Legal Definitions - penal colony

A penal colony refers to a remote settlement or territory specifically established by a government for the long-term detention and often forced labor of convicted criminals and political prisoners. These locations are typically chosen for their extreme isolation, either as a distant, undeveloped part of the nation's own territory or as an overseas possession.

• Colonial Australia (British Empire): From the late 18th century, the British Empire transported tens of thousands of convicts to its newly claimed territories in Australia. These distant lands, far removed from Britain, served as a vast penal colony where prisoners were detained, often subjected to forced labor, and contributed to the establishment of new settlements. This illustrates the concept as Australia was an extraterritorial holding used for the mass detention of convicts.
• Tsarist Russia's Katorga System in Siberia: For centuries, Imperial Russia utilized the vast, sparsely populated region of Siberia as a destination for criminals and political dissidents. The Katorga system involved sending these individuals to remote labor camps and settlements deep within Siberia. This exemplifies a penal colony situated within an isolated part of a nation's own territory, where prisoners were held far from population centers and forced to perform hard labor.