Territoire et propriété

Mobilizing three perspectives at once - hemispheric, Atlantic, imperial - and comparing the different colonial societies of the Americas, this collective book reveals the specificity of Old-Regime imperialism and colonialism, and, more broadly, the singularity of the history of an Atlantic world that served as a social laboratory for the first globalization. In keeping with this framework, this chapter analyzes the colonization of the American lands and territories. Territory and land ownership were indeed inextricably intertwined: the sedentarization of settlers was predominantly accomplished through the occupation and economic development of land, which consequently resulted in various authorities assuming effective control of these regions. Throughout the Americas, the expansion of agricultural, mining, and livestock settlement fronts gave rise to areas of contention. The resulting territorial and land conflicts had complex implications, with some individuals or groups claiming only property rights, others demanding political autonomy or absolute sovereignty, and still others combining the two. The spatial dimension of colonization is analyzed from two correlated points of view: Amerindian territorialities and land rights, and the relationship between property and political and economic power in territories where settlers of European descent were established.