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Analysis of the Doctrine of Discovery Documentary
The Doctrine of Discovery documentary is a short film that demonstrates how the
Christian Doctrine of discovery has affected the indigenous people of modern times. The
doctrine was based on ancient Christian beliefs that pagans and people of other religions ought to
be ruled over and converted willingly or unwillingly. In 1942, the Catholic Pope issued the papal
bull dum diversas which laid the foundation for the Doctrine of Discovery. The Papal bull dum
gave the Portuguese the authority to invade and conquer all pagans and Saracens and enslave
them (Doctrine of Discovery Documentary). Years later, the Europeans used this doctrine to
invade the lands owned by the Indians with the belief that since they were not Christians, they
were less human and not worthy of owning land. The main argument in the documentary is that
this doctrine is retrogressive and has been used to undermine indigenous people in many parts of
the world.
The first illustration of this argument is that different rulers have been using the doctrine
as an excuse to attain their selfish desires. For example, Queen Elizabeth the first was an
excommunicated member of the Catholic Church yet sent authorized English expeditions to
North America to try and set up English colonies based on the Papa bull dum (Doctrine of
Discovery Documentary). This is the perfect illustration that the idea of acquiring the lands of
indigenous people was a European ideology based on greed.
