Dum diversas

Dum diversas is a papal bull with which Pope Nicholas V gave King Alfonso V of Portugal on June 18, 1452 permission to conquer lands of the "unbelievers".

Portuguese expedition trips

Pope Nicholas authorized the Portuguese king to conquer countries in West Africa , to subdue Saracens and pagans and to enslave them . He announced an indulgence for the participants in the expeditions against the infidels .

Beginning of the slave trade

In 1441 the Portuguese came across indigenous people for the first time on their voyages of discovery at Cape Blanco (West Africa). With this bull, they received permission from the highest authority of the Holy See to enslave these people. This practice had been common since 1441, but was now sanctioned by Pope Nicholas .

Henry the Navigator

Even if the bull did not explicitly specify a geographical location, the Pope's personal acquaintance with Henry the Navigator initially resulted in the direction to West Africa. As a secular administrator of the Order of Christ , Heinrich also had good contacts with the Pope. Thus the Christian Portuguese had a moral justification for their businesses and expeditions.

More papal letters

• With his bull Romanus Pontifex of January 8, 1455, Pope Nicholas V once again took up the conquest and enslavement of the pagan lands.
• The subsequent popes agreed to the expansion plans of the Portuguese and Spaniards, since the popes saw themselves as the "rulers of the world", they approved the advances to South Africa and South America. It even went so far that they divided the globe between Spain and Portugal.

End of papal slavery

With the Sublimis Deus , the papal bull of Pope Paul III. , on June 2, 1537 , after almost 85 years, the latter banned human slavery worldwide.

See also

• Slave trade
• Papal Bulls: Aeterni regis and Inter caetera

Web links

• Spanish and Portuguese Influences on Racial Slavery in British North America, 1492–1619, James H. Sweet, Florida International University (English) (PDF file; 171 kB)
• R ecursos para a H istória M arítima de P ortugal (1200–1700) (Portuguese)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Werner Stein, Timetable of World History , FA Herbig Verlagsbuchhandlung, Munich - Berlin, 1990, ISBN 3-7766-1476-5
2. ↑ Ronald Daus : The Invention of Colonialism . Peter Hammer Verlag, Wuppertal 1983, ISBN 3-87294-202-6 (jointly published with GEPA ).
3. ↑ Time span calculator. Retrieved January 26, 2020 .