[MR] BBC Travel: The Town That Split the World In Two

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

This old chestnut has been lurking in BBC's background for several years,
but we've never commented upon it. Thank Lady Sarah Sinclair for
bookmarking this piece so I could post it on a slow news day (in history,
that is).

The city of Tordesillas in Spain's Valladolid Province was the site of
tense negotiations in 1494 when Spain and Portugal agreed to divide the
world between them, rather than go to war over the New World.

Originally the two countries had agreed to a north-south divide, which gave
the Portugese all of Africa. A new east-west line imposed by Pope Alexander
VI caused Portugese ships heading for Africa to intrude into Spanish seas
as they went far west into the Atlantic to catch favorable currents and
winds. Eventually the Portugese agreed in the Treaty of Tordesillas to the
east-west split, but with the line moved far to the west. Spain was happy,
as it gave them control of the New World, which everybody still thought was
Asia.

Of course, the rest of Europe wasn't too happy with this High-handed
situation, as they were cut out of the deal. Nor did anybody care about the
native peoples of the New World (or Africa, for that matter), as they were
useful only as slaves.

Only later while exploring the limits of "their territory" did Portugese
explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral stumble onto Brazil, which was sticking out
of South America way beyond the agreed line. Oops for Spain! Now Portugal
had a colony by-right in the New World, which is why Brazil is the only
Portugese-speaking country in South America. Well, they did have to eject
the French, who thought they could grab a chunk of Brazil, but that falls
outside our SCA period of interest.

You can read the whole story, and learn about a dodgy map made by Columbus,
at
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20170615-the-town-that-split-the-world-in-two
.

Wikipedia offers a page on Tordesillas with photos of several period
buildings and some really cool heraldry at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tordesillas .

There is also a Wikipedia page on the Treaty of Tordesillas, including more
about the involvement of popes Alexander VI and Julius II, at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Tordesillas .

Yours Aye,


Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