Governance has always been closely linked to migrations. The deployment of administrators and troops, as well as the deportation of populations, are means of securing power. These measures aim at appropriating territories and shaping societal structures.

In the course of the expansion of European colonial empires, large numbers of soldiers and settlers were sent from the mother countries. Their goal was to secure the conquered territories politically, economically, and culturally, and to integrate them permanently into the empires. The administration of such territories often led to the deportation and forced resettlement of Indigenous populations. European powers such as the Netherlands, Great Britain, and Spain were involved in the transatlantic slave trade. From the early 16th to the mid-19th century, they brutally forced roughly 15 million Africans to migrate to the Americas.