GGR202H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Canadian Pacific Railway, Indian Act, North West Company
Document Summary
It is an imagined political community (anderson 1983, p. 7) The nation is a political project, not a thing. Definition: one established by europeans on non-european soil . Continues to be structured by a racial hierarchy . In the national mythologies of such societies, it is believed that white people came first and that it is they who principally developed the land . European settlers thus become the original inhabitants and the group most entitled to the fruits of citizenship. So we have all the things that many people admire about the great powers but none of the things that threaten or bother them. -stephen harper speaking at the 2009 g20 meeting in pittsurgh. International law (stemming from roman law) that states that empty land can be claimed by those occupying it. Then through religious, land use, and economic criteria ( highest and best use") Already inhabited nations were simply deemed uninhabited if the people were not.
