The nineteenth century saw European settlers expand across North America, Australia, South Africa, and other regions. In each case, indigenous peoples — those who had lived in these lands for thousands of years — were displaced from their territories through a combination of violence, disease, legal dispossession, and forced assimilation.
North America: Native Americans
Before European colonisation, North America was home to hundreds of distinct indigenous nations with diverse languages, economies, and cultures — from the agricultural Iroquois Confederacy in the northeast to the nomadic Sioux on the Great Plains.
After American independence (1776), white settlement expanded rapidly westward. The United States government pursued a policy of removing indigenous peoples from their lands:
- The Indian Removal Act (1830) authorised the forced relocation of indigenous peoples east of the Mississippi to "Indian Territory" (present-day Oklahoma).
- The Trail of Tears (1838-39): The Cherokee nation was forcibly marched over 1,600 km in winter. Approximately 4,000 of the 15,000 Cherokee died on the journey.
- After the Civil War, US expansion onto the Great Plains destroyed the buffalo herds that the Plains nations depended on for food, clothing, and shelter. By the 1880s, the buffalo were nearly extinct.
- The Dawes Act (1887) broke up communal tribal lands into individual allotments, undermining the basis of indigenous social organisation and allowing surplus land to be sold to white settlers.
Australia: Aboriginal Peoples
Aboriginal Australians had lived on the continent for at least 60,000 years, with deep spiritual connections to their land (the concept of "country"). British colonisation began in 1788.
Settlers took Aboriginal land for sheep and cattle farming. Aboriginal peoples resisted, but were outgunned. Disease decimated populations. The "Stolen Generations" refers to Aboriginal children forcibly removed from their families between roughly 1910 and 1970 to be raised in institutions or white households — a policy aimed at erasing Aboriginal identity.
Concepts of Land and Ownership
A core conflict in all these encounters was over land. Indigenous peoples typically saw land as communally held, spiritually significant, and inalienable — it could not be permanently sold or owned by individuals. European settlers operated within a legal tradition of private property, seeing uncultivated land as "waste" or "unoccupied" (the doctrine of terra nullius — "no-one's land") and therefore open for the taking.
What was the significance of the Trail of Tears?
The forced march of the Cherokee Nation in 1838-39 is one of the most documented examples of ethnic cleansing in US history. It demonstrated how US law could be weaponised to dispossess indigenous peoples even when they had adopted Euro-American customs (the Cherokee had a written constitution, alphabet, and newspaper).
How did the destruction of the buffalo affect Plains indigenous peoples?
Plains nations like the Sioux, Comanche, and Cheyenne organised their entire economy around the bison. US authorities and hunters systematically killed the herds — from an estimated 60 million bison in 1800 to fewer than 1,000 by 1890. This destroyed indigenous subsistence, forcing surrender and relocation to reservations.
What was terra nullius and why was it legally and morally problematic?
Terra nullius ("nobody's land") was a legal fiction used to claim that lands occupied by indigenous peoples were legally unoccupied because they lacked European-style agriculture or fixed settlements. This ignored centuries of indigenous land management and was formally repudiated in Australia only in 1992 (Mabo decision).
How did residential schools in North America harm indigenous cultures?
Canada and the US established residential (or boarding) schools where indigenous children were forcibly enrolled, forbidden to speak their languages or practise their cultures, and often physically and sexually abused. The explicit aim was to "kill the Indian in the child" — to assimilate children by destroying their cultural identity.
How did the Dawes Act of 1887 accelerate dispossession?
The Dawes Act divided communal tribal lands into 160-acre individual allotments. Indigenous families were expected to become individual farmers. Lands deemed "surplus" were sold to white settlers. As a result, indigenous landholdings in the US fell from about 138 million acres in 1887 to 48 million by 1934.
What forms of resistance did indigenous peoples employ?
Indigenous peoples resisted displacement actively and passively: military resistance (e.g., Sioux victory at Little Bighorn, 1876), legal challenges (the Cherokee used US courts), preservation of cultural practices underground, political organisation, and oral history preservation. Resistance was rarely acknowledged in dominant historical narratives until the late 20th century.
Common mistakes
- Do not portray indigenous peoples as passive victims — they actively resisted, negotiated, and adapted.
- The dispossession was not accidental or inevitable; it resulted from specific government policies and legal doctrines.
- Avoid generalising all indigenous experiences — North American, Australian, and African contexts differed significantly.
Summary
European colonial expansion in the nineteenth century systematically displaced indigenous peoples through violence, disease, legal manipulation, and cultural destruction. Whether in North America or Australia, the pattern involved taking land using legal fictions, destroying economic bases, and suppressing cultural identity. Understanding this history is essential to comprehending ongoing struggles for indigenous rights worldwide.