Treaty of Tordesillas
In the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494, the domains of Portugal and Castile in the Atlantic were redefined on the basis of the Treaty of Alcáçovas of 1479, the discoveries of Christopher Columbus and the papal bull Inter caetera of May 4, 1493. The instruments of ratification of this treaty in the Archivo General de Indias in Seville (Spain) and in the Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo in Lisbon (Portugal) have been declared world heritage documents .
prehistory
In the 15th century Portugal was interested in establishing trade relations with Africa, which were not to be transacted via the Maghreb , but via countries on the west coast of Africa. After the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans on May 29, 1453, access to Asia through the Middle East was difficult for the Europeans. Therefore, the Portuguese tried "India", which at that time was the collective name for the countries in the Middle and Far East, to reach Africa by sea. Members of the Portuguese royal family had their monopoly claims on trade with West Africa and the shipping route along the African coast approved by papal donation bulls such as Romanus Pontifex (1455).
When the fighting on the Castilian-Portuguese land border almost came to a standstill in the Castilian War of Succession after the Battle of Toro at the beginning of 1476 , the dispute shifted to the sea off the north-west African coast. The defeat of the Castilians at sea and the inability of the Portuguese to win the war on land led the opponents to start peace negotiations in 1479.In the 1479 Treaty of Alcáçovas, the Portuguese King Alfonso V agreed with the Castilian royal couple Isabella and Ferdinand, among other things that Castile south of Cape Bojador should not develop any activities. This agreement was confirmed in 1481 in the Bull Aeterni regis by Pope Sixtus IV .
When Columbus returned to Europe from his voyage from America in March 1493, he was forced to call at Lisbon first due to the weather conditions. The Portuguese King John II received first-hand information about the discoveries. His ambassador, sent to the court of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand, demanded that they cede the territories that Columbus had occupied on their behalf to the King of Portugal. The provisions of the Alcáçovas contract were cited as the basis for this requirement. The Castilians countered that Columbus had adhered to the specifications of the treaty and that the lands he had occupied were in the part of the world to which the Crown of Castile was entitled.
To secure their claims, Isabella and Ferdinand suggested to Pope Alexander VI. the issue of the Bull Inter caetera from May 3, 1493. In it, all areas discovered by Columbus were assigned to the kings of Castile and León. Presumably in June, backdated to May 4, 1493, a new bull with the same name was issued. The text of this bull was partially identical to the text of the previous version. There were, however, some clarifications and additions that were advantageous for Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand. The most important innovation was the division of the Atlantic into a Castilian and a Portuguese area, by a line that was interpreted to run 100 miles west of the Azores from the North Pole to the South Pole .
The Pope's description of the boundary line was unclear and contradictory. Since the Portuguese King John did not agree with the regulation, but saw no possibility of objection to a papal decision, he began diplomatic negotiations with Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand. These negotiations were conducted on the Portuguese side by Ruy de Sosa, his son Juan de Sosa and Arias de Almadana, on the Castilian side by Enrique Enriques, Gutierre de Cardenas and Rodrigo Maldonado. These negotiations finally led to the conclusion of the contract by the commissioners on June 7, 1494. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella signed the ratification document, written in Castilian, also in the name of their son Johann , on July 2, 1494 in Arévalo . John II of Portugal signed the instrument of ratification, written in Portuguese, on September 5, 1494 in Setúbal .
Content of the contract
Boundary line
The border between the two territories was set on a line from the North Pole to the South Pole. This line should run 370 miles west of the westernmost Cape Verde Islands. According to today's geographic coordinate system, this corresponds to a meridian of 46 ° 37 ′ west longitude. All the islands and countries in the Atlantic to the west of this line should belong to the territory of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand. All islands and countries in the Atlantic east of this line should belong to King John. It was agreed that the ships of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand would be able to cross the territories of the King of Portugal directly and unhindered on their way to the areas west of the line.
Expert Commission
In order to precisely clarify the course of the dividing line, each contracting party should send one or two caravels with navigation experts , astronomers , seafarers and other suitable persons to Gran Canaria within ten months of the conclusion of the contract , where they should meet in order to proceed from there To sail the Cape Verde Islands and from there to the west to set the agreed border. If the commission of experts determines that the line intersects land, boundary towers or other markings should be erected.
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Further development
The commission of experts agreed in the Tordesillas contract did not materialize. In a document dated May 7, 1495, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand stated that such a commission's journey would be useless until it was known whether any island or mainland was found on the line. The experts should therefore meet in a place on the border between Portugal and Castile. But such a meeting did not take place either. Since an exact determination of the longitude was not possible until the middle of the 18th century, there were different views about the exact course of the agreed line in the following period.
There are various theories about the wish of the Portuguese king to move the line established by the Pope to the west. One assumption is that Portuguese seafarers were already familiar with the course of the Brazilian coast when the Tordesillas Treaty was signed. Another said that Portuguese ships, which, in order to take advantage of the wind and currents in the South Atlantic, sailed far from the African mainland on their journey south, should avoid getting into the area of the Crown of Castile. A simple reason for setting the line at 370 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands could be that this is about half the distance between the Iberian Peninsula and the islands found by Columbus, i.e. the line ran in the middle of the known part of the Atlantic .
