Brazil history part II

Brazil history part II Treaty of Tordesillas

It is difficult for the traveller, who turns in despair from the inhospitable islands of this forsaken coast, where dangers of every sort assail him, and no provisions are to be had, to reflect that this barren country adjoins groups of American islands upon which nature has lavished her treasures and delights with a liberal hand.The Portuguese knew of the existence of lands across the Atlantic and they had made several expeditions to the West before Columbus discovered the Antilles in 1492, but they had kept the knowledge to themselves in order to forestall the ambitions of Spain, England and France. For a small nation, secrecy was the only available method of safeguarding the rewards of bold and successful exploration against exploitation by more powerful maritime rivals. The Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) settled the question of possession of the new lands between Spain and Portugal. It was agreed that territories lying east of a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands should belong to Portugal, the lands to the west to Spain. This imaginary line, from pole to pole, cut through the eastern-most part of the South American continent and constituted Brazil’s first frontier, although the formal discovery by Pedro Álvares Cabral did not take place until six years later in 1500.