1494-06-07
1494-06-07: (The Treaty of Tordesillas, in Which Spain and Portugal Divided the Non-Christian World Between Themselves With No Consultation of the People Who…
Haitian
1494-06-07: (The Treaty of Tordesillas, in Which Spain and Portugal Divided the Non-Christian World Between Themselves With No Consultation of the People Whose Lands Were Being Partitioned): On June 7, 1494, Spain and Portugal signed the Treaty of Tordesillas, an agreement that drew an imaginary line through the Atlantic and divided the entire non-Christian world between two European powers. Everything west of the line belonged to Spain; everything east to Portugal. The peoples of Africa, Asia, and the Americas were not consulted, and the treaty’s assumption that uninhabited or non-Christian lands were available for European partition would underwrite centuries of colonial extraction, enslavement, and genocide across the globe.