![]() ![]() The papal bulls granted Spain exclusive rights to those parts of the globe that lay to the west of the line the Portuguese, naturally, were supposed to keep to the east. ![]() Antonio and Bartolomeo da Noli, Genoese navigators sailing for Portugal, had discovered them in 1460, and ever since, the islands had served as an outpost in the Portuguese slave trade. It was located one hundred leagues (about four hundred miles) west of an obscure archipelago known as the Cape Verde Islands, located in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of North Africa. The line extended from the North Pole to the South Pole. He responded by issuing papal bulls - solemn edicts - establishing a line of demarcation between Spanish and Portuguese territories around the globe. Portugal, Spain's chief rival for control of world trade, threatened to assert its own claim to the newly discovered lands, as did England and France.įerdinand and Isabella implored Pope Alexander VI to support Spain's title to the New World. Ferdinand and Isabella wanted the pope's blessing to protect the recent discoveries made by Christopher Columbus, the Genoese navigator who claimed a new world for Spain. ![]() They exerted considerable influence over the papacy, and they had every reason to expect a sympathetic hearing in Rome. He brought the full weight of his authority to bear on the appeals of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, the "Catholic Monarchs" of Spain who had instituted the Inquisition in 1492 to purge Spain of Jews and Moors. ![]()
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