Possessing the Pacific

Land, Settlers, and Indigenous People from Australia to Alaska

Stuart Banner

  • 2008 World History Association Book Prize

Introduction: The Pacific World and Its Atlantic Antecedents

1. Australia: Terra Nullius by Design

2. New Zealand: Conquest by Contract

3. New Zealand: Conquest by Land Tenure Reform

4. Hawaii: Preparing To Be Colonized

5. California: Terra Nullius by Default

6. British Columbia: Terra Nullius as Kindness

7. Oregon and Washington: Compulsory Treaties

8. Fiji and Tonga: The Importance of Indigenous Political Organization

9. Alaska: Occupancy and Neglect

Conclusion: What Produced Colonial Land Policy?

Abbreviations

Notes

Index

  • Cover: Possessing the Pacific
  • A photo of the author

Stuart Banner is Professor of Law at University of California, Los Angeles.