Native Studies 20
Unit 1: Indigenous Worldviews and Ways of Knowing
Historical Context: How Colonialism Came to Cover the Globe
Historical Context: How Colonialism Came to Cover the Globe
Embedded Files
Note: This handout provides historical background for Goal 4. Read it before moving to the Goal 4 handout on how colonization suppressed Indigenous worldviews.
A note before you read
This handout contains historical content about violence, dispossession, and the destruction of peoples and cultures. For students with personal or family connections to these histories, this material may bring up strong emotions. That response is valid.
If you need support: speak to your teacher, or contact the Hope for Wellness Help Line at 1-855-242-3310 (24/7, available in English, French, Cree, Ojibway, and Inuktitut).
The World Before: What Colonizers Arrived Into
The World Before: What Colonizers Arrived Into
A common misconception about colonization is that European ships arrived into an empty or undeveloped world. The historical record contradicts this entirely. The peoples colonizers encountered had been building complex societies, governance systems, legal traditions, trade networks, and knowledge systems for thousands of years.
A few examples make this concrete:
NORTH AMERICA -- Great Lakes region, est. 12th-16th century
The Haudenosaunee Confederacy and the Great Law of Peace
Before European contact, five nations -- the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca -- formed the Haudenosaunee Confederacy under the Great Law of Peace (Gayanashagowa). This was a sophisticated democratic constitution that governed relations between nations, protected individual rights, and established procedures for collective decision-making. Scholars have noted that the Haudenosaunee system of governance influenced the framers of the United States Constitution. At its peak, the city of Cahokia near present-day St. Louis housed more people than contemporary London.
WEST AFRICA -- Mali Empire, 1240 to 1645
The Mali Empire and the University of Timbuktu
The Mali Empire, centered in West Africa, controlled vast trans-Saharan trade routes and accumulated enormous wealth through gold and salt. At its height under Mansa Musa in the 14th century, it was one of the largest and wealthiest empires in the world. The city of Timbuktu housed the Sankore University, which attracted scholars from across Africa and the Islamic world. Thousands of manuscripts on mathematics, astronomy, medicine, and law were produced and preserved there. When European colonization arrived in West Africa centuries later, it disrupted a continent that had its own universities, legal systems, diplomatic networks, and trade economies.
MESOAMERICA -- Mexico and Central America, to 1521
The Aztec Empire and its capital Tenochtitlan
At the time of Spanish arrival in 1519, the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan had a population estimated at 200,000 to 300,000 people, making it one of the largest cities in the world. It featured causeways, aqueducts, floating gardens, markets, temples, schools, and a sophisticated administrative system. The Aztec Empire governed through a network of tribute relationships across Mesoamerica. The Maya had developed one of the only fully developed writing systems in the pre-Columbian Americas, along with advanced calendars, astronomy, and architecture. These were not primitive or undeveloped societies. They were civilizations encountering other civilizations.
This context matters for one reason: colonizers did not arrive into a vacuum. They arrived into functioning worlds. Understanding this changes how you analyze what colonization did. It was not development or civilization brought to empty land. It was the systematic displacement and suppression of existing civilizations.
The Doctrine of Discovery: The Legal and Religious Foundation of Colonialism
The Doctrine of Discovery: The Legal and Religious Foundation of Colonialism
Colonialism needed justification. European powers could not simply seize land from other peoples without some framework that made that seizure legitimate in their own eyes and in the eyes of other European powers. The Doctrine of Discovery provided that framework.
The Doctrine of Discovery is not a single document. It is a series of papal decrees, royal charters, and legal rulings developed between the 1400s and the 1800s that together established a principle: any land not already held by a Christian sovereign could be claimed by whatever Christian European power 'discovered' it first. The people already living on that land were not considered to hold legal title to it.
The Doctrine of Discovery worked on two levels. Legally, it gave European powers a framework for claiming territory without negotiating with its inhabitants. Ideologically, it established that non-Christian peoples stood outside the protections of European law. The same logic that allowed Spain to claim the Americas in 1493 was used by Britain to claim Australia in 1788, and by European powers to divide Africa at the Berlin Conference in 1884.
Three Waves: How Colonialism Spread Across the Globe
Three Waves: How Colonialism Spread Across the Globe
European colonialism did not happen all at once. It spread in recognizable waves, each driven by a combination of technological, economic, and political factors. Understanding the waves helps you see colonialism as a global system that evolved over four centuries, not a series of isolated events.
The Three Drivers: Why Colonialism Happened
The Three Drivers: Why Colonialism Happened
Colonialism was not a single thing with a single cause. Three major forces drove it, and they worked together in ways that were mutually reinforcing.
