Treaty of Tordesillas: Elements of World Governance; April- June, 1494

It was on the 9th of June that the Treaty of Tordesillas was concluded. This was the agreement between Portugal and Spain which resulted in the particion del mar which ruled the Atlantic Ocean in the subsequent 'Age of Exploration' and which lasted nearly 100 years. The idea of splitting up the western sea between sovereign states was new, so it was bound to be a bit clumsy and unworkable. The sovereigns had different motivations. Portugal still had its sights on the far east and the route around Africa while Spain had placed its hope in the western territories that Columbus was then currently lost in. The conclusion seemed to favor Portugal as they had gained some 270 leagues west of the 1493 agreement, but Greater Spain would make more of their portion.

The agreement itself came at the end of a month of negotiations held at the convent of Santa Clara in Tordesillas just fifteen miles from Medina del Campo, where Isabel preferred to reside in the spring. The houses in which the matter was drawn up, Casas del Tratado, still stand there. A great number of expert witnesses and diplomats had come from Portugal that year, so many that it seemed they would win the day. Spain was mostly represented by the King and Queen themselves, and a number of administrators with little to no experience of the seas. Hugh Thomas helpfully lists them.

"Enrique Enriquez, mayordomo of the court, uncle of the King... an aristocrat without knowledge of any sea [but] correspondent of his consuego [his father-in-law], Alexander Borgia [current Pope Alexander VI]. There was Gutierre de Cardenas, the chief accountant, the long-standing courtier who had introduced Ferdinand  to Isabel in 1474 and had made money, especially in the Canaries from the import of the lichen orchil...".[p. 162]

But Thomas says his knowledge of marine matters 'probably didn't stretch from Cadiz to the Gran Canaria'.  There were several people after all who witnessed or took part in these negotiations. Another, Rodrigo Maldonado de Talavera, was a lawyer of the 'Council of the Realm'. The three geographers present - Pedro de Leon, Fernando de Torres and Fernando Gamarro - Thomas lists, but gives no credentials more than calling them comendadores. One other, Juame Ferrer, known to Thomas as a fan of Columbus (likening the discovery of the America's with that of the fabled St Thomas 'discovering' India), was, himself, a Catalan cartographer who may have been there, according to Cardinal Mendoza. They could have chosen Antonio de Torres who was in Castile, but did not. [p. 163] Though, according to Peter Martyr, Torres himself had journeyed and had been received at court  (then at Medina del Campo) by April 3. [p.161]

Sometime In April, the courtiers from Portugal had begun to arrive, essentially outnumbering the Spanish in terms of being actual holders of real information. The Portuguese contingent was more seasoned, with many captains and investors. These were men that were involved who, possibly knew already of Brazil, and even possibly (via Bartolomeu Diaz), the route south around Africa, and on to the far east. The Portuguese, Thomas tells us, wanted to sail their ships south in a broad arc and avoid the winds of the African coast. The Spanish advisors worried that the Portuguese were sending a fleet to the Indies. The Portuguese indeed wanted this and wanted room to do so, going south. Thereby increasing the amount of Brazilian coast they could land on - the line was moved  to 370 leagues west of the Canaries, that year - would greatly benefit their endeavors. [pp.163-4]

After all, one of them was the experienced Ruy de Sousa de Sagres. Sailor, diplomat,he was also a confidante of Portuguese King João. Thomas said he'd commanded a fleet that sailed to the Congo and brought a declaration of war, once, on behalf of Alfonso V, in 1475 to Queen Isabel. He came with his own son and three other memebers of the Portuguese royal council. In addition there were four more, each with their own knowledge of the southern Atlantic.

"... Estavão Vaz, a asecretary to João II who had endeared himself to the Spanish monarchs by taking a cargo of gunpowder to assist them in the siege of Malago. Later he had been in Castile as an ambassador charged to tidy up the affairs of the Duke of Braganza after the latter's execution in Lisbon as a traitor."

"Duarte Pacheco, a famous sailor and cartographer, who had been to Guinea and would in his book Esmeraldo Situ Orbis (to appear ten years later), make a major contribution to the geography of Africa;  Rui de Leme, who had been brought up in Madeira and whose father Antonio de Leme, had been one of those said to have discussed the Atlantic with Columbus in the 1470's; João Soares de Sigueira...". [p. 162]

An agreement was reached on the 7th of June. The year before an agreement had been reached which primarily finalized the agreement over the Canary Islands, the Azores and the further west. This came in the form of a bull Inter Caetera issued by Pope Alexander VI in May 1493. This split the Atlantic into halves in a line 100 leagues west of the Canaries. The Treaty in 1494 moved this line west. But the bull in 1493 had been followed in July, from the authorizing office of the Holy See, for one Fray Boil to go on Columbus' second voyage. He had been appointed to oversee the missionary efforts among locals in the new world and gave him sole authorization to found churches. [pp. 131-40]

It was then three years later, also in June (on the 11th, in 1496) that Columbus at last returned from that second voyage and reached Cadiz. [p. 185] But he found Spain much changed in regards to him. Much had happened in Spain since his departure in September 1493.
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quotes and pagination from: Thomas, Hugh: Rivers of Gold: The Rise of the Spanish Empire ; Penguin/ Random House, UK; 2003