0.4 Glossary of the oaap's "americas concepts"

The Our Americas Archive Partnership's (OAAP) Americas Concepts are key terms developed by Dr. Caroline F. Levander and Dr. Ralph Bauer to facilitate the discovery of documents related to themes central to hemispheric approaches to research. These concepts allow for thematic searches across national boundaries and time periods. Concepts were assigned to documents based on content.

This glossary can also be found on the OAAP website "About" documentation, under Glossary: (External Link)

Map of the american hemisphere, 1823

Americas concepts

Borders: refers to documents describing or written in border cities, border states, or at border markers (such as official monuments and rivers); the movement or designation of political borders; crossing borders; surveys of borders; and wars or revolutions that impact the location of the border. Documents assigned this term include: travel journals that describe crossing state and national borders; government surveys determining the location of the border; letters from the Texas Revolution; images of political borders; images of border cities; treaties that establish political borders; etc.

Colonialism: refers to imperial control of a region or people; foreign governments controlling regions or people; and issues related to established colonies. Documents assigned this term include: accounts written by conquistadors and missionaries; documents on the founding and settlement of colonies; books detailing customs within specific colonial territories, etc.

Conquest: refers to the conquering or taking over of a people and/or territory through colonial reconnaissance campaigns, colonial settlement, or wars of invasion. Documents assigned this term include: accounts written by conquistadors; military documents from wars of invasion; maps of ceded territory; descriptions of military invasions; etc.

Conservatism: refers to adherence to right-wing political policies or philosophies and religious, cultural, and national traditions or customs. In Spanish, this particularly refers to adherence to Catholic policies. Documents assigned this term include: documents that justify politics along traditional religious lines; politically conservative constitutions; politically conservative presidential messages; documents that describe traditions and customs; conservative congressional documents; monarchal documents; the Plan de Iguala; etc.

Constitutionalism: refers to limited government, an adherence to constitutions and law. Documents assigned this term include: constitutions; government documents; election records; letters or narratives that reference constitutional rights; etc.