Doctrine of Discovery and Environmental Devastation

The “Age of Discovery” ushered in widespread devastation for Indigenous Peoples through land theft, enslavement, and cultural and physical genocide. Rooted in 15th-century Papal Bulls known as the Doctrine of Discovery, colonial powers justified violence by declaring non-Christians as “enemies of Christ.” These decrees echoed the Crusades and aimed to establish a global Christian empire and economy, treating land as an extractive commodity. In 1823, the U.S. Supreme Court adopted this doctrine in Johnson v. M’Intosh, embedding it in U.S. property law to justify further Indigenous land seizure. Though rooted in Catholic theology, this logic has shaped U.S. Protestant nation-building and persists today. The economic systems born from these ideologies—including the transatlantic slave trade and modern corporate extractivism—have played a central role in the environmental crises we now face. Environmental destruction and Indigenous dispossession are thus deeply intertwined in the legacy of colonial expansion.