* Also known as tropical dependencies, these were not settled by large numbers of Europeans. Exploitation colonies had cotton, palm oil, rubber or spice plantations and attracted planters, administrators, merchants and military officers. The colonising country established political control instead of trying to overthrow the population. Indigenous populations were not killed or displaced and cultures were not, intentionally at least, destroyed. This makes the long-term effect on exploitation colonies profoundly different to those of settlement colonies.