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The Treaty of Tordesillas divides the ocean

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Castile and Portugal agreed at Tordesillas to divide rights of navigation and possession outside Europe along a meridian drawn 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands, everything west of the line falling to Castile and everything east to Portugal. The line moved a papal division of the previous year substantially westward at Portuguese insistence — a change that, six years later, put the Brazilian coast on the Portuguese side. The treaty is remarkable less for its arrogance than for its impossibility: no one could measure longitude at sea, the league itself had no single agreed value, and the parties did not specify from which of the Cape Verde Islands to count. The most consequential border of the sixteenth century could not be located by anyone who signed it.

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Assembled from 26 blocks · 1 evidence · 27 related

  1. Story
  2. Castile and Portugal agreed at Tordesillas to divide rights of navigation and possession outside Europe along a meridian drawn 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands, everything west of the line falling to Castile and everything east to Portugal. The line moved a papal division of the previous year substantially westward at Portuguese insistence — a change that, six years later, put the Brazilian coast on the Portuguese side. The treaty is remarkable less for its arrogance than for its impossibility: no one could measure longitude at sea, the league itself had no single agreed value, and the parties did not specify from which of the Cape Verde Islands to count. The most consequential border of the sixteenth century could not be located by anyone who signed it.
  3. Knowledge
  4. Celestial navigation (latitude sailing)
  5. The Atlantic crossing (Carrera de Indias)
  6. The Treaty of Tordesillas divides the ocean
  7. Connections
  8. Celestial navigation (latitude sailing)
  9. The Atlantic crossing (Carrera de Indias)
  10. The Treaty of Zaragoza settles the Moluccas by sale
  11. Almanach Perpetuum
  12. Mariner's astrolabe
  13. The Manila galleon (Nao de China)
  14. The Treaty of Tordesillas divides the ocean
  15. The Magellan expedition sails from Sanlúcar
  16. The Treaty of Zaragoza settles the Moluccas by sale
  17. The Atlantic wind and current system
  18. Volta do mar (the return by sea)
  19. Seville
  20. Casa de Contratación (House of Trade), Seville
  21. The Columbian Exchange
  22. Columbus makes landfall in the Bahamas
  23. The Treaty of Tordesillas divides the ocean
  24. The Casa de Contratación is established at Seville
  25. Evidence
  26. The text establishing the meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands as the division of navigation and possession between the two crowns. V55 verification basis: NOT consulted in this session. The 370-league figure is stated from the author's knowledge; the Memory of the World inscription is likewise recalled and its year is deliberately not stated. A curator should confirm both against the archives named.
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/atlas?object=EVENT_TREATY_TORDESILLAS_1494&experience=EVENT_TREATY_TORDESILLAS_1494