Most histories of European appropriation of indigenous territories
have, until recently, focused on conquest and occupation, while
relatively little attention has been paid to the history of
treaty-making. Yet treaties were also a means of extending empire.
To grasp the extent of European legal engagement with indigenous
peoples, Empire by Treaty: Negotiating European Expansion,
1600-1900 looks at the history of treaty-making in European empires
(Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, French and British) from the early
17th to the late 19th century, that is, during both stages of
European imperialism. While scholars have often dismissed treaties
assuming that they would have been fraudulent or unequal, this book
argues that there was more to the practice of treaty-making than
mere commercial and political opportunism. Indeed, treaty-making
was also promoted by Europeans as a more legitimate means of
appropriating indigenous sovereignties and acquiring land than were
conquest or occupation, and therefore as a way to reconcile
expansion with moral and juridical legitimacy. As for indigenous
peoples, they engaged in treaty-making as a way to further their
interests even if, on the whole, they gained far less than the
Europeans from those agreements and often less than they bargained
for. The vexed history of treaty-making presents particular
challenges for the great expectations placed in treaties for the
resolution of conflicts over indigenous rights in post-colonial
societies. These hopes are held by both indigenous peoples and
representatives of the post-colonial state and yet, both must come
to terms with the complex and troubled history of treaty-making
over 400 years of empire. Empire by Treaty looks at treaty-making
in Dutch Colonial Expansion, Spanish-Portuguese border in the
Americas, Aboriginal Land in Canada, French Colonial West Africa,
and British India.
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