Treaty of Madrid
Signed on 13 January 1750, the Treaty of Madrid between Spain and Portugal abandoned the Tordesillas meridian of 1494 and replaced it with a new principle: uti possidetis, ita possideatis ("as you possess, so you may possess"), supplemented by natural boundaries such as major rivers and watersheds. Two and a half centuries of Portuguese expansion inland from Brazil's coast, driven by Jesuit missions, cattle ranching and bandeirante slaving expeditions into the interior, had left Portugal in de facto control of vast areas west of the old Tordesillas line, including most of the Amazon basin. The treaty recognised these existing occupations, granting Portugal the huge territorial gains its settlers had already made, while Spain received the Sacramento Colony on the Rio de la Plata (opposite Buenos Aires) in exchange for the Misiones Orientales, seven Jesuit reductions on the upper Uruguay River whose Guarani inhabitants were to be relocated at Portuguese insistence, provoking the armed Guarani War of 1754-1756.
- Year: 1750 CE
- Category: Political
