European Treaties bearing on the History of the United States and its Dependencies to 1648

European Treaties Bearing on the History of the United States and its Dependencies to 1648, edited by Frances Gardiner Davenport and published by the Carnegie Institution of Washington in 1917, is a scholarly compilation of the actual treaty texts and papal bulls, including the 1493 bulls of Alexander VI dividing New World territory between Spain and Portugal, that shaped European colonial claims in the Americas. Its strength is that it prints the primary documents themselves with historical introductions and bibliographical notes, giving direct access to texts a claim about the papacy's role in colonial partition can be checked against rather than taking on a later summary's word. Its limit is that a documentary compilation organizes and introduces the sources rather than arguing a sustained historical interpretation of them, so a claim about how these treaties were actually understood or enforced on the ground by the colonial powers needs a narrative history built on this documentary foundation.