Everything about The Line Of Demarcation totally explained
The
Line of Demarcation was a
longitude, moved slightly from the line drawn by
Pope Alexander VI to divide new lands claimed by
Portugal from those of
Spain. This line was drawn in 1493 after
Christopher Columbus returned from his maiden voyage to the
Americas. Territorial disputes between the two seafaring nations led the Pope to adjudicate in the hope that this would lead to peace between the two powers. It allocated territory as between Spain and Portugal, excepting only those areas already ruled by a
Christian monarch or power; the interests of the people then inhabiting the affected lands were not otherwise taken into account.
As such, the Pope's arbitaration could be considered as laying the legal and political foundation for countless other international documents drawn over the next four and a half centuries, based on the implicit or explicit assumption that European powers had the right to divide the rest of the world among themselves without regard to the wishes and aspirations of the peoples living there - an assumption still taken for granted in the Nineteenth Century (for example, in the partition of Africa between colonial powers in the
Congress of Berlin) and only gradually coming into question during the Twentieth Century. Thus, Alexander VI can be considered to have laid an important cornerstone in the legal foundation of
Colonialism.
The line drawn ran
north to
south about 560 kilometres (350 miles)
west of the
Azores and
Cape Verde islands. On the other side of the globe, it passed just east of the
Philippine islands. Portugal's claim to the Philippines was recognized by Spain in the
Treaty of Saragossa in 1529, which set the longitude 17° east of The
Moluccas — The
Spice Islands.
Portugal was allowed to claim land to the east of this line, and Spain to the west. The line was never surveyed and many historians suppose that it was near the 48° longitude. It also just missed crossing the
South American coast which hadn't yet been discovered. However, neither nation was satisfied with this settlement, and a year later they mutually agreed by the
Treaty of Tordesillas (signed in 1494) to shift the line 2,000 km (1,300 miles) to the west of the Cape Verde Islands. This later gave the Portuguese a claim to
Brazil.
In later treaties between the two nations, Portugal gave up its claim to the Philippines in exchange for the south and west areas in South America (now Brazil) beyond the Line of Demarcation. Although the line was created to settle territorial disputes between the sole powers at that time, it didn't take into account the rise of other powers such as
France, nor the Protestant nations of
Britain or the
Netherlands, who ignored the papal demarcation and staked their own claims.
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