GX Network
Chapter Four: The Papal Bulls and the Doctrine of Discovery
In 1452 and 1455, Pope Nicholas V issued two papal bulls that authorized the King of Portugal to enslave African peoples and seize their territories. In 1493, Pope Alexander VI divided the non-Christian world between Spain and Portugal. These three documents are the legal foundation of European colonialism — and they have never been formally revoked.
◆ Editorial Note ◆
This piece describes the “sovereign citizen” / “strawman doctrine” movement and the legal theories associated with it — including claims about the Cestui Que Vie Act of 1666, “ALL CAPS name” strawman theory, and admiralty/maritime jurisdiction. These theories have been raised in court many times, in the United States, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere — and have been rejected every time. No court has ever accepted a “strawman,” “sovereign citizen,” or “admiralty law” argument as a valid basis to avoid a debt, contract, tax obligation, or criminal charge. People who have relied on these arguments in real legal proceedings have been fined, held in contempt, and in some cases prosecuted. Nothing in this piece is legal advice, and nothing here should be relied upon as a basis for legal action.
On June 18, 1452, Pope Nicholas V issued the papal bull Dum Diversas, authorizing King Alfonso V of Portugal to attack, conquer and enslave Saracens, pagans and any other unbelievers, and to seize their lands, property and possessions. Three years later, on January 5, 1455, the same pope issued Romanus Pontifex, which extended this authorization specifically to the West African territories and peoples that Portuguese explorers were encountering, and granted Portugal the exclusive right to trade and colonize in those territories. In 1493, Pope Alexander VI issued Inter Caetera, which divided the non-Christian world between Spain and Portugal along a line drawn through the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
These three documents — Dum Diversas, Romanus Pontifex, and Inter Caetera — are the legal foundation of European colonialism. They are the documents that established the Doctrine of Discovery: the legal principle that Christian European nations had the right to claim sovereignty over any territory occupied by non-Christian peoples, that the peoples of Africa, the Americas and Asia had no legal right to their land, their freedom or their own governance, and that the Pope had the authority to divide the non-Christian world between the Christian powers of Europe. The Doctrine of Discovery is not ancient history. It was cited by the United States Supreme Court in Johnson v. M’Intosh in 1823 as the legal basis for US land titles. It was cited by the Canadian Supreme Court as recently as 2023. The papal documents that established it have never been formally revoked by the Catholic Church.
The Legal Logic of the Papal Bulls
The legal logic of the Papal Bulls combined Roman legal concepts with Catholic theological doctrine to produce a framework for colonial dispossession that was, within its own terms, internally coherent. The Roman concept of dominium — absolute ownership — required that property be held by legal persons. The Roman concept of persona — legal mask — determined who counted as a legal person. The Catholic elaboration of the Roman legal tradition defined full legal personhood as requiring Christian baptism. Non-Christian peoples were, in this framework, not full legal persons. They could not hold dominium. Their occupation of land did not constitute legal ownership in the sense that Roman law recognized. Terra nullius — empty land — was the legal fiction that expressed this conclusion: the land was legally empty because the people on it did not have legal personhood adequate to establish legal ownership.
The Doctrine of Discovery built on this foundation to authorize the seizure of non-Christian lands by Christian sovereigns. The authorization was not merely moral or political; it was legal. The Papal Bulls were legal documents, issued by the supreme legal authority of the Catholic Church, drawing on the Roman legal tradition that underlay the Church’s own legal system (canon law), and extending that tradition to cover the new situations created by European maritime expansion. The result was a legal framework that, within the terms of the dominant legal tradition of fifteenth-century Europe, provided valid legal title for the seizure of the territories and enslavement of the peoples of Africa, the Americas and Asia.
“The Doctrine of Discovery is not over. It was cited in the United States Supreme Court in 2005, in the Canadian Supreme Court in 2023. The papal bulls that established it have never been revoked. The architecture of colonialism is not history. It is the present legal infrastructure.”
Maroon Histories — The Architecture of Control, Chapter Four◆ Architecture of Control — Complete Series
Intro: How the Law of the Sea Became the Law of Your Life Ch. 1: Before Babylon Ch. 2: The Hammurabi Descent Ch. 3: Rome, Mare Nostrum Ch. 4: The Papal Bulls — You are here Ch. 5: Maritime Law as Colonial Weapon Ch. 6: The Maroon Response Ch. 7: Treaties & Sovereignty Ch. 8: From Sea to LandLicense & Copyright — © 2026 Maroon Histories — Wayne Roberts. Published under Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Free to share with attribution for non-commercial purposes.
Pingback: Chapter Five: Maritime Law as Colonial Weapon โ The Asiento, the Zong and the Legal Architecture of the Slave Trade - maroon histories
Pingback: Chapter Three: Rome, Mare Nostrum and the Imperial Legal Machine - maroon histories