Pacts and treaties have changed the course of history. In the United States, land treaties tripled the size of the nation. Treaties with America's first peoples -- the Indian tribes -- transformed the country from a sparsely settled land of many nations into one nation with industrial centers and a growing European population. Beginning in the nineteenth century, world leaders forged treaties that have improved the treatment of people caught in the tragedy of war and that limit the use of war's weapons. All the pacts and treaties detailed in the series have made their mark on the world.Native Americans signed their first treaties granting land to English colonists in the 1600s. From that time until 1871 when the Congress of the United States decreed that Indians could no longer issue treaties, the native tribes made hundreds of pacts with the settlers who had invaded their lands. The treaties guaranteed the Indians peace, European goods and supplies, money and land reserved for them alone. In return, the Indian nations turned over millions of acres to the land-hungry settlers until, finally, there was no more land to sell and nowhere for the Indians to call home. The history of these treaties is marked by greed and betrayal that ultimately led to the destruction of the native American nations and to the growth of a nation of immigrants.Beginning with the 1868 Declaration of St. Petersburg, which called for a ban on the use of explosive projectiles, world leaders have attempted to place limits on weapons of war. The account of their efforts to control arms is a fascinating one, filled with frustration, hope, and political maneuverings. The story continues today as leaders negotiateglobal arms control treaties while the specter of nuclear destruction threatens the world and its people.At the beginning of the 1800s, the United States of America occupied less than square miles of land. By the end century the nation had tripled its holdings through the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the Guadalupe-Hidalgo Treaty at the end of the Spanish-American War in 1846, and the Alaska Purchase in 1867. Behind each of these acquisitions are intriguing stories of the people involved on every side.The constitutions of many nations, including the United States of America, revolve around the premise that every person is entitled to certain rights, one of which is the inalienable right to be treated humanely. This is a history of the fight for human rights worldwide from the Geneva Convention of 1864 to the ongoing struggle for universal respect for human rights that is essential for a peaceful world.