous expulsions and relocations (with Poles, citizens of the USSR and ethnic Germans by far the more numerous victims) which took place during the Second World War.

Compared to numerous instances in the XXth century, Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are thus in fact quite unremarkable.

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