On May 4, 1493, Pope Alexander VI issued the papal bull Inter caetera, an expansive declaration that sought to impose juridical and theological order on the newly encountered Atlantic world. Produced in the immediate aftermath of Christopher Columbus’s first voyage, the document reflects a…
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On December 2, 1823, President James Monroe established his defining legacy. Delivering a message to Congress, the fifth president of the United States announced a foreign policy that would make America the predominant actor in the Western Hemisphere. The Monroe Doctrine was born. At…
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In the autumn of 1888, beneath the vast African sky of Matabeleland, a seemingly routine agreement was inked between British traders and a local monarch. Yet the document—later known as the Rudd Concession—would alter the map of southern Africa and inaugurate a new stage…
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