1494

Treaty of Tordesillas

Americas; Indigenous nations

Spain and Portugal divided competing imperial claims without the consent of the peoples inhabiting those lands. The agreement supported conquest while denying Indigenous peoples an equal place in the diplomatic settlement.

Dates preserve the source’s precision. This entry is part of a selected historical record; its qualifications and sources are retained below.

Context / qualification

An agreement between European crowns; distinct from the earlier papal bulls collectively associated with discovery doctrine.

Sources

• Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States (2014), chapter 2
• Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States (2014), chapter 11

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