4 May 1493
Policy and racial inequalitySupplement
Inter caetera and the Doctrine of Discovery
Atlantic world; Indigenous nations
Pope Alexander VI’s bull asserted Christian monarchs’ authority to claim lands outside Christian rule. Such imperial and religious claims subordinated Indigenous sovereignty and helped justify European colonization.
Dates preserve the source’s precision. This entry is part of a selected historical record; its qualifications and sources are retained below.
Context / qualification
The Doctrine of Discovery developed through several papal documents and later legal decisions; it was not a single U.S. law enacted in 1493. Christian and European identities then should not be treated as identical to modern U.S. racial categories.