These three drivers did not operate separately. A missionary building a school was also serving the colonial state's interest in producing obedient workers. A trading company extracting resources was also extending the political reach of its home government. A military force securing territory was also protecting the economic investments of merchants. Colonialism worked because these forces reinforced each other.
What This Means for Goal 4
What This Means for Goal 4
The historical context in this handout sets the foundation for Goal 4, which examines how colonization specifically suppressed Indigenous worldviews. Keep the following questions in mind as you move into that material:
• If Indigenous nations already had complex governance, law, and knowledge systems, what did colonizers have to do to take control? It was not enough to take the land. They had to dismantle the systems that connected people to the land.
• The Doctrine of Discovery declared that Indigenous peoples did not legally own their land. What does that legal fiction require you to believe about Indigenous peoples? What did colonial governments have to say about Indigenous worldviews to make that fiction work?
• Colonialism was driven by economics, religion, and politics working together. When you look at the four mechanisms in Goal 4 -- forced assimilation, removal of children, banning of ceremonies, and imposed legal systems -- which driver do you see most clearly behind each one?
Connecting idea: Colonialism needed to suppress Indigenous worldviews because those worldviews were the foundation of Indigenous peoples' relationship to land, their systems of governance, and their ability to resist. Destroying the worldview was a precondition for taking everything else.
Think About It
Think About It
Answer the following in your notes or journal before moving to the Goal 4 handout.
• The Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Mali Empire, and the Aztec Empire were all complex, functioning civilizations before colonization. Why do you think popular culture and school curricula so rarely present this picture of pre-colonial life? What is the effect of that absence?
• The Doctrine of Discovery declared that non-Christian land could be claimed by whoever discovered it. The Vatican repudiated this doctrine in 2023, but the legal frameworks built on it remain in place. What does it mean for a legal principle to be repudiated but still active?
• Colonialism spread in three waves across 400 years. Does the length of time make it harder to understand as a single system? How do you connect what happened in the Americas in 1493 to what happened in Africa in 1884?
References
References
Sources Used
Sources Used
The following sources informed the content of this handout.
Al Jazeera. (2025, February 26). Colonising Africa: What happened at the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885? https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/2/26/colonising-africa-what-happened-at-the-berlin-conference-of-1884-1885
Cedarvia. (2025). Doctrine of Discovery: Origin and influence. https://cedarvia.ca/resources/injustice-and-reform/doctrine-of-discovery
Upstander Project. (n.d.). Doctrine of Discovery. https://upstanderproject.org/learn/guides-and-resources/first-light/doctrine-of-discovery
Wikipedia. (2025). History of colonialism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_colonialism
Wikipedia. (2025). Scramble for Africa. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scramble_for_Africa
World History Encyclopedia. (2023). Doctrine of Discovery. https://www.worldhistory.org/Doctrine_of_Discovery/
Further Reading: Students
Further Reading: Students
These resources extend the ideas in this handout at an accessible level.
Canadian Museum for Human Rights. (n.d.). The Doctrine of Discovery. https://humanrights.ca/story/doctrine-discovery [Clear, accessible overview of the Doctrine of Discovery and its continuing legal effects in Canada.]
Facing History and Ourselves. (n.d.). Colonialism. https://www.facinghistory.org [Lesson materials, primary sources, and case studies on colonialism for secondary students.]
PBS News. (2023, March 30). Vatican formally rejects Doctrine of Discovery after Indigenous calls. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/vatican-formally-rejects-doctrine-of-discovery-after-indigenous-calls [News report on the 2023 Vatican repudiation, with context on what it does and does not change.]
Further Reading: Teachers
Further Reading: Teachers
These resources provide deeper theoretical and historical grounding.
Miller, R. J. (2008). Native America, discovered and conquered: Thomas Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, and Manifest Destiny. University of Nebraska Press. [Traces how the Doctrine of Discovery was incorporated into American law and policy. Accessible for teachers without a legal background.]
Wolfe, P. (2006). Settler colonialism and the elimination of the native. Journal of Genocide Research, 8(4), 387-409. [Foundational academic article on settler colonialism as a structure rather than an event. Key reading for understanding the logic behind assimilation policies.]
Mamdani, M. (1996). Citizen and subject: Contemporary Africa and the legacy of late colonialism. Princeton University Press. [Analyzes the political and legal legacy of both direct and indirect colonial rule in Africa. Essential for the Africa content in this unit.]
Hope for Wellness Help Line: 1-855-242-3310 (24/7, available in English, French, Cree, Ojibway, and Inuktitut).
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