Latest / The Rise of Colonialism: How Europe Divided the World — Fexingo History / The Treaty of Tordesillas: How the Pope Divided the World
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- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about how Spain and Portugal built their empires, but we haven't really looked at the moment the world was literally divided between them. I'm talking about the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494. Luna: The one where the Pope drew a line down the Atlantic? Lucas: Exactly. But it's more complicated than that. The treaty actually came after a series of papal bulls — official decrees from the Pope — that tried to sort out who got what. The key ones were 'Dum Diversas' in 1452 and 'Romanus Pontifex' in 1455, both issued by Pope Nicholas V. These gave Portugal the right to conquer and enslave non-Christian peoples, basically a license for empire. Lucas: Then Columbus stumbled into the Americas in 1492, and Spain suddenly needed its own claim. So Pope Alexander VI — who was Spanish by birth — issued a bull called 'Inter Caetera' in 1493. It drew a line one hundred leagues west of the Azores and Cape Verde, giving everything west to Spain and everything east to Portugal. Luna: Wait, a hundred leagues from the Azores? That seems arbitrary. Lucas: It was. The Pope was basically winging it. He had no idea where the line would actually fall or what lands lay beyond. And Portugal's King John II was unhappy. He thought the line gave Spain too much, especially since Portuguese navigators had likely been exploring the South Atlantic for years. Some historians argue the Portuguese already knew about Brazil. Lucas: So the two kingdoms negotiated directly, bypassing the Pope. In June 1494, they signed the Treaty of Tordesillas in the Spanish town of the same name. The new line was moved to 370 leagues west of Cape Verde. That shift is what later gave Portugal a claim to Brazil when Pedro Álvares Cabral landed there in 1500. Luna: So Portugal basically pushed the line west to secure Brazil. Lucas: Exactly. King John II knew what he was doing. But the treaty only covered the Atlantic. When Europeans reached the Pacific and the Spice Islands, they needed another division. That came with the Treaty of Zaragoza in 1529, which drew a line in the Pacific, giving the Moluccas to Portugal and the Philippines to Spain, at least on paper. Lucas: Of course, other European powers like England, France, and the Dutch completely ignored these treaties. They saw them as Catholic inventions that didn't apply to them. So the Treaty of Tordesillas ended up being more of a starting point for conflict than a lasting solution. Luna: And what about the people already living in those lands? Did the treaty even consider them? Lucas: Not really. The papal bulls and the treaty were based on the idea that non-Christian lands were 'terra nullius' — empty land, free for the taking. The indigenous people had no say. It wasn't until later, with figures like Bartolomé de las Casas, that European thinkers started questioning the morality of conquest. But by then, the damage was done. Lucas: The Treaty of Tordesillas is a fascinating example of how Europe tried to impose order on a world it barely understood. It's a document that shaped colonialism for centuries, even if it was ultimately ignored. Luna: And it all started with a Pope drawing a line on a map. Lucas: Exactly. A line that no one at the time could even accurately measure. The technology to determine longitude didn't exist yet. So the treaty was as much an act of faith as it was of politics.