Early Europeans
Historically, the native and the aboriginal cohort are known to be a disenfranchised, marginalized, and oppressed lot. They have been disproportionately affected in various aspects that have culminated in their historical trauma, which was seemingly exacerbated by the early European invasion. When the early Europeans invaded foreign territories inhabited by indigenous populations, they disenfranchised and marginalized the natives in multiple ways. The indigenous population was thus divested of their rights as human beings and were treated insignificantly. The early European colonialists mistreated, prejudiced, and disenfranchised the aboriginal population because they believed that they were; illiterate, chaotic and uncivilized, racially inferior, empowered with the dehumanizing Terra Nullius law and their selfish wealth gaining reasons.
Early Europeans disregarded and disempowered indigenous populations because they believed that they were illiterate. The indigenous population was uneducated, reflecting on their simple political and leadership structures, anchored on inheritance and lineage. To date, illiteracy is a significant factor among the aboriginal community. Since the situation has improved slightly due to radicalization and policy reforms, one can only imagine how dire the illiteracy situation was back then (Hu et al., 2019). Generally, the Europeans found the indigenous populations to be generally illiterate in terms of their political structures, way of life or culture, unstructured social hierarchy, and economic underdevelopment. Due to their rife illiteracy levels, the European powers treated them as insignificant in any form of communal decision or policymaking. Furthermore, they disenfranchised the natives from their core rights like voting because they were outrightly uneducated. Therefore, the European powers saw the indigenous population as illiterate, thus disregarding their entire communal systems and disenfranchising them.
The indigenous population was marginalized and disenfranchised by European powers because they were believed to be chaotic, brutal, and uncivilized. For the most part, the native communities were used to warfare to resolve conflicts they had with other communities, which the European powers somehow found uncivilized. This made the European powers view the aboriginal population as a primitive lot, thus belittling them. They also denied them fundamental rights and access to resources since they were viewed as chaotic. For instance, before the inception of the Great Law of Peace by Dekanawidah, the indigenous Haudenousaunee communities were known to be in constant war with each other because of an array of reasons including but not limited to differences based on language, culture, religion, resources and most importantly land disputes (Williams, 2018). The wars made the Europeans undermine them and label them uncivilized.
Moreover, some European powers mistreated the indigenous populations because they mounted armed resistance towards the colonialists. For example, when the indigenous population living in Brazil engaged in the ‘Barbarian War’ to ward off invasion by the Portuguese settlers, the natives suffered a lot because the Portuguese, who were well-armed, viewed them as enemies (Puntoni, 2019). In a nutshell, the chaotic and uncivilized nature of the natives made the Europeans mistreat them.
The European powers marginalized and disenfranchised the indigenous populations since they believed in white supremacy. Europeans embodied the belief that their race was more superior to all the other races and thus viewed the indigenous population as an inferior race. The European powers considered their political organization, cultural beliefs, religious orientations, and social structures superior to those of the indigenous community and were actively looking for ways to erode their political, cultural, and economic beliefs. The Europeans oppressed the indigenous populations by forcing them to assimilate and follow their ways, which they believed were better. But since the indigenous populations were not ready to abandon their culture and social structure, they resisted causing the Europeans to resort to oppressive ways to force them to change. This is believed to be the root source of the systemic racism that has plagued the world today (Bonds & Inwood, 2016). Therefore, the white supremacy mindset made the Europeans more inclined to mistreating and disenfranchising the aboriginal communities.
Moreover, European powers belittled and disenfranchised the indigenous population because of the Terra Nullius law. The Terra Nullius doctrine implied that all the land, including the land on which the natives and aboriginal populations inhabited, was deemed uninhabited or unoccupied. By such, the European powers completely disregarded and discredited the existence of the indigenous populations in their specific localities, which brewed massive hostility between the European powers and the indigenous populations who fought back in resistance. Terra Nullius law gave the European a legal right to occupy, dispossess, and relocate the natives from their original places of habitat. The indigenous population was silenced from airing their views on Terra Nullius and thus disenfranchised and rendered landless (Roellinghoff, 2020).
Finally, the early European colonialists oppressed the native and aboriginal communities to gain enormous wealth to expand their influence using the least available energy. One of the main reasons that the Europeans set conquest on most foreign localities was to amass more wealth and influence. Since they never owned anything in the foreign territories, they had to forcefully or ill fully acquire it. For instance, when the early European invaded the Americas, they forcefully acquired the gold and silver mines and forced the indigenous communities to offer free labor by mining for them (Rojas et al., 2020). By forcing the natives to work for free, the early European powers disenfranchised them of their right of free will and being paid for work duly done. Furthermore, the Europeans enslaved the natives and thus denied them the right of freedom. Therefore, early Europeans mistreated the natives as a means of expanding their wealth with ease.
Therefore, the European colonialists dehumanized and oppressed the native communities because they felt that they were inferior, illiterate, uncivilized, and chaotic. The Terra Nullius law and their urge to get wealthy and powerful faster also explain why European colonialists marginalized and disenfranchised the native populations. The European saw the indigenous community as illiterate and thus mistreated them and denied them the right to vote for their leaders, thus disenfranchising them. Also, since the indigenous communities were always fighting their neighbors, Europeans found them brutal and chaotic, and thus mistreated them and denied them fundamental rights. Besides, the Terra Nullius law gave the early Europeans a reason to forcefully acquire land belonging to the indigenous community, thus relocating them. Finally, in an attempt to amass as much wealth as possible, the European colonialists forced the natives to offer free labor against their will, thus disenfranchising them.