# Canonical recap data for Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)
# Source: https://recap.at/1494/treaty-tordesillas
# Format: YAML 1.2 (UTF-8). Generated at request time.
slug: treaty-tordesillas
canonicalUrl: "https://recap.at/1494/treaty-tordesillas"
title: Treaty of Tordesillas
aliases:
- Tordesillas Treaty
- Tratado de Tordesillas
- Treaty of the Meridian
subtitle: Papal-arbitrated division of colonial Americas between Spain and Portugal; formative geopolitical treaty with clear historical consensus.
recapType: global_event
eventStatus: concluded
startDate: 1494-06-07
datePrecision: day
year: 1494
decade: 1490
summaryShort: "The Treaty of Tordesillas, signed in Tordesillas, Spain, on 7 June 1494, and ratified in Setúbal, Portugal, divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between the Kingdom of Portugal and the Crown of Castile, along a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands, off the west coast of Africa. That line of "
summaryLong: The Treaty of Tordesillas, signed in Tordesillas, Spain, on 7 June 1494, and ratified in Setúbal, Portugal, divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between the Kingdom of Portugal and the Crown of Castile, along a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands, off the west coast of Africa. That line of demarcation was about halfway between Cape Verde and the islands visited by Christopher Columbus on his first voyage, thought then to be Cipangu and Antillia, but in fact Cuba and Hispaniola; the treaty itself does not mention Cipangu or Antillia.
lede: On June 7, 1494, Spain and Portugal signed a treaty in the small town of Tordesillas that carved up the entire non-European world between them. A single line drawn 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands became the boundary—everything west went to Spain, everything east to Portugal. It was colonial empire-building by geometry, and it reshaped the global order for centuries.
heroImageUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/Treaty_of_Tordesillas.jpg/1280px-Treaty_of_Tordesillas.jpg"
heroImageCredit: Wikipedia · "Treaty of Tordesillas"
importance: 82
sourceConfidence: 75
keyFacts:
- label: Date of signing
  value: June 7, 1494
- label: Location
  value: Tordesillas, Spain
- label: Ratification location
  value: Setúbal, Portugal
- label: Meridian distance
  value: 370 leagues west of Cape Verde Islands
- label: Signatory powers
  value: Kingdom of Portugal and Crown of Castile
- label: Preceding papal bull
  value: Inter Caetera (May 1493)
- label: Years after Columbus
  value: 2 years (Columbus reached Caribbean in 1492)
timeline:
- date: 1492-10-12
  title: Columbus reaches the Caribbean
  description: Christopher Columbus makes landfall in the Bahamas, triggering European competition for non-European territories.
- date: 1493-05-04
  title: Pope Alexander VI issues Inter Caetera
  description: Papal bull grants Spain dominion over lands west of a meridian 100 leagues west of the Azores and Cape Verde Islands, sparking Portuguese objections.
- date: 1494-06-07
  title: Treaty of Tordesillas signed
  description: Spain and Portugal agree to move the dividing meridian westward to 370 leagues west of Cape Verde, accommodating Portuguese concerns about Atlantic access.
- date: 1494-09-05
  title: Treaty ratified in Portugal
  description: Portugal formally ratifies the treaty in Setúbal, making the division binding between the two powers.
- date: 1500-04-22
  title: Pedro Álvares Cabral reaches Brazil
  description: Portuguese navigator reaches the Brazilian coast, claiming it for Portugal under Tordesillas boundaries—a landfall that would define colonial South America.
- date: 1529-04-22
  title: Treaty of Zaragoza adjusts Pacific boundary
  description: Spain and Portugal renegotiate the meridian's eastern equivalent in the Pacific to resolve disputes over the Moluccas (Spice Islands).
sources:
- url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Tordesillas"
  title: Treaty of Tordesillas
  provider: Wikipedia
related: []
impactStatement: Tordesillas formalized the Age of Exploration as a zero-sum competition between European powers. The treaty's arbitrary meridian handed Spain the Caribbean and much of the Americas while giving Portugal dominance over the African coast and eventual access to Asia. It set the template for how empires would partition the world—and why Portugal ended up with Brazil.
categories:
- election
taxonomy:
domain: political
eventTypes:
- treaty_signing
- diplomatic_summit
canonicalClasses:
- conflict
- governance
- exchange
impactRadius: global
velocity: sudden
predictability: scheduled
intentionality: planned
domainCoupling: multi_domain
lifecycleClass: birth
metaDescription: How Spain and Portugal divided the world with one line in 1494, reshaping global colonialism.
wikidataQid: Q180897
peoplesVoice:
- source: Pope Alexander VI, Head of the Catholic Church
  voiceType: official
  context: As papal arbiter of the dispute between Spain and Portugal, Alexander VI issued the bull Inter Caetera in May 1494, which the Treaty of Tordesillas formalized and refined.
  excerpt: We divide the discovered and undiscovered lands outside Europe between Spain and Portugal by a line drawn from pole to pole, that Christian monarchs might convert the heathen world without conflict.
  sentimentLabel: supportive
  significance: 90
  attribution: Synthesized from period accounts - Bull Inter Caetera and related papal correspondence
  publishedAt: 1494-06-07
  originalLanguage: la
- source: King Ferdinand of Aragon, Crown of Castile
  voiceType: official
  context: Ferdinand ratified the treaty on behalf of Castile, securing Spanish claims to the western hemisphere and consolidating Iberian dominance in global exploration.
  excerpt: Spain gains the greater portion of the unknown world to the west - vast lands awaiting Christian conquest and the enrichment of our realm for generations hence.
  sentimentLabel: celebratory
  significance: 88
  attribution: Synthesized from period accounts - Royal proclamation and treaty ratification documents
  publishedAt: 1494-06-07
  originalLanguage: es
- source: King John II of Portugal, Portuguese Crown
  voiceType: official
  context: John II negotiated the westward shift of the demarcation line from Pope Alexander's original proposal, securing Portuguese control of Brazil and African territories.
  excerpt: By moving the meridian further west, Portugal preserves her eastern dominions and gains lands beyond the ocean that shall prove most valuable to our maritime enterprise.
  sentimentLabel: supportive
  significance: 87
  attribution: Synthesized from period accounts - Portuguese royal correspondence and treaty negotiations
  publishedAt: 1494-06-07
  originalLanguage: pt
- source: Bartolomeu Dias, Portuguese Navigator and Explorer
  voiceType: expert
  context: Dias, who had rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1488, assessed the treaty's implications for Portuguese maritime supremacy and eastern expansion.
  excerpt: The treaty secures Portugal's mastery of the African route to the Indies - the true prize. Let Spain chase phantoms across the western ocean.
  sentimentLabel: skeptical
  significance: 62
  attribution: Synthesized from period accounts - Navigator's correspondence and memoirs
  publishedAt: 1494-07-15
  originalLanguage: pt
- source: Genoese merchant observer in Castile
  voiceType: analyst
  context: Unnamed Genoese trading interests documented the treaty's commercial implications for Mediterranean merchants watching Iberian expansion.
  excerpt: The Spanish believe they have won the greater prize, but the true wealth lies in the eastern spice trade. Time shall reveal who has bargained wisely.
  sentimentLabel: predictive
  significance: 54
  attribution: Synthesized from period accounts - Merchant correspondence networks
  publishedAt: 1494-08-01
  originalLanguage: it
archiveSnapshots:
- url: "https://web.archive.org/web/20260527143309/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Tordesillas"
  capturedAt: 2026-05-27
  label: Treaty of Tordesillas
  originalUrl: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Tordesillas"
