Book contents
- The Cambridge History of America and the World
- The Cambridge History of America and the World
- The Cambridge History of America and the World
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors to Volume II
- General Introduction: What is America and the World?
- Introduction to Volume II
- Part I Building and Resisting US Empire
- 1 The United States between Nation and Empire, 1776–1820
- 2 Indigenous Nations and the United States
- 3 Settler Colonialism
- 4 Slavery and Statecraft
- 5 The Mexican-American War
- 6 Containing Empire: The United States and the World in the Civil War Era
- 7 The United States in an Age of Global Integration, 1865–1897
- 8 The Wars of 1898 and the US Overseas Empire
- Part II Imperial Structures
- Part III Americans and the World
- Part IV Americans in the World
- Index
3 - Settler Colonialism
from Part I - Building and Resisting US Empire
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 November 2021
- The Cambridge History of America and the World
- The Cambridge History of America and the World
- The Cambridge History of America and the World
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors to Volume II
- General Introduction: What is America and the World?
- Introduction to Volume II
- Part I Building and Resisting US Empire
- 1 The United States between Nation and Empire, 1776–1820
- 2 Indigenous Nations and the United States
- 3 Settler Colonialism
- 4 Slavery and Statecraft
- 5 The Mexican-American War
- 6 Containing Empire: The United States and the World in the Civil War Era
- 7 The United States in an Age of Global Integration, 1865–1897
- 8 The Wars of 1898 and the US Overseas Empire
- Part II Imperial Structures
- Part III Americans and the World
- Part IV Americans in the World
- Index
Summary
A growing number of scholars have begun to use settler colonialism as a lens for US history, especially in the nineteenth century as the United States built its continental empire by dispossessing hundreds of Native nations. Most scholars of North America who have engaged settler colonialism have done so through the work of Australian historian Patrick Wolfe, who analyzed settler colonialism as a distinctive form of colonialism. In contrast to labor-extractive forms of colonialism in which colonizers use indigenous labor to reap profits, Wolfe argued, settler colonialists seek to eliminate indigenous people and take their lands. Wolfe’s notion of settler colonialism’s “logic of elimination” allows for the identification of a range of policies and practices – including outright genocide, removal, and assimilation – all with the goal of taking indigenous lands and replacing Native inhabitants with settlers.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge History of America and the World , pp. 80 - 100Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022