Treaty of Zaragoza
gigatos | February 3, 2022
Summary
The Treaty of Saragossa (port. Tratado de Saragoca) was a peace treaty between Castile and Portugal signed on April 22, 1529 by King João III and Emperor Carlos V in the city of Saragossa. The treaty defined areas of Castilian and Portuguese influence in Asia in order to resolve the “Moluccan problem,” which arose because both kingdoms claimed the Moluccan Islands, claiming that they were within their zone of influence established by the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494. The conflict began in 1520, when expeditions of both kingdoms reached the Pacific Ocean, as there was no agreed line of demarcation to the east.
In 1511 Afonso de Albuquerque captured Malacca, then the center of Asian trade, flying the Portuguese flag over it. After receiving information about the location of the so-called “spice islands” – the islands of Banda, Ternate and Tidore in the Moluccan archipelago, then the only source of nutmeg and cloves in the world, Albuquerque sent an expedition led by Antonio de Abreu to search for the Moluccan islands, especially the Banda Islands. The expedition arrived at the site in early 1512, passing through the Lesser Sunda Islands along the way, the participants being the first Europeans to get there. Before reaching Banda, the explorers visited the islands of Buru, Ambon, and Seram. Later, after the division of the expedition”s forces due to a shipwreck, Vice-Commander Abreu Francisco Serran obtained permission from the local sultan to build a Portuguese fortress-facility: Fort St. John the Baptist on Ternate.
Serrano”s letters to Fernand Magellan describing the “Spice Islands” helped him convince the Spanish crown to finance the first-ever circumnavigation of the globe. On November 6, 1521, Magellan”s fleet reached the Moluccas Islands, “the cradle of all spices. Before Magellan and Serran could meet in the Moluccas Islands, Serran died on the island of Ternate, almost at the same time Magellan died in the battle of Mactan in the Philippines.
After Magellan”s expedition (1519-1522), Charles V sent a second expedition led by Garcia Hofra de Loais to colonize the islands, based on the claim that they were in the Castilian zone under the Treaty of Tordesillas. After some difficulties the expedition reached the Moluccas Islands, moored at Tidor, where the Spaniards established a fort. The inevitable conflict broke out with the Portuguese, who had already established themselves in Ternate. After a year of struggle the Spaniards were defeated, but in spite of this almost a decade of skirmishes over possession of the islands followed.
In 1524 both kingdoms organized a diplomatic committee, the Junta de Badajoz-Elvas, to resolve the dispute. Each crown appointed three astronomers and cartographers, three navigators and three mathematicians who formed the committee to establish the exact location of the antimeridian of Tordesillas and the goal was to divide the entire world into two equal hemispheres.
A funny story is said to have happened at this meeting. According to the Castilian writer Pietro Martire d”Anguière, a little boy stopped the Portuguese delegation and asked if it was true that they intended to divide the world. The delegation answered in the affirmative. The boy exposed his ass and offered to draw his line through the slit in his ass.
The committee met several times in Badajoz and Elwash without reaching agreement. Geographic knowledge at the time was inadequate for accurately determining longitude, and each group chose maps or globes showing that the islands were in their hemisphere. João III and Charles V agreed not to send anyone else to the Moluccas Islands until it was determined in whose hemisphere they were located.
Between 1525 and 1528 Portugal sent several expeditions to the area around the Moluccas Islands. Gómez de Sequeira and Diogo da Rocha were sent by Governor Jorge de Menezes of Ternate to Sulawesi (also already visited by Simão de Abreu in 1523) and north. They were the first Europeans to reach the Caroline Islands, which they called the “Islands de Sequeira. Explorers such as Martim Afonso de Melo (1522-24) and perhaps Gómez de Sequeira (1526-1527.) landed on the islands of Aru and Tanimbar. In 1526 Jorge de Menezes reached northwestern Papua New Guinea, landing at Biak in the Biak Islands, and from there sailed to Waigeo on the Cendrawasih Peninsula.
On the other hand, in addition to the Loais expedition from Spain to the Moluccas Islands (1525-1526), the Castilians sent there an expedition across the Pacific led by Álvaro de Saavedra (1528) (prepared by Hernán Cortés) in order to displace the Portuguese in the region. The members of the Loais expedition were captured by the Portuguese, who returned the survivors to Europe by the western route. Alvaro de Saavedra reached the Marshall Islands and, in two unsuccessful attempts to return from the Moluccas Islands via the Pacific, explored parts of western and northern New Guinea, also reaching the Biak Islands and discovering Yapen and the Admiralty and Caroline Islands.
On February 10, 1525, Charles V”s younger sister Catherine of Austria married João III of Portugal, and on March 11, 1526, Charles V married King João”s sister Isabella of Portugal. These weddings strengthened ties between the two crowns, facilitating an agreement regarding the Moluccas Islands. It was to the emperor”s advantage to avoid conflict so that he could focus on his European policy, and then the Spanish did not know how to get spices from the Moluccas to Europe by the eastern route. The Manila-Acapulco route was not discovered until 1565 by Andrés de Urdaneta.
The Treaty of Saragossa stipulated that the eastern boundary between the two zones was 297+1⁄2 leagues (1763 kilometers, 952 nautical miles) or 17° east of the Maluku Islands. The treaty included a clause that the deal could be terminated at any time if the emperor wished to revoke it, with the Portuguese being reimbursed for the money paid. This never happened, however, because the emperor desperately needed the Portuguese money to finance the war of the Cognac League against his main rival Francis I.
The treaty did not specify or change the demarcation line established by the Treaty of Tordesillas, nor did it confirm Spain”s claim to equal hemispheres (180° each), so the two lines divided the Earth into unequal parts. Portugal”s part was about 191° of the circumference of the Earth, while Spain”s part was about 169°. There was a limit of uncertainty of ±4° as to the exact size of both parts because of differences of opinion as to the exact location of the Tordesillas line.
Under the treaty, Portugal gained control of all lands and seas west of the line, including all of Asia and neighboring islands still “discovered,” giving Spain most of the Pacific. Although the Philippines was not mentioned in the treaty, Spain implicitly renounced any claim to them because they were far to the west of the line. Nevertheless, by 1542 King Charles V decided to colonize the Philippines, assuming that Portugal would not protest too vigorously because the archipelago lacked spices. Although he failed in his attempt, in 1565 King Philip II succeeded in establishing the first Spanish trading post in Manila. As his father expected, there was little resistance from the Portuguese.
In later times the Portuguese zone of colonization in Brazil extended far west of the line defined in the Treaty of Tordesillas to what should have been Spanish territory.
The Treaty of Saragossa was superseded by the Treaty of San Ildefons in 1777.
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