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Conquest and the ‘Right to Hold’: Territorial Sovereignty and the American Revolution

People Involved

Dr Charles Prior

Project Description

Historians hold these truths to be self-evident: that the ideological origins of the American Revolution lie in arguments about political rights, which were conducted exclusively within English and European frameworks of political ideas. This project takes a different approach, and situates conflict over land at the centre of a contest between settlers, Indians, colonial governors and the Crown. Offering the first sustained analysis of treaties and laws that structured the relationship between settlers and Indians, it recovers a long history of ‘conquest’ that Thomas Jefferson defended as the basis of ‘the right to hold’ and rule territory.

Project Acronym CRTH
Status Project Complete
Value £35,941.00
Project Dates Oct 1, 2017 - Dec 31, 2018
Partner Organisations No Partners


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