The Treaty of Tordesillas

FOUNDATIONS OF THE ATLANTIC WORLD HIST 1301 | History The Treaty of Tordesillas The Portuguese were shocked and enraged to learn of Columbus's findings made on behalf of the Spanish. The Canary Islands were given to Spain by Portugal, which gave up its claim to the Spanish crown, as per the provisions of the Alcáçovas Treaty of 1479. Portugal acquired all of the islands in the Atlantic Ocean south of the Canaries in return, along with the goldrich coast of Guinea in Africa. This included any future territories that could be found in addition to the ones that Portugal currently held (Madeira, the Azores, and Cape Verde). The pope further issued an edict in 1481 awarding Portugal areas in the Atlantic. Thus, it appeared that both the treaty and the pope's order were broken by Spain's claim to the Caribbean islands that Columbus had discovered. The king of Portugal declared that he would send an armed fleet to seize them. Isabella and Ferdinand requested Pope Alexander VI to step in as they were unable to oppose Portugal's hegemony in the sea. The Spanish pope ruled that all territory lying west of a line drawn 100 leagues west of any of the Azores and Cape Verde Islands belonged to Spain. As a result, Portugal started talks with Spain, which agreed to shift the border between Portuguese and Spanish lands further west. The new boundary gave Spain control over the remainder of the Americas while cutting through the eastern bulge of South America, which is today a portion of Brazil. The Tordesillas Treaty was signed in 1494 and confirmed by a papal proclamation issued in 1506. As such, Portugal was able to lay claim to the eastern coast of South America in 1500 when the explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral arrived there. Portuguese sailors had already circumnavigated the Cape of Good Hope at the southern point of Africa, travelled along the eastern coast of that continent, and continued on to India by the time Cabral landed in Brazil in 1500. Spain subsequently claimed that the line splitting the Atlantic extended to the other half of the planet, separating the Pacific and granting the Spanish the title to lands in Asia as well, in an attempt to lay claim to the wealth of Asia. Portugal baulked and once more looked to the Vatican for support. The boundary drawn in the Treaty of Tordesillas allotted areas in the Atlantic but not the Pacific, according to Pope Leo X's declaration in 1514. Spain was not entitled to any land in Asia. When an expeditionary fleet led by Ferdinand Magellan returned to Europe in 1522 after completing a round of the world, Spain reopened the debate. When Magellan discovered a way to sail around the southern tip of South America and arrive in Asia, he was working for Spain. Spain wanted to claim the Maluku Islands, which Portugal had previously discovered in 1512 and are the source of precious spices. The expedition had reached these islands, also known as the Moluccas in modern Indonesia. The Pacific Ocean was divided between Portugal and Spain by the Treaty of Zaragoza, which was signed in 1529 to resolve their claims to the islands. The Maluku Islands were granted to Portugal by the treaty on the condition that Spain would have to reimburse Portugal for any losses incurred if it wanted to claim the islands. Spain gave up its claim to the Malukus because it lacked the funds to do so and since the monarchs of Spain and Portugal were conveniently married to each other's sisters. Two of the world's countries split the world between them in the treaties of Zaragoza and Tordesillas. They never questioned their authority to do so and kept looking to the pope to confirm that their claims were approved by God. It is hardly surprising, though, that both conventions were disregarded by other countries. Despite being Roman Catholic, neither France nor the Netherlands, which had turned Protestant during the Reformation, felt obliged to follow papal rulings. "The sun shines for me as it does for others," as French King Francis I once said. England, France, and the Netherlands claimed territories in Asia and the Americas and built their own trade centres on the African coast when Spain and Portugal's fortunes fell in the seventeenth century. Additionally, when it came to the rights of Indigenous peoples on the territories they claimed, Spain and Portugal fell short. In fact, a lot of Europeans thought they were saving the souls of the native Americans by subjugating them and forcing them to become Christians.