U.S.-China Mutual Trust Committee
Doctrine of Christian Discovery and Colonialism in Europe and the U.S.
“The Doctrines of Christian Discovery (DoCD) originate with 15th century Papal Bulls that were issued by the Vatican and implemented by Monarchies, sanctioning the brutal conquest and colonization of non-Christians who were deemed “enemies of Christ” in Africa and the Americas. These Papal Bulls were a continuation of what had been going on since at least the 8th century from Charlemagne, through the Crusades, the Inquisition, the war on witches, to the Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula. In 1823, the “Doctrine of Discovery” was first articulated as a legal formulation in US Supreme Court case, Johnson v. M’Intosh in 1823. As this case fundamentally defines international property law today, it continues to be used by multi-national corporations and Nation-States in their extraction of resources in indigenous territories around the world. The global scale with which the DoCD expressed itself in the “Age of Discovery” – first in Africa, then the Americas, and beyond – created a unified Christendom which became the opposing force against the great global plurality of cultures. This Doctrine governs United States and international law even today and has been cited as recently as 2005 in the decision City Of Sherrill V. Oneida Indian Nation Of N.Y.“
https://doctrineofdiscovery.org/what-is-the-doctrine-of-discovery
“The Papal Bull “Inter Caetera”, issued by Pope Alexander VI on May 4, 1493, played a central role in the Spanish conquest of the New World. The document supported Spain’s strategy to ensure its exclusive right to the lands discovered by Columbus the previous year. It established a demarcation line one hundred leagues west of the Azores and Cape Verde Islands and assigned Spain the exclusive right to acquire territorial possessions and to trade in all lands west of that line. All others were forbidden to approach the lands west of the line without special license from the rulers of Spain. This effectively gave Spain a monopoly on the lands in the New World.
The Bull stated that any land not inhabited by Christians was available to be “discovered,” claimed, and exploited by Christian rulers and declared that “the Catholic faith and the Christian religion be exalted and be everywhere increased and spread, that the health of souls be cared for and that barbarous nations be overthrown and brought to the faith itself.” This “Doctrine of Discovery” became the basis of all European claims in the Americas as well as the foundation for the United States’ western expansion. In the US Supreme Court in the 1823 case Johnson v. M’Intosh, Chief Justice John Marshall’s opinion in the unanimous decision held “that the principle of discovery gave European nations an absolute right to New World lands.” In essence, American Indians had only a right of occupancy, which could be abolished. The Inter Caetera made headlines again throughout the 1990s and in 2000, when many Catholics petitioned Pope John Paul II to formally revoke it and recognize the human rights of indigenous “non-Christian peoples.”
https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/spotlight-primary-source/doctrine-discovery-1493
“The Doctrine of Discovery established a religious, political, and legal justification for colonization and seizure of land not inhabited by Christians. Foundational elements of the Doctrine can be found in a series of papal bulls, or decrees, beginning in the 1100s, which included sanctions, enforcements, authorizations, expulsions, admonishments, excommunications, denunciations, and expressions of territorial sovereignty for Christian monarchs supported by the Catholic Church. Two papal bulls in particular stand out: (1) Pope Nicholas V issued “Romanus Pontifex” in 1455, granting the Portuguese a monopoly of trade with Africa and authorizing the enslavement of local people; (2) Pope Alexander VI issued the Papal Bull “Inter Caetera” in 1493 to justify Christian European explorers’ claims on land and waterways they allegedly discovered, and to promote Christian domination and superiority.
The 1493 Papal decree aimed to justify Christian European explorers’ claims on land and waterways they allegedly discovered, and promote Christian domination and superiority, and has been applied in Africa, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and the Americas. If an explorer proclaims to have discovered the land in the name of a Christian European monarch, plants a flag in its soil, and reports his “discovery” to the European rulers and returns to occupy it, the land is now his, even if someone else was there first. Should the original occupants insist on claiming that the land is theirs, the “discoverer” can label the occupants’ way of being on the land inadequate according to European standards. This ideology supported the dehumanization of those living on the land and their dispossession, murder, and forced assimilation. The Doctrine fueled white supremacy insofar as white European settlers claimed they were instruments of divine design and possessed cultural superiority.”
In an 1823 Supreme Court case, Johnson v. M’Intosh, the Doctrine of Discovery became part of US federal law and was used to dispossess Native peoples of their land. In a unanimous decision, Chief Justice John Marshall writes, “that the principle of discovery gave European nations an absolute right to New World lands” and Native peoples certain rights of occupancy. We study the Doctrine of Discovery to listen to voices that have been silenced and disregarded for centuries. These voices tell a frequently overlooked story about the origins of the United States.
The significance of the Doctrine continues to be debated. According to David Wilkins (Deconstructing the Doctrine of Discovery https://ictnews.org/archive/deconstructing-the-doctrine-of-discovery): “It is more complicated than just saying the Pope gave European Catholics the rights to colonize and convert. In reality, the absolute denial of Native land rights was replaced less than fifty years later when Charles V … sought the advice of Francisco de Vitoria … as to what the Spanish could legally and morally claim in the New World. Vitoria, in a clear rebuttal to the Pope and the discovery notion, declared that Native peoples were the true owners of their lands.”
https://upstanderproject.org/learn/guides-and-resources/first-light/doctrine-of-discovery.
The lingering trauma of this Doctrine is with us still, as evidenced by the demand of Indigenous Canadians to Pope Francis to rescind it during his recent visit to Canada. Pope Francis responded with an apology and specifically asked forgiveness for “projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation promoted by the governments of the time.” The Vatican also issued a formal condemnation.
https://www.npr.org/2023/03/30/1167056438/vatican-doctrine-of-discovery-colonialism-indigenoUS
Roger Cohen, the Paris Bureau Chief of the New York Times, explores how the “long shadow” and brutal history of colonization are being weaponized today in the Middle East conflict and in the rise of the Global South.