Final answer:
The 'first foreigners' in the poem "Queens 1963" refer to European explorers and settlers, who claimed ownership over what they considered 'free country' in the Americas, thus paradoxically controlling land that was supposed to be free and often oppressing the Indigenous populations.
Step-by-step explanation:
In the poem "Queens 1963," when the narrator refers to "...the past tense of this continent before the first foreigners owned any of this free country," the "first foreigners" are most likely B) European explorers and settlers. These European colonizers are historically recognized for arriving in what is now known as the Americas, claiming the land and displacing the Indigenous People. The concept of owning "free country" is paradoxical since it implies that a land considered to be free is being possessed or controlled, which goes against the notion of freedom. In practice, however, the Europeans did establish control and viewed the land as their own through various means of conquest and colonization, often to the detriment and subjugation of the native populations.
Ownership claims by Europeans over new territories were frequently justified with ideologies like Manifest Destiny and the imperialist notion of the "White Man's Burden," which viewed the expansion and domination of European powers as a duty and a civilizing mission. This perspective, while once widespread, is now largely considered as a cover for exploitation and oppression of Indigenous peoples and other non-European societies.
The phrase from the poem captures a historical reality where the concept of a "free country" is deeply entangled with the actions and legacies of colonial powers. It also invokes reflection on the darker aspects of history like conquest and imperialism that have shaped the modern geopolitical landscape.