How did colonial governments change land ownership in colonized territories?

Colonial governments fundamentally altered land ownership in colonized territories by dismantling communal systems in favor of private property, often to facilitate economic exploitation and assimilation.12

In North America, colonial and later national governments systematically undermined Indigenous land tenure. Through policies such as the Dawes General Allotment Act in the United States and similar allotment programs in Canada, authorities partitioned communal reservation lands into individual parcels. This process was driven by the belief that private ownership would force cultural assimilation and economic self-sufficiency, though it primarily served to alienate vast tracts of land—62 percent of designated Native common property in the U.S.—for sale to non-Indigenous speculators.1

In early colonial settlements, governments used land as a tool to attract labor and establish control. They granted large tracts to wealthy individuals or religious communities and utilized systems like "head rights" to distribute land. While some areas initially maintained communal holding patterns similar to medieval traditions, these were gradually replaced by privately owned, fenced farms as individual control of land became the primary path to economic independence and civic status.2