What is "cocacolonization"

n. (context colloquial often pejorative English) globalization or cultural colonization likened to westernization or Americanization consisting of the importing of western or American goods or cultural values to the detriment of local goods or values

Cocacolonization (alternatively coca-colonization) refers to the globalization of American culture (also referred as to as Americanization) pushed through popular American products such as soft drink maker Coca-Cola. It is a portmanteau of the name of the multinational soft drink maker and "colonization": a process of change that happens everywhere the culture of capitalism takes root.

The term was first documented in 1949 in France. Some French communists began using the word to stir up fears that the United States would attempt to colonize their country as part of the recovery efforts following World War II.

In World War II and the Cold War, many outside of the United States associated Coca-Cola with American culture. With ties to the culture of the United States, select Europeans rejected attempts to cocacolonize their nations. It represented an invasion of their nationalistic identities. In Europe, Coca-Cola was not just a carbonated refreshment, but bottled America. By the end of the Cold War, American ideals were spread across the world by Coke and in certain cases, to combat Communism.

Cocacolonization as a historical concept gained visibility in the European Americanization debate with the 1994 publication of Reinhold Wagnleitner's book, Coca-Colonization and the Cold War: The Cultural Mission of the United States in Austria After the Second World War. Wagnleitner used cocacolonization to embody the premise of his book: America attempted cultural imperialism by expanding American ideals through the spread of consumer goods such as Coca-Cola and Levi jeans and through cultural symbols like Rock and roll and Marlon Brando’s black leather jacket, as well as through the promotion of democracy in Europe.

The expression is also used in medical literature, to describe the lifestyle changes and the associated increase of incidence of characteristic chronic diseases, e.g. type 2 diabetes.