colonise

European powers colonised vast territories across Africa, Asia, and the Americas from the fifteenth century onwards.自15世纪起，欧洲列强在非洲、亚洲和美洲大片领土上进行了殖民统治。

The language of the colonising power gradually displaced indigenous tongues in education and administration.殖民统治者的语言在教育和行政中逐渐取代了本土语言。