ABSTRACT
This chapter provides students with the necessary knowledge to understand and critically assess historical references throughout the book. It provides a cursory overview of different ways of conceiving and telling international legal histories, offers a critical perspective on international law’s founding myths, and briefly touches on some of the most important turning points in the history of international law, from the beginnings of Portuguese and Spanish colonialism in the 15th century to the multiple challenges of the 21st century. Overall, it offers an account of international legal histories as histories of both empire and resistance.
