The Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, agreed to by John (Joao) II of Portugal and Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, set a boundary between Portuguese and Spanish claims in the New World.
After Christopher Columbus returned from his first voyage in 1493, many Europeans wondered who should have authority over newfound lands in the western ocean. Because the pope, according to Catholic thought, had spiritual dominion over all peoples of the world, the Spanish monarchs turned to him for a decision. In 1493 Pope Alexander VI issued a series of four bulls, or papal pronouncements, regarding the new lands. Because Pope Alexander was a Spaniard and hoped for support from Ferdinand and Isabella to further his Italian political ambitions, the bulls were favorable to Spain’s interests.
The first two bulls granted sovereignty over Columbus’s discoveries to Castile. The third, Inter Caetera, drew a north-south line of demarcation 100 leagues west of the Azores and Cape Verde Islands. West of this line, all newly found lands were reserved for Spain. The fourth bull extended Spanish claims even further, giving the Spanish lands that might be found in other parts of the world, including lands “in the route of navigation or travel toward the west or south, whether they be in western parts, or in regions of the south and east, and of India[.]” This claim alarmed the Portuguese, who feared that it would infringe on their claims in the East Indies.
John (Joao) II objected to the terms of these papal decisions, especially the line set out in Inter Caetera. He asked that the boundary line be placed farther west, 370 leagues west of the Azores and the Cape Verdes, rather than 100 leagues. It is not clear why John sought this new line. Historians have theorized that the Portuguese may have already known, or at least suspected, that valuable lands might lie on the Portuguese side of the new line. Perhaps the Portuguese feared that the line as drawn in Inter Caetera would interfere with their claims to Africa. The most important consequence of the treaty arose in 1500, when the Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvares Cabral reached the coast of Brazil. Because a large piece of the Brazilian coastline extended beyond the line of demarcation, the treaty gave Portugal a claim to a large piece of land in the Western Hemisphere.
Although the Treaty of Tordesillas, in essence, gave Brazil to the Portuguese and the rest of the Americas to the Spanish, other European powers did not accept the agreement. According to the historian Lyle N. McAlister, the king of France asked to see “the clause in Adam’s will that excluded him from a share in newly discovered lands,” while the king of England denied that the pope had any authority to divide the territories of the world.
Further reading: Noble David Cook, “Tordesillas, Treaty of’ in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture, vol. 5, ed. Barbara A. Tenenbaum (New York: Scribner’s, 1996); Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Columbus (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991); Lyle N. McAlister, Spain and Portugal in the New World, 1492-1700 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984); J. H. Parry, The Discovery of South America (London: Paul Elek, 1979).
—Martha K. Robinson
Toxcatl See Tezcatlipoca.
World History
