Abstract

This article presents an archaeological analysis of some of the discourses and practices that played a decisive role in the effectuation of the Conquest of America and the establishment of a political order based on a racial prejudice and domination. A political order that was, in consequence, extremely exclusionary and violent. This research is based on the concepts of biopolitics and anthropological machine created by Giorgio Agamben, as well as on the relationship that exists between them and the communities founded on identitarian principles; the researches of post-colonial philosophers; and Carl Schmit’s writings on International Law. The analysis of the Aristotelian-Thomistic conception of the human being, the geographical division of the World created from Europe, and the political treaties concluded between the emerging European States during fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, allows me to propose the Conquest of America as a paradigmatic case of this form of power that has characterized Western politics: biopolitics.