Treaty of Tordesillas
The treated of Tordesillas is an international treaty drawn up at the end of the 15th century under the aegis of the pope Alexandre VI to establish the division of the Nouveau World between the two emergent colonial powers, the Spain and the Portugal, with for dividing line a North-South meridian line localized to 370 miles (1770 km) in the west of the islands of the Cape Verde - meridian which would be located today at 46° 37 ' west. It was written with Tordesillas (Valladolid) in Castille. The version Castilian of the treaty was ratified in Arevalo by the king Ferdinand II of Aragon and the queen Isabelle I of Castille on July 2nd, 1494. The Portuguese version of the treaty was ratified in Setúbal by the king Jean II of Portugal on September 5th, 1494.
According to this treaty, the kingdom of Castille, as well as the Canary islands, are acquired with the Spanish crown, while Madeira, Oporto Santo, the Azores and the islands of Cape Verde, as well as the right of conquest of the kingdom of the Morocco (kingdom of Fez or Fès) and the right of navigation to the south of the parallel of the Canaries, are acquired with the kingdom of Portugal.
The greatest surprise contained in this treaty occurred with the discovery of the Brésil which fell in fact under Portuguese sovereignty.
A meridian cutting
This treaty solved the conflicts which followed the discovery of the New World by Christophe Colomb. In 1481, the pontifical bubble Æterni governed guaranteed in Portugal all the grounds in the south of the Canary islands. In May 1493, the pope Alexandre VI - of Spanish origin - issues by the bubble Inter will cætera that the new grounds discovered located at the West of a meridian line to 100 miles of the Cape Verde Islands returned to Spain, those in the East returning to Portugal, this bubble excluding all grounds known already under control from a Christian State. This bubble dissatisfied the king Jean II of Portugal, which started negociations with the Spanish sovereigns Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabelle de Castille, asserting that this meridian line divided the sphere and could restrict the Spanish claims in Asia, this in order to move it towards the West. It thus obtained the property on the grounds discovered up to 370 miles in the west of the Cap Verde. This treaty opposed the bubble of Alexandre VI, who was Spanish, but was approved by the pope Jules II in a new bubble in 1506.
These new grounds were still little known and approximate measurements, which theoretically granted to the Spaniards the totality of Americas. However when Pedro Alvares Cabral discovered Brazil in 1500 its oriental party was allotted to Portugal, Spain not having the means of guaranteeing this cutting could not prevent the Portuguese expansion in Brazil.
The other European maritime powers (France, England, Netherlands, etc) are transfered to refuse any rights on these new grounds. They could initially only resort to piracy and smuggling to benefit from the richnesses of this New World before, appearance of the helping Protestantisme, they do not reject the pontifical authority. For its part, François Ier de France required to see the clause of the will of Adam which excluded it from this division.
With the round the world tour of Magellan, a new argument burst to locate it following the east of this meridian line which was to make the turn of the sphere. One of the grounds in debate between the two signatories was the archipelago of Moluques, important zone of provisioning of spice S. After new negociations, the Traité of Saragossa, signed the April 22nd 1529, establishes the continuation of the meridian line to 297,5 miles in the west of the Moluques, with the profit of Portugal, Spain being seen allotting an financial equalization.
See too
Related articles
External bonds
- the treaty in the official site of Tordesillas
Sources
| Random links: | Zhang Hao | Henri Antoine Marie de Noailles | Richard Lornac | Nicolas Kayanakis | Wolter horst | Comté_de_Sabine,_le_Texas |