Final answer:
A colony is a territory directly governed by a foreign power, while a protectorate has some local governance but is under foreign control and protection. A sphere of influence is an area of significant foreign control over economic and political affairs without direct governance, and economic imperialism is the domination of a country's economy by a foreign power.
Step-by-step explanation:
The distinctions between colony, protectorate, sphere of influence, and economic imperialism are critical to understanding the forms of control and influence that powerful nations have historically exercised over other regions.
A colony is a territory that is directly governed and administrated by a foreign power. The colonizing country has full authority over the colony’s political and economic affairs. Conversely, a protectorate maintains a certain degree of its own government, but the protectorate's foreign policy is guided and protected by the controlling nation, which may also have exclusive trading rights.
A sphere of influence is a region where a foreign power has significant, but not necessarily direct, control over economic and political activities, often evidenced by the presence of military bases and exclusive business areas. Lastly, economic imperialism encompasses the control a foreign power may hold over the economic resources and key industries of another nation, at times leading to the country's economic dependency on the imperial power.
All these forms of dominance had profound economic impacts on the controlled areas, including land expropriation, raw material exploitation, and labor abuses, under the guise of bringing 'civilization' to the peoples of colonized lands. European powers particularly engaged in these practices, often justifying their expansions as spreading superior culture and values.