Treaty Of Tordesillas: Tensions Between Portugal And Spain

The Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) was created and signed by monarchs to pacify tensions between rival countries, Portugal and Spain. The Treaty aimed to placate conflicts that occurred after Christopher Columbus returned to Spain after discovering America (Williams, 1922). These conflicts arose because once Columbus returned, the Spanish rulers, Ferdinand and Isabella enlisted papal support to claim to the entire New World, and the Spanish-born pope Alexander VI set up a line of demarcation from pole to pole one-hundred leagues, about three-hundred twenty miles, west of the Cape Verde Islands, allowing Spain to claim the West of the demarcation line as their own, and gave the East to Portugal (Bown, 2012). This prevented Portugal from exploring in most parts of the world and using certain parts of the sea for voyages (Williams, 1922). Spain’s claiming of the West struck conflict between the Portuguese and the Spanish, because the Portuguese felt that the Spanish’s ownership of these areas was unfair and would hinder their own exploration progress (Bown, 2012).
It was signed in June of 1494 at the bridge at Tordesillas, which links Portugal and Spain to one another (Bown, 2012). The Portuguese and Spanish monarchs met in the middle of the bridge and signed it, settling the conflicts of ownership by dividing the world by a new meridian, which ran North to South through the western Atlantic (Bown, 2012). The Treaty moved the old demarcation line of the meridian about three-hundred seventy leagues, one- thousand one-hundred and eighty-five miles, West, and stated that Portugal was to have monopoly of possession and trade to the East of the meridian, while Spain received the trade routes and possession of the West (Bown,