From Public to Private Domain in a Blink of an Eye

Ed Dodson’s paper investigates the transition of land into private domain  and role of land speculation in the expansion of the United States west of the Mississippi River

The discovery by European explorers of the vast and thinly-populated western hemisphere set into motion a migration of groups from the Old World that eventually overwhelmed others who for tens of thousands of years slowly created their own distinct civilizations. The fate of the First Americans was sealed, their displacement (and in some cases annihilation) secured as soon as they became dependent upon the weapons and other goods introduced by Spanish, French, English and other European traders

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