Andrews, Tarren. "Early medieval settler colonialism." Throughlines. www.throughlines.org/suite-content/early-medieval-settler-colonialism. [Date accessed].

Early medieval settler colonialism

How history gets made, and how it makes us

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Tarren Andrews
Yale University

Settler colonialism is not a strictly a modern phenomenon. Its logics were already present in the early medieval North Atlantic. Bede’s Ecclesiastical History narrates a divine mission and conversion project to legitimize conquest and settlement. By framing medieval sources alongside Indigenous critiques and theories, students can begin to trace the historical continuity of colonial structures.

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