'Falsis nominibus imperium': An Oceanic History of Indigenous Power, Virtue, and Territorial Possession in the Crisis of English Colonization, 1570 - 1630

From the late sixteenth century to the early seventeenth century, many Indigenous polities confronted and defied English colonial intrusion into the Americas. In 1570, Indigenous peoples had little contact with the emerging English empire. Yet, over the course of the following six decades they became increasingly entangled with Anglophone colonizers, especially with members of merchant corporations like the Guiana Company, Virginia Company, and Newfoundland Company, among others. To explore the political and cultural interplay between these nations and corporations, this dissertation examines the thought and actions of a number of Indigenous peoples, including the Arawaks of Güiri noko (northeastern South America), the Kalinago of the Caribbean, Powhatans of Tsenacommacah (Virginia), Beothuk of K’taqamkuk (Newfoundland), Mi’kmaq and Abenaki of Wabanakik (northeastern North America), and the Cree and Inuit of the Hudson Bay watershed. By investigating archival correspondences, reports, charters, and printed texts, this dissertation analyzes Indigenous power, virtue, and assertions of territorial possession in an oceanic framework. Besides rejecting a narrow focus on eastern North America, this dissertation argues that Indigenous peoples challenged colonization in both material and emotional terms through their expressions of martial prowess, virtue, and overt claims of territorial possession. These expressions in turn engendered colonial insecurity and apprehension, raising the prospect that empire was unjust and disposed to failure. Although the English managed to establish permanent colonies in the Americas by 1630, Indigenous peoples did not simply fall victim to the supposedly unstoppable force of colonization. Rather, they continued to affirm their power against English colonizers. Throughout this period, Indigenous peoples made claims to govern themselves and their lands by asserting themselves as political societies. Because natural law and the ius gentium (law of nations) did not permit the dispossession of political societies, English colonizers often struggled to justify colonization. In this context, Indigenous peoples succeeded in inducing an atmosphere of moral insecurity during early colonization and long afterwards. By investigating this emotive context of Anglo-Indigenous relations, this dissertation challenges a historiographic tendency to ascribe confidence to early English colonizers. It instead centres the self-determination of Indigenous peoples in a profound tradition of anti-imperial thought and practice.

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