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The Treaty of Alcáçovas (also known as Treaty or Peace of Alcáçovas-Toledo) was signed on 4 September 1479 between the
Catholic Monarchs The Catholic Monarchs were Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, whose marriage and joint rule marked the ''de facto'' unification of Spain. They were both from the House of Trastámara and were second cousins, being bo ...
of Castile and
Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to so ...
on one side and Afonso V and his son, Prince John of Portugal, on the other side. It put an end to the
War of the Castilian Succession The War of the Castilian Succession was the military conflict contested from 1475 to 1479 for the succession of the Crown of Castile fought between the supporters of Joanna 'la Beltraneja', reputed daughter of the late monarch Henry IV of Casti ...
, which ended with a victory of the Castilians on land Bailey W. Diffie and George D. Winius ''“In a war in which the Castilians were victorious on land and the Portuguese at sea, ...”'' i
''Foundations of the Portuguese empire 1415–1580''
volume I, University of Minnesota Press, 1985
p.152
and a Portuguese victory on the sea. Historian Malyn Newitt: ''“All things considered, it is not surprising that the Portuguese emerged victorious from this first maritime colonial war. They were far better organised than the Castilians, were able to raise money for the preparation and supply of their fleets and had clear central direction from ... '' rince/nowiki>'' John.”'' I
''A history of Portuguese overseas expansion, 1400–1668''
Routledge, New York, 2005, p.39,40.
The four peace treaties signed at Alcáçovas reflected that outcome: Isabella was recognized as Queen of Castile while Portugal reached
hegemony Hegemony (, , ) is the political, economic, and military predominance of one state over other states. In Ancient Greece (8th BC – AD 6th ), hegemony denoted the politico-military dominance of the ''hegemon'' city-state over other city-states. ...
in the
Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Afr ...
. The treaty intended to regulate: *The renunciation of Afonso V and Castilian Monarchs to the Castilian throne and Portuguese throne, respectively *The division of the Atlantic Ocean and overseas territories into two zones of influence *The destiny of Juana de Trastámara *The contract of marriage between Isabella, the eldest daughter of the Catholic Monarchs, with
Afonso Alphons (Latinized ''Alphonsus'', ''Adelphonsus'', or ''Adefonsus'') is a male given name recorded from the 8th century (Alfonso I of Asturias, r. 739–757) in the Christian successor states of the Visigothic kingdom in the Iberian peninsula. ...
, heir of Prince John. This was known as Tercerias de Moura, and included the payment to Portugal of a war compensation by the Catholic Monarchs in the form of marriage dowry. Mendonça, 2007, p. 102,103. *The pardon of the Castilian supporters of Juana


