Treaty of Tordesillas
Signed on 7 June 1494 at Tordesillas in Castile, the treaty between Spain and Portugal divided the newly discovered non-Christian world along a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands. Everything east of the line—including the route to Asia and, unknowingly, the future Brazil—went to Portugal; everything west went to Castile. The treaty built upon the papal bulls of 1493 but gave Portugal a more generous boundary by pushing the line further west. Other European powers refused to recognise the agreement, and its effective authority declined as non-Iberian colonial ventures expanded after 1600.
- Year: 1494 CE
- Category: Political