In March 1518, the then Castilian King Charles I commissioned Ferdinand Magellan to explore countries on the other side of the American continent on his way west that were rich in spices. However, he was expressly instructed to research only countries that were outside the territory of the King of Portugal. The orbit around the earth by Magellan or Juan Sebastian Elcano showed clearly that one cannot divide the earth's surface into two parts with a single degree of longitude. It was therefore established in the Treaty of Saragossa another line 297.5 miles east of the Moluccas .
Documents
In 2007, the Spanish and Portuguese Ministries of Culture jointly applied to UNESCO for the documents in the Archivo General de Indias in Seville and in the Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo in Lisbon to include those relating to the Treaty of Tordesillas in the UNESCO Register of World Document Heritage. The explanatory memorandum states that these documents are essential to understanding American history, the economy, and the cultural relations between Europe and America.
- Descriptions
Archivo General de Indias
Treaty of Tordesillas (Portuguese version): Agreement between King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile and King John II of Portugal to establish a new border line between the two crowns. The line is said to run from pole to pole, 370 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands.
Tordesillas, June 7th 1494. Ratified at Setúbal by the King of Portugal on September 5th, 1494.
Manuscript on parchment.
4 layers (8 sheets: 330 × 250 mm).
Signature of John II of Portugal.
Lead seal hanging on silk thread.
Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo
Treaty of Tordesillas (Castilian version): Agreement between King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile and King John II of Portugal to establish a new border line between the two crowns. The line is said to run from pole to pole, 370 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands.
Tordesillas, June 7, 1494. Ratified in Arévalo by King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile on July 2, 1494.
Manuscript on parchment.
4 layers (8 sheets: 334 × 250 mm).
Signature of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile.
Seal is missing.
Individual evidence
- ^ María San Segundo, Duarte Ramalho Ortigão: Treaty of Tordesillas. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 2007, accessed June 1, 2019 .
- ↑ Thomas Duve: El Tratado de Tordesillas¿Una "revolución espacial" Cosmografía, prácticas jurídicas y la historia del derecho internacional público . In: Revista de historia del derecho . No. 54 , 2017, ISSN 1853-1784 , p. 82 (Spanish, [1] [accessed July 1, 2019]).
- ^ José Antonio Crespo-Francés: Guerra en los mapas. La definición cartográfica de los Tratados - España y Portugal y su expansión oceánica. El espia digital, 2014, p. 5 , accessed on June 1, 2019 (Spanish).
- ^ María San Segundo, Duarte Ramalho Ortigão: Treaty of Tordesillas. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 2007, accessed June 1, 2019 .
literature
- Rogelio Blanco Martínez: Santa Fe Capitulations (1492, April, 17). Ministry of Culture, November 27, 2007, accessed June 1, 2019 .
- José Antonio Crespo-Francés: Guerra en los mapas. La definición cartográfica de los Tratados - España y Portugal y su expansión oceánica. El espia digital, 2014, accessed June 1, 2019 (Spanish).
- Frances Gardiner Davenport (Ed.): European Treaties bearing on the History of the United States and its Dependencies to 1648 . tape 1 . Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington 1917 (English, [2] [accessed July 1, 2019]).
- Thomas Duve: El Tratado de Tordesillas¿Una 'revolución espacial'? Cosmografía, prácticas jurídicas y la historia del derecho internacional público . In: Revista de historia del derecho . No. 54 , 2017, ISSN 1853-1784 (Spanish, [3] [accessed July 1, 2019]).
- Manuela Fernández Rodríguez: Antecedentes de la expansión española en Africa: del fecho de allende al Tratado de Tordesillas . In: Leandro Martínez Peñas, Manuela Fernández Rodríguez, David Bravo Díaz (eds.): La presencia española en África: del "Fecho de allende" a la crisis de perejil . o. O. 2012, ISBN 978-84-616-0112-7 , pp. 9–30 (Spanish, [4] [accessed January 1, 2019]).
- Miguel Pino Abad: El Tratado de Zaragoza de 22 de abril de 1529 como anticipo a la conquista de Filipinas . In: Manuela Fernández Rodríguez (ed.): Guerra, derecho y política: Aproximaciones a una interacción inevitable . 2014, ISBN 978-84-617-1675-3 , pp. 25–44 (Spanish, [5] [accessed August 1, 2019]).
- María San Segundo, Duarte Ramalho Ortigão: Treaty of Tordesillas. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 2007, accessed June 1, 2019 .
Web links
Tratado de Tordesillas. Versión portuguesa. Archivo General de Indias
Letter from Pêro Vaz de Caminha (2005) | Corpo Cronologico (2007) | Treaty of Tordesillas (2007) | Arquivos dos Dembos (2011) | Reports on the first flight over the South Atlantic (2011) | Logbook of Vasco da Gama's first trip to India (2013) | Beatus Apocalypses (2015) | Jacob's Book (2017) | Official Macau Files from the Qing Dynasty (1693–1886) (2017) | Visa register of the Portuguese consul in Bordeaux (1939-1940) (2017)
Treaty of Tordesillas (2007) | Surrender Deeds of Santa Fe (2009) | Decrees of León (1188) (2013) | Llibre del Sindicat Remença (2013) | Materials on a Keiro Era Mission to Europe (2013) | Beatus Apocalypses (2015) | Indigenous New World language vocabulary translated into Spanish (2015) | Work by Brother Bernardino de Sahagún (2015) | Archives of Santiago Ramón y Cajal and the Spanish School of Neurohistology (2017) | General Archives of Simancas (2017) | Jacob's Book (2017)