Latest / The Rise of Colonialism: How Europe Divided the World — Fexingo History / The Lines That Split the World: Treaty of Tordesillas
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about how Europe actually got to the point of carving up the world — the caravels, the spice routes, the conquests. But there was one moment, right at the beginning, where it all became official. I'm talking about a treaty that literally drew a line down the middle of the Atlantic and said, this side's yours, that side's ours. Luna: The Treaty of Tordesillas, right? Lucas: Exactly. 1494. Spain and Portugal, with the pope's blessing, decided that every undiscovered land east of a certain meridian belonged to Portugal, and everything to the west belonged to Spain. It was an incredibly bold move, especially since at that point, no one really knew what was out there. Luna: But how did they even agree on where the line was? I mean, measuring longitude back then was basically a guess. Lucas: That's the thing — it was a guess, and a political one at that. The original line was proposed by Pope Alexander VI in a series of papal bulls, starting with Inter caetera in 1493. He set it a hundred leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands. But John II of Portugal, who was a shrewd negotiator, pushed for it to be moved further west, to 370 leagues. Luna: Why would he want that? Wouldn't that give Spain more? Lucas: You'd think so, but John II knew something. Portuguese navigators had been sailing the Atlantic for decades, and they had a sense that there might be land to the east of that line — land that would later turn out to be Brazil. By pushing the line west, he ensured that whatever was there would fall on Portugal's side. And it did. In 1500, Pedro Álvares Cabral landed on the Brazilian coast, and because of Tordesillas, it became Portuguese. Luna: So the treaty basically gave Brazil to Portugal before anyone even knew it existed. Lucas: Pretty much. But the treaty wasn't just about the Atlantic. It was also about the race for the spice islands — the Moluccas. Both powers wanted control of the nutmeg and clove trade, and they knew that whoever got there first would control the market. So a few years later, in 1529, they signed another treaty, the Treaty of Zaragoza, which drew a similar line in the Pacific. Luna: But didn't that one get ignored anyway? Lucas: By everyone except Spain and Portugal, yeah. The funny thing is, the whole system worked only as long as other European powers accepted the pope's authority to divide the world. England, France, the Dutch — they didn't. Francis I of France famously joked that he'd like to see the clause in Adam's will that divided the world between his cousins of Spain and Portugal. Luna: Ha! That's a good line. Lucas: It's a great line, and it gets to the heart of why Tordesillas ultimately failed. It was a bold idea — to impose order on a world Europeans barely understood — but it was built on the assumption that the pope could grant legitimacy to empires. Once that spiritual authority was challenged, the line became just a mark on a map that everyone ignored. Luna: But didn't it still shape things? I mean, Brazil is a huge example. Lucas: Oh, absolutely. The treaty had a massive impact. It determined the languages spoken across the Americas — Portuguese in Brazil, Spanish everywhere else. It also created a peculiar situation in the Pacific, where the Spanish ended up governing the Philippines because they were technically on their side of the Zaragoza line, even though they were far from Spain and closer to Portuguese territory. Luna: So it's not just about the line itself, but about the whole mindset — that the world was there to be divided up. Lucas: Exactly. And that mindset is what we're really talking about when we talk about the rise of colonialism. The Treaty of Tordesillas was the first major legal document that treated the non-European world as a blank slate, there for the taking. It set a precedent that other empires would follow, even if they didn't recognize the pope's authority. They just drew their own lines. Luna: Yeah, and we're still living with the consequences of those lines. Lucas: We are. And that's what makes this treaty so important to understand. It wasn't just a quirk of history — it was a blueprint for how Europe would carve up the globe over the next few centuries. And it all started with a line drawn in the middle of an ocean, based on a guess. Luna: It's wild to think about how much of what we see on a map today is the result of a few guys in a room, making decisions about places they'd never been. Lucas: Yeah, and that's a good thing to keep in mind. Speaking of which, if you're finding these conversations useful, and you want to help us keep making them, there's a simple way to do it. We don't have ads, and we're not on a big network. It's just me and Luna, and a few dollars a month from listeners is genuinely what keeps this going. If you've gotten something out of these episodes, you can head over to buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: Yeah, it really does make a difference — every little bit helps us pay for the research and the hosting. Lucas: But anyway, back to Tordesillas. The line was supposed to be the final word, but it wasn't. Over the next century, the Portuguese and Spanish kept pushing the boundaries, and the treaty was constantly being renegotiated and reinterpreted. It's a reminder that these agreements were never as solid as they seemed on paper. Luna: So is that what happened with the Moluccas? The treaty of Zaragoza basically resolved that? Lucas: It tried to, but it was a compromise that left both sides unhappy. The Spanish gave up their claim to the Moluccas for a payment of 350,000 ducats, but they kept the Philippines. And even then, it didn't stop the Portuguese from trying to expand into Asia, or the Spanish from looking for new routes. The treaties were less about lasting peace and more about buying time. Luna: Makes sense. It's like they were trying to regulate a race before they even knew the track. Lucas: That's a perfect way to put it. And the track kept changing. As more and more of the world was mapped, the lines had to be adjusted, and eventually, they just became irrelevant. By the seventeenth century, the Dutch and the English were sailing wherever they wanted, and the Treaty of Tordesillas was a historical footnote. Luna: But it's a footnote that explains so much, especially about why Brazil speaks Portuguese. Lucas: Exactly. And that's why it's worth understanding. It's one of those moments in history where a single decision, made with incomplete knowledge and a lot of arrogance, had consequences that lasted for centuries. Luna: So, do you think the actual line was ever measured accurately? Like, did they ever go out and check where it was supposed to be? Lucas: They tried, but it was a nightmare. Longitude was a huge problem. They used the position of the sun and the stars, but they couldn't accurately determine east-west distances. The line was supposed to be 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands, but no one could agree on where exactly that was. Different maps showed it in different places, and that ambiguity was actually useful for both sides — they could interpret it to their advantage. Luna: So it was kind of a legal fiction from the start? Lucas: In a way, yes. It was a political compromise dressed up as a divine decree. And that's what makes it so fascinating — it wasn't about science or geography, it was about power. The treaty was a way for two empires to avoid a direct war over the spoils of exploration, and it worked, at least for a while. Luna: And then the other European powers just came in and ruined it for them. Lucas: They did, but by then, Spain and Portugal had already established their empires. The treaty had done its job. It gave them a head start, and even after it fell apart, the cultural and linguistic legacies remained. So when you look at a map of Latin America today, you're looking at the ghost of a line that was drawn in 1494. Luna: That's a powerful way to end it. Thanks, Lucas. Lucas: Thanks, Luna. And thanks to everyone listening. We'll be back next time with another story from the long and complicated history of European expansion.