License for empire: Colonialism by treaty in early America

By Dorothy V. Jones

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226407071
• ISBN13: 9780226407074
• Release Date: January 1982
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 270 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Legal Imperialism by One Sided Treaty

In this readable, concise book Dorothy Jones tells the story of relations between the Europeans and the Native Americans before and after the American Revolution. The relations between Europeans and Indians were bound by treaties which were one sided. By treaty Indians gave land and Europeans gave goods and granted rights and privileges in return. But the goods did not last, the grants and privileges were ephemeral, and the land was permanently gone. Thus the tribes like the Iroquois and the Shawnee entered a vicious circle by which they voluntarily gave away their land.This process became more one sided after the Seven Years War, when France and Spain no longer competed with the British. The Native Americans could no longer play one side against the other. The British and the Indians set up a series of treaties controlling the boundaries between their lands. But rivalries among the various tribes destroyed the system of boundaries between the British and Indians lands. The problems for the Indians worsened after the American Revolution. When the influence of the British declined, and the Indians could only deal with the American government, to their dismay. The overwhelming power of the American government made the treaties even more one sided. The treaties between the American government and the tribes like the Iroquois and the Shawnees delimited the borders of the Indian lands, but stopped the Indians from buying, selling or renting their remaining land the way they wanted.This book contains a series of maps and charts to help clarify Jones argument.