Possessing the Pacific: Land, Settlers, and Indigenous People from Australia to Alaska

This investigation of 19th-century white settlement in the Pacific explores why colonists' strategies for appropriating land from native people varied so widely from place to place. Banner (How the Indians Lost Their Land) identifies three central factors: the speed of white settlement, the extent of native people's political organization, and, most importantly, agriculture, which colonists equated with ownership. When colonists encountered indigenous farming people, the colonists recognized the natives' land ownership. Thus, when the British arrived in New Zealand, they conceded the agricultural Maori's property rights, and tried to buy the land. But when American settlers arrived in California, the non-agricultural native population struck them as primitive, and the settlers refused to acknowledge Indian ownership. Banner sketches the ongoing impact of these colonial encounters, underscoring that indigenous people's property rights today are based on what unfolded 150 years ago. Occasionally, Banner states the obvious, as when he notes that the British ability to take control of New Zealand boiled down to the Brits having more ""power"" than the Maori. Yet his overarching argument is an important one: dispelling the myth that colonization patterns were driven by policies set at home. This original and significant study will appeal to readers hoping to understand an issue whose ramifications are still felt today.