War of the Castilian Succession

After Henry's IV death in 1474, the Castilian crown was disputed between the half-sister of the king,
Isabella I of Castile Isabella I ( es, Isabel I; 22 April 1451 – 26 November 1504), also called Isabella the Catholic (Spanish: ''la Católica''), was Queen of Castile from 1474 until her death in 1504, as well as Queen consort of Aragon from 1479 until 1504 by ...
, married to Prince Ferdinand II of Aragon, and the king's daughter, Juana de Trastámara, popularly known as la Beltraneja – because her father was alleged to be Beltrán de la Cueva. In the subsequent civil war,
Afonso V of Portugal Afonso V () (15 January 1432 – 28 August 1481), known by the sobriquet the African (), was King of Portugal from 1438 until his death in 1481, with a brief interruption in 1477. His sobriquet refers to his military conquests in Northern Afri ...
married Juana and invaded Castile (May 1475), defending her rights. Parallel to the dynastic struggle, there was a fierce naval war between the fleets of Portugal and Castile to access and control overseas territories − especially Guinea – whose
gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...
and
slave Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
s were the heart of the Portuguese power. The main events of this war were the indecisive British historian Ian Robertson: ''“Civil war, however, was immediately provoked by the partisans of "la Beltraneja", whose claim was supported by the king of Portugal, but after the indecisive battle of Toro (1476) the Portuguese withdrew leaving Fernando and Isabel firmly established”'' i
''Spain, the mainland''
E. Benn, 1975
p.18
Historian Carl hanson: ''“In March 1476, the Portuguese and Castilian armies met at Toro. Thanks largely to '' rince/nowiki>'' João`s battlefield skills, the Portuguese managed to fight Fernando`s forces to a near draw. But the battle nonetheless effectively ended Afonso`s chances of ruling Castile. His Castilian partisans threw their support to Fernando and Isabella, rather than stick with a lost cause.”'' i
'' Atlantic emporium: Portugal and the wider world, 1147–1497''
volume 47 de Iberian studies, University press of the South, 2002
p.128
battle of Toro The Battle of Toro was part of the War of the Castilian Succession, fought on 1 March 1476, near the city of Toro, between the Castilian-Aragonese troops of the Catholic Monarchs and the Portuguese-Castilian forces of Afonso V and Prince Joh ...
(1 March 1476), transformed Historian Marvin Lunenfeld: “. In 1476, immediately after the indecisive battle of Peleagonzalo, Ferdinand and Isabella hailed the result as a great victory and called a cortes at Madrigal. The newly created prestige was used to gain municipal support (...)” i
''The council of the Santa Hermandad: a study of the pacification forces of Ferdinand and Isabella''
University of Miami Press, 1970
p.27
in a strategic victory by the Catholic Monarchs and the
battle of Guinea The Battle of Guinea took place on the Gulf of Guinea, in western Africa, 1478, between a Portuguese fleet and a Castilian fleet in the context of the War of the Castilian Succession. The outcome of the battle of Guinea was decisive for Portug ...
Battle of Guinea The Battle of Guinea took place on the Gulf of Guinea, in western Africa, 1478, between a Portuguese fleet and a Castilian fleet in the context of the War of the Castilian Succession. The outcome of the battle of Guinea was decisive for Portug ...
: Alonso de Palencia
Década IV
Book XXXIII, Chapter V ( ''“Disaster among those sent to the mines of gold '' uinea/nowiki>''. Charges against the King...”''), p.91-94.
(1478), which granted Portugal the hegemony in the Atlantic Ocean and disputed territories. Historian Stephen R. Bown wrote: Stephen R. Bown
''1494: How a family feud in Medieval Spain divided the world in half''
D and M publishers inc., Canada, 2011, p.76.
When Ferdinand an Isabella secured their rule after the Battle of Toro on 1 March 1476- effectively eliminating the threat of Portuguese invasion but not officially ending the war- they renewed the twenty-year-old Castilian claim to their "ancient and exclusive" rights to the Canary Islands and the Guinea coast .... They encouraged Spanish merchant ships to take advantage of the political disruption and considered making direct attacks on Portuguese vessels returning from Guinea, with the objective of seizing the monopoly.... In 1478 a Spanish fleet of thirty-five caravels was intercepted by an armed Portuguese squadron. Most of the fleet was captured and taken to Lisbon. 1479 ... the two nations concluded terms for peace with the treaty of Alcáçovas, ending the struggle for the succession as well as their battle at sea.


Treaty outcomes

*Juana de Trastamara and Afonso V waived their rights to the Castilian throne in favour of the Catholic Monarchs, who gave up their claims over the throne of Portugal. *There was a sharing of the Atlantic territories between both countries and a delimitation of the respective spheres of influence. * With the exception of the
Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Mo ...
, all territories and shores disputed between Portugal and Castile stayed under Portuguese control; Guinea with its
gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...
mines,
Madeira ) , anthem = ( en, "Anthem of the Autonomous Region of Madeira") , song_type = Regional anthem , image_map=EU-Portugal_with_Madeira_circled.svg , map_alt=Location of Madeira , map_caption=Location of Madeira , subdivision_type=Sovereign st ...
(discovered in 1419), the
Azores ) , motto= ( en, "Rather die free than subjected in peace") , anthem=( en, "Anthem of the Azores") , image_map=Locator_map_of_Azores_in_EU.svg , map_alt=Location of the Azores within the European Union , map_caption=Location of the Azores wi ...
(discovered about 1427) and
Cape Verde , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...
(discovered about 1456). Portugal also won the exclusive right of conquering the Kingdom of Fez. * Castile's rights over the Canary Islands were recognised while Portugal won the exclusive right of navigating, conquering and trading in all the
Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Afr ...
south of the Canary Islands. Thus, Portugal attained hegemony in the Atlantic not only for its known territories but also for those discovered in the future. Castile was restricted to the Canaries. *Portugal gained a war compensation of 106,676 dobles of gold in the form of Isabella's
dowry A dowry is a payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price and dower. While bride price or bride service is a payment ...
. *Both infants (Isabella and Afonso) stayed in Portugal under the regiment of '' Tercerias'', at the village of Moura, waiting for the appropriate age. The Catholic Monarchs were responsible for all costs of maintