070258 SE Research Seminar Global History and Global Studies - Settler Colonialism and Indigenous Peoples (2023S)

The seminar will deal with a particular form of colonialism of the 19th and early 20th century, the so called “settler colonialism”. We will investigate how this settler colonialism differs from other forms of colonialism. Although settler colonialism claimed to take possession of uninhabited no-man’s-land (“terra nullius”), it encountered autochthonous societies and developed pragmatic approaches to political and legal dealings with these societies. Examined are all parts of the world, for example the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Southern and East Africa, Russian Siberia, and China, but also former Spanish possessions such as Argentina, Chile or Uruguay. The seminar will also deal with the consequences of settler colonialism for modern legal claims of Indigenous Peoples.