Question: Would it make sense to divide the New World by Latitude?

[Saturn]

If several European countries were also dividing up the Western Hemisphere wouldn't they rather use Latitude? I mean measuring Longitude was quite difficult and not done until much more recently than the New World was found.

I haven't posted much to my TL here because I'm still straightening out some starting conditions but I have quite a bit more written so I was thinking I'd run this past you Ladies, Gentlemen, and Alien Spacebats.

If in the Summer of 1500 France, England, Spain, Portugal, The Netherlands, and a United Scandinavia were sitting around a table discussing dividing up this land they had found would it make sense for them to divide it up via Latitude?

I should add that they have a better idea of it's size in my TL although not a perfect one. They know most of it's North to South extent but not how far west it goes . They have hit the islands of Newfoundland, Haiti, and one of the Falklands.

 

[eschaton]

IIRC when the Portugal and Spain divvied up South America they used vertical lines. This resulted in Portugal getting more than either thought at the time.

You're remembering it wrong. The Papal Bull, IIRC, was designed for Spain to get the New World, and Portugal the Old (Africa and the Orient). But it just so happened Brazil (or, more properly, the nexus from which modern Brazil grew) was later found to be to the East of the dividing line of Longitude they used to split the world in two.

 

[Saturn]

Thank you for correcting that.
Any further comments anyone?

I was thinking that the Scandinavians would get from the North Pole to 60 degrees North
The British would get from 60 degrees N to 30 N
The French would get from 30 N to the Equator
The Spanish would get from the Equator to 30 S
The Portuguese would get from 30 S to 60 S
and finally the Dutch would get from 60 S to the South Pole.

 

[Admiral Matt]

Well the initial line was latitude, actually. But about the time they were agreeing on it, Pizarro crossed it into the Inca Empire. That empire went much too far to the south, so that a latitude line would then place the Portuguese East Indies in Spanish territory. Not happening.

So, longitude.

 

[Falastur]

Thank you for correcting that.
Any further comments anyone?

I was thinking that the Scandinavians would get from the North Pole to 60 degrees North
The British would get from 60 degrees N to 30 N
The French would get from 30 N to the Equator
The Spanish would get from the Equator to 30 S
The Portuguese would get from 30 S to 60 S
and finally the Dutch would get from 60 S to the South Pole.

Do you actually mean the year 1500? If you do, the answer is that no, it doesn't make sense. The Spanish and Portuguese would have stormed out of the proceedings, citing that the Pope had given them a divine right to split up the entire non-European world up between them and no other country had any right whatsoever to even request a trading post. The Pope, for what it's worth, would also stick single-mindedly to the Treaty of Tordesillas and would not even consider for one second allowing another country to get in on the act.

The problem with your idea is that for something like that to happen, it would require at least one point in history, early on in the age of colonisation, where all those countries were at a roughly equal level of power. OK, maybe the Dutch thing because 60 degrees south is so far down it would be like a rejection, but the point is, at any one point in history when this might vaguely work you're only going to have maximum two European countries strong enough to be considered for this. Any weaker country will simply be dismissed as insignificant by the others and would be whipped out of the discussion.

 

[Falastur]

OK, maybe the Dutch thing because 60 degrees south is so far down it would be like a rejection

In fact, having looked at a map, it's more than a rejection. 60 degrees south and lower gives the Dutch no habitable land at all, and the Portuguese having 30S-60S gives them barely Argentina, South Africa and trimmings off the bottom of Australia