A Clash of Cultures

SOME five hundred years ago, in a small town in the heartland of Castile, Spanish diplomats wrangled with their Portuguese counterparts. By June 7, 1494, their differences were ironed out, and a formal treaty was signed​—the Treaty of Tordesillas. Today, hundreds of millions in the Western Hemisphere speak Spanish or Portuguese as a result of that agreement.

The treaty reaffirmed papal bulls of the previous year dividing the unexplored world between the two Iberian nations. A north-​south line was drawn “370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands.” Spain could colonize and evangelize the lands discovered to the west of that line (North and South America, with the exception of Brazil) and Portugal all land to the east (Brazil, Africa, and Asia).

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Copy of the Treaty of Tordesillas.

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Courtesy of Archivo General de Indias, Seville, Spain