Definitions for "Terra Nullius"
Latin; literally it means no one’s land; that was how it was first understood as a principle of law. Later its meaning was extended by lawyers to include land of barbarians to justify the dispossession of indigenous people who were treated as people with no culture or civilization.
one of the recognized principles of international law for the official acquisition of territorial sovereignty. Discovery of (uninhabited) islands or lands and occupation thereof are the basic requirements of terra nullius, dating from the colonial era of the Imperialist Powers in discovering America or the Guano Islands. Commodore Perry discovered the "Formosan lands" in 1851 which were not even occupied by Chinese settlements, (being still much like that of Jamestown, Virginia in 1607).
Latin phrase meaning 'land of no one', refers to a 17th century doctrine of European nations recognising a right to take possession of unoccupied lands