Treaty of Tordesillas more Equal?

While this is a very unplausible idea, I don't think it is ASBish.

The Treaty of Tordesillas was agreed upon by the Spanish and the Portuguese to clear up confusion on newly claimed lands in the New World. On May 4, 1493 Pope Alexander VI (Spanish) took action to clear up confusion that had arisen over territorial claims. He issued a decree which established an imaginary line running north and south through the mid-Atlantic, 100 leagues (480 km) from the Cape Verde islands. Spain would have possession of any unclaimed territories to the west of the line and Portugal would have possession of any unclaimed territory to the east of the line.

After further exploration, the Portuguese grew dissatisfied with the agreement when they realized how much more land Spain had been given. In June of 1494 the line was renegotiated and the agreement was officially ratified during a meeting in the Spanish town of Tordesillas. The Treaty of Tordesillas reestablished the line 370 leagues (1,770 km) west of the Cape Verde Islands.

Little actual exploration had taken place at the time the treaty was signed because Spain was granted a much larger portion of land. Portugal was only given possession of Brazil. Portugal pushed over the next several hundred years to move the border of Brazil westward. Because the line was not very well defined, the Spanish did not put up any opposition to this Portuguese expansion.



What if the ruling had been that Spain gains everything north of the Equator, while Portugal gains that south of the Equator?

Initially it works out to be almost the same as OTL. Little land had actually been discovered. Those lands already possessed by christian nations remain thier claims. Portugal's possessions were mostly south of the equator to begin with in the Americas. In Africa it was the same plus those areas along the Gulf of Guinea. Portugal would still be blocked from India in theory, which they would not like as per OTL.

How would these two powers change their colonial efforts with this change?
 
Pope Alexander VI was a Spaniard... Spain would expect from him to favour them... I dont see any other way that the treaty of Tordesillas to be more equal...
 
This would be even more unequal.
Spain would not just get most of the rich American lands it got anyway (minus Peru but then that was unknown at the time) but they would also get India and chunks of the east Indies-Portugal's main area of interest.
 
but wasn't the treaty actually SUPPOSED to give Spain the New World, while reserving the Old World to Portugal (southern Africa, India, the East Indies, etc.)
 
but wasn't the treaty actually SUPPOSED to give Spain the New World, while reserving the Old World to Portugal (southern Africa, India, the East Indies, etc.)


Thats exactly what Pope Alexander VI wanted to do... Give New World to his home country and leave the rest to the Portuguese... (Alexander VI was the one who ordered that the roof tiles of Liberian Basilica to be covered with Spanish gold from New World...)
 
Did the concept of the equator even exist at that point?( let alone a definitive line)

I checked to make sure before posting, and yes an equator as we think of it did exist. It was first used to denote the midpoint of the earth around 1391, being the point over the earth where the length of day and night were both equal, occuring twice a year.


but wasn't the treaty actually SUPPOSED to give Spain the New World, while reserving the Old World to Portugal (southern Africa, India, the East Indies, etc.)

In some respects, yes.
Pope Alexander VI, being a Spaniard, did favor his nation in the negotiations. Years later there were other treaties to deal with the Asian-Pacific areas, after Portugal complained about it.


That's why, even if you change the dividing line to the equator, it still works out the same for Portugal in the beginning.

But now instead of the two nations thinking in terms of East and West, they would have thought in terms of North and South. Portugal may still complain about not having India, but it may well be the Portugese who discover Australia. Think of the power Portugal would have controlling both the Cape of Africa and the Tip of South America. There is no NW passage for Spain, so most trade must pass these two areas to get to Asia.
Of course this is after these areas are discovered.
 
The problem is to make the Portuguese accept to lose both India and their possessions in Africa. You would need a weaker or threatned Portugal to have it.

A North/South divide isn't impossible, since it was already done. The treaty of Alcaçovas-Toledo, in 1479, stated that all lands to be discovered that are located South from the Canary Islands should go to Portugal, and all lands North of the Canary Islands should go to Spain. But it would make the lands discovered by Columbus belonging to Portuguese territory. That's why they changed for the East/West idea.
 
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