So what is settler colonialism and how do we recognize it’s existence? Settler colonialism is a form of colonization where the invading regime/population seeks to build a civilization on conquered land vs simply extracting resources and/or ruling over the indigenous population. Settler colonialism is almost by definition always genocidal in nature, where the invaders seeks to eradicate the indigenous population physically, culturally, and genetically from the land so their own descendents can take up permanent residence. In the real world examples of settler colonies include the entirety of the western hemisphere including the US, New Zealand, Australia, Israel and other nations. All of these nations engage in a pattern of eradication/slavery, asserting sovereignty over the land, and in most cases attempting to erase the act of conquest itself and trying to naturalize their presence upon indigenous land.
Looking back to Tamriel we clear evidence of at least the replacement of an indigenous population with a foreign one. Elven recorded and oral histories, accounts gathered by the the different heroes through the games while they explored The continent, and first hand accounts given to the Dragonborn by Knight-Paladin Gelebor all state that the original inhabitants of Tamriel (at least above ground) was the Elves and their civilization of Mereth. Some time, humans showed up in Tamriel, perhaps from Atmora or some other unknown place. As elves and humans came into contact elves realized that their civilization and existance as a people was being threatened from contact with humans, until a group of desperate Elves sought to take an artifact of mass destruction which the human colonizers found underneath. Over the next course of evens thousand or so years, human tribes grew and took land from elves, enslaving and/or outright slaughtering those they captured. Humanity’s rise in power and land base coalesced into the Nordic Empire and the Cyrodiilic Empires. From that point, Cyrodiil conquered the rest of elven held territory and enslaved the entire species in some nations, and in other subjugated them to the bottom of society, in some, failed attempts of genocide also happened. In this way it is clear that humans engaged in a protracted settler colonial campaign of extermination and enslavement. So on a basic level, Tamriel at least under the Nordic and Cyrodiilic Empire was indeed settler colonized.
Some complications come up tho. The fact f
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