Internal colonialism refers to a structural political and economic inequality between regions of a nation state . This term is used to describe the distinct separation between the dominant center and its periphery. It is derived from colonialism which is “the submission by physical and psychological force of one culture by another… through the military conquest of territory” . The term internal colonialism was coined to describe the blurred boundaries between sites that are geographically close but which are clearly different in terms of culture. Other factors separate the center from the periphery such as language, religion, physical appearance, types and levels of technology, and sexual behavior. Internal colonialism makes it possible to describe the effects of uneven economic development on a regional basis, and to describe the exploitation of minority groups within a society at large. This is considered to be similar to colonialism in the relations between the metropolis and the colony. For the Bolivian sociologist Félix Patzi, internal colonialism is a social process whereby resources, life opportunities and real citizenship are affected by criteria of inclusion or exclusion similar to those of a colony and, by therefore, racial and ethnic.
