1494 · Tordesillas, Spain
Treaty of Tordesillas
The pope drew a line down the middle of the Atlantic and divided the entire non-Christian world between Spain and Portugal — an astonishing act of presumption with consequences that are still visible on any map.
When Columbus returned from his first voyage in 1493, Spain and Portugal immediately began arguing over who owned what he had found. Both kingdoms appealed to Pope Alexander VI, a Spaniard (Rodrigo Borgia) who was happy to oblige. Alexander issued a series of papal bulls drawing a line of demarcation through the Atlantic. Everything west of the line belonged to Spain; everything east to Portugal. Portugal objected that the line was too far west, cutting them off from potential discoveries. In 1494, Spain and Portugal negotiated the Treaty of Tordesillas, which moved the line further west. This is why Brazil speaks Portuguese today: the eastern bulge of South America fell on Portugal's side. The treaty assumed, without any apparent embarrassment, that the pope had the authority to give away continents full of people who had never heard of him. The indigenous inhabitants of these lands were not consulted, and their sovereignty was not considered. The theological justification was that Christian rulers had a duty to spread the faith, and the pope, as Christ's vicar, could assign missionary territories to prevent European powers from fighting each other. Some missionaries who went to the New World under this framework — like Bartolome de Las Casas — became fierce advocates for indigenous rights. But the system itself was built on the assumption that non-Christians did not have the same rights as Christians, an idea the Church has since explicitly rejected.
Why it matters
Divided the colonizable world between Spain and Portugal with papal authority, shaping the map of the Americas and raising lasting questions about the Church's role in colonialism.
What Happened
After Columbus's return in 1493, Pope Alexander VI issued bulls dividing newly discovered lands between Spain and Portugal along a line in the Atlantic. Portugal pushed for a better deal, and in 1494 the two kingdoms signed the Treaty of Tordesillas, moving the line about 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands. Spain got most of the Americas; Portugal got Brazil, Africa, and the route to Asia. The agreement was ratified by Pope Julius II in 1506.
Why It Still Matters
The Treaty of Tordesillas is one of the most consequential agreements in world history, and one of the most troubling from a moral perspective. It determined the linguistic, cultural, and religious map of the Americas. It also exemplified the Doctrine of Discovery — the idea that Christian nations could claim sovereignty over non-Christian lands — which the Church did not formally repudiate until 2023. For Catholics in the Americas, understanding Tordesillas is part of understanding how the faith arrived and at what cost.