Treaty of Tordesillas

Setting the scene

After Columbus's 1492 voyage, Spain and Portugal disputed rights to new lands. Pope Alexander VI, a Spaniard, issued the bull Inter caetera in 1493, drawing a line 100 leagues west of the Azores and Cape Verde—lands west belonged to Spain, east to Portugal. Portugal's King John II rejected this, as it gave Spain too much and threatened Portuguese African routes. Negotiations moved to Tordesillas, a town in Castile, where both kingdoms sought to avoid war and secure papal blessing for expansion.

What happened

On June 7, 1494, Spain and Portugal signed the Treaty of Tordesillas, moving the line to 370 leagues (about 1,100 miles) west of Cape Verde. The treaty divided the non-Christian world between the two Iberian powers, with Spain gaining rights to most of the Americas and Portugal to Africa, Asia, and Brazil (which protruded east of the line, discovered in 1500). The treaty was ratified by Pope Julius II in 1506. It ignored all other European powers and, crucially, the indigenous peoples whose lands were being divided.

Why it still matters

Tordesillas established the legal framework for Iberian colonial empires and influenced international law's development. It gave Portugal Brazil and its Asian empire, while Spain claimed most of the Americas. The treaty was repeatedly violated by other powers—England, France, and the Netherlands ignored it—and became obsolete as they established colonies. It was superseded by the Treaty of Zaragoza (1529), which divided the Pacific. Tordesillas exemplifies the arrogance of European colonialism, dividing the world between two small kingdoms without consultation or consideration of existing inhabitants.【8508645283235114368†L5-L7】

Background

The line shaped colonial competition in the Americas. Even centuries later, this episode remains a reference point for how empires rise, fracture, and transform.