When Europeans arrived in the 'New World', they justified their assumption of political sovereignty and title to Indigenous lands by reinterpreting the Doctrine of Discovery. The doctrine was based on the notion of terra nullius � a Latin term referring to empty, essentially barren uninhabited land. At the time of contact, under norms of international law, the European discovery of such land gave the discovering nation immediate sovereignty and all rights and title to the land. Over the course of time, however, the concept of terra nullius was extended to include lands that were not in possession of "civilized" peoples or were not put to proper, "civilized" use