by Rev. CARROLL C. CARTER
Contributing Advisor to Radio Melrose 96.9 FM
The Doctrine of Discovery is a legal-religious concept created in the 15th century that gave Christian European monarchs the right to claim lands and peoples outside of Europe especially those who were non-Christian for themselves. It was primarily developed through two major papal decrees: first under Pope Nicholas V in 1452, and then under Pope Alexander VI in 1493.
In 1452, Pope Nicholas V issued the papal bull Dum Diversas, which authorized the Portuguese king to “invade, capture, vanquish and subdue all Saracens and pagans and other unbelievers to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery and to take away all their possessions and property.” Then in 1454/1455 a follow-up bull Romanus Pontifex extended Portuguese rights in Africa to trade and to control non-Christian lands and peoples. These decrees set the precedent that non-Christian peoples could be treated as subject to conquest and their lands and property taken by Christian powers.
In 1493, Pope Alexander VI issued Inter Caetera, which gave the Spanish monarchs (Ferdinand and Isabella) the exclusive right to claim “all islands and mainland’s … discovered and to be discovered” to the west and south of a line placed in the Atlantic. It also declared that lands not inhabited by Christians were available to be “discovered, claimed, and exploited” by Christian rulers – all in the name of spreading the Catholic faith. Through this, the doctrine became formalized: when a Christian kingdom “discovers” non-Christian land, that kingdom obtains sovereign rights, and the indigenous people are treated as having no full property or sovereignty rights of their own.
Because the doctrine declared rights based on Christian-European discovery and non-Christian inferiority, its legacy deeply affected people of color, especially African-ancestral populations, Indigenous peoples, and non-Christian communities around the world:
Enslavement and commodification of African ancestral people: The 1452 and 1455 papal bulls under Nicholas V laid groundwork for treating non-Christian peoples as subject to perpetual servitude and seizure of property. This opened a religious justification for the Atlantic slave trade and the forced labor and sale of African ancestral peoples.
Dispossession of Indigenous peoples: In the Americas and elsewhere, Indigenous populations were considered by colonizing powers to hold only occupancy rights; their lands, resources, and lives were treated as available for appropriation. For example, in the U.S., the doctrine was invoked in the 1823 case Johnson v. McIntosh to deny full property rights to Native Americans.
Non-Christian cultural devaluation: The doctrine cast non-Christian peoples as “pagans,” “unbelievers,” or “barbarous nations” to be brought to the faith, thus embedding a worldview of racial and religious superiority of Christian Europeans.
Worldwide property and resource extraction: Lands and resources in Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas were seized, exploited, exported and commodified under the logic of “civilizing” or “discovering” non-Christian lands.
Thus, the doctrine continues to shape how people of color and non-Christian groups experience marginalization, exclusion from full rights, and extraction of their resources.
The doctrine’s logic of discovery legitimized the commodification of both human beings (through slavery, forced labor, indenture) and land/resources (through seizing, extracting, exporting). Africans were forcibly enslaved; Indigenous lands were taken and transformed for plantations, mines, plantations, and corporate extraction. Today, neo-colonial resource extraction in Africa, Latin America and elsewhere often uses similar logics: that local peoples have weaker title or rights, or that resource development serves a “higher” purpose. The people remain treated as inputs in a global system of capital rather than equal human beings with full rights. The colonial property regimes, racial hierarchies and resource commodification set in motion by the doctrine still shape mining agreements, forestry deals, land grabs, forced displacement, environmental injustice and economic inequality.
In summary: the Doctrine of Discovery began with Pope Nicholas V in 1452 authorizing conquest and enslavement of non-Christian peoples; it was expanded under Pope Alexander VI in 1493 to give Christian European powers dominion over non-Christian lands. Its lasting legacy is seen in the dispossession of land, denial of full rights to people of color and non-Christians, and ongoing systems of unequal justice, property rights denial, and resource commodification around the world. The Truth can free you.
