To be fair, they were doing it when those lines were drawn (in a different location, because they expanded their territory through war) too. The lines just gave them legitimacy. They started colonizing before the lines were made, and we’re in conflict fighting the locals then. It obviously wasn’t the scale it is today, but the whole project is propagated through conflict.
You’re right though legitimacy is everything when it comes to how we preceive who lives where. One has to wonder how legitimacy slowly becomes tacit approval for genocide though.
To be fair, they were doing it when those lines were drawn (in a different location, because they expanded their territory through war) too. The lines just gave them legitimacy. They started colonizing before the lines were made, and we’re in conflict fighting the locals then. It obviously wasn’t the scale it is today, but the whole project is propagated through conflict.
You’re right though legitimacy is everything when it comes to how we preceive who lives where. One has to wonder how legitimacy slowly becomes tacit approval for genocide though.