Portugal had been the pioneer in the systematic approach to explore the world's oceans in order to open sea routes to India. For
decades the Portuguese had been without a rival and, therefore, in no hurry. This suddenly changed in 1492, with Columbus'
discovery of the West Indies; Columbus had established young Spain as a naval power with interest in the Atlantic.
The old theory of the world being flat was now quickly given up and it was evident that Spain and Portugal found themselves in a
tight competition. Papal diplomacy - Pope Alexander VI., civilian name RODRIGO DE BORJA, was himself a Spaniard - intervened
in order to assure that the two Catholic nations would use their resources to spread christianity over the world rather than to fight
each other. The result was the TREATY OF TORDESILLAS (1494), a treaty in which Spain and Portugal divided the world outside
christian Europe into a Portuguese hemisphere, which included the west coast of Africa, already surveyed by Bartolomeo Diaz
and others, and a Spanish hemisphere including the Caribbean islands discovered by Columbus.
The line separating both spheres was fixed at 46 degrees 37 minutes western longitude by the Treaty of Tordesillas, to be
completed by a corresponding line at 130 degrees eastern longitude in the TREATY OF ZARAGOZA in 1529.
The line ran through South America, leaving the larger part of that continent to Spain and a chunk of eastern South America, mostly
jungle country, to Portugal. In the East, the treaties of 1494 and 1529 left all of Africa and most of Asia in the Portuguese sector. Here,
however, the Spanish and Portuguese would not stick to the letter of the treaty, as the Spanish would take hold of the Philippines
(since 1521), and Spanish and Portuguese traders and missionaries competed in Japan and China. However, the Spanish did not
pursue political ambitions west of the Philippines and the Portuguese did not pursue political interests within the Spanish sphere of
interest.
The treaty assigned huge spheres to both nations, which, for the most part, were uncharted territories for both of them. Both sides
felt compelled to speed up with the charting of their sectors, and within a few years knowledge of world geography made huge
progress. In 1498 VASCO DA GAMA reached India sailing around Africa, in 1500 Cabral claimed Brazil for Portugal. Parts of Brazil's
northern coast had been discovered by AMERIGO VESPUCCI, another Italian sailing for Spain, in 1499/1500. In 1519, FERDINAND
MAGELLAN, a Portuguese national sailing for Spain, began the first circumnavigation of the globe. He was slain on the Philippines,
but one of his ships, with a crew of 80 (out of 300 who ventured out) returned in 1522.
Spain was to conquer most of Latin America, as well as the Philippines. Portugal was to establish a chain of fortified trading posts
along the coasts of Africa and Asia, was to take control of the sea trade in these oceans. Further it was to take possession of Brazil,
today the largest Portuguese-speaking nation.
