Abstract
European nations with imperial ambitions used a variety of mechanisms to assert their jurisdiction over newly discovered lands and peoples. The documents here include foundational treaties and charters issued from, or involving Spain, Portugal, England, and the Netherlands. Europeans based the legitimacy of their claims on papal, monarchical, legislative, or religious authority. Though their styles differed in various ways, all had in common one thing: they neither acknowledged the rights of native peoples who lived in the regions they claimed, nor consulted with them in any meaningful way.