Western colonial expansion began during the 15th century when Spanish and Portuguese explorers conquered new lands in the West Indies and the Americas. It continued for over 400 years, and ended with the start of the First World War. By that time, western powers such as Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Portugal and Spain, spurred on by their competitive desire to acquire new lands and resources, had colonized the whole of Africa and the areas that we know today as the Americas, Oceania, Australia, New Zealand, the Caribbean, the Middle East and many parts of Asia.

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) likewise embarked on an expansionist period that took place during the first half of the 20th century. By mid-century, due to lands gained through an aggressive expansionist policy and through post-World War II treaties, the Soviet Empire gained control of all of Russia and most of Central Asia and Eastern Europe.

During these periods of expansion, Western European and Soviet powers formed new colonial multi-ethnic provinces (e.g. Rhodesia, French Indonesia and German East Africa) and satellite states (e.g. Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia). They did so with little regard for the people living in the newly controlled areas, or for existing geographical or cultural boundaries. Populations that had previously identified themselves as distinct, based on their cultural, ethnic, and/or religious heritage, were forced to unify under a single national identity. The new multi-ethnic colonial territories and Soviet states were maintained, upheld, and controlled through the use of violence and through the implementation of imperialist policies. Certain populations were denied their political, economic, social and human rights. Imperialist policies promoted ethnic rivalry by favoring one group above the others, distributed resources in an unequal manner, disallowed democratic governments and prohibited local participation in governmental decisions and actions.

By the 1960s, after years of fighting for independence, most Western colonial territories (e.g. India, Indonesia and Algeria) had gained self-rule. Sovereignty, however, did not bring with it freedom from imperialist influences. Colonial legacies were visible in the desire of the new governments to keep the boundaries that were created during colonial times, in the promotion of ethnic rivalry, in the continuation of inhumane and unjust actions against minority populations and in the practice of distributing the country’s resources in an uneven manner. Also, after being under foreign rule for decades, newly independent governments often lacked governmental institutions, good governance skills, and the governing experience needed to effectively rule their newly sovereign nations. In most cases, the transition from colonial province to independent state was a violent and arduous journey.

Many post-Soviet states (e.g. Azerbaijan, Chechnya and Georgia) experienced similar problems. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, conflicts involving borders, ethnic rivalry, human-rights violations, and the uneven distribution of resources raged through former Soviet regions (e.g. the Balkans, the Caucasus and Eastern Europe). In addition, many post-Soviet governments were plagued by a lack of governmental institutions, good governance skills and governmental experience.

Over a hundred new nations were born during the process of de-colonization. Most of these new nations, however, had either not existed at all as nations before colonization or they had not existed within the post-colonial borders.

Most colonial and Soviet satellite borders were created either through conquest, negotiation between empires or simply by administrative action with little or no regard for the social realities of those living in those areas. Nevertheless, many of the leaders and governments of postcolonial and post-Soviet states have fought to keep the territorial boundaries created by past imperialist governments. As a result, a number of boundary conflicts have arisen within post-colonial and post-Soviet territories. Parties to these conflicts justify and legitimate their side’s positions, using different historical boundaries as evidence for their claims.