Colonial powers

This is the second time I've received mail - and stamps - from Joao in Portugal. This time he included stamps from previous Portuguese colonies: Angola and Mozambique. To me the stamps all were very thematic. They featured uniforms worn by the colonizing soldiers, raw materials that were extracted from those places, native women, maps of the conquered lands and portraits of the distinguished explorers etc involved.

It's amazing how many countries have been involved in the colonizing process. I'm not going to single any one out. Holland, my parents' country has dabbled. New Zealand, where I was born, was itself a colony. I recommend that you listen to a podcast by Dan Carlin on the topic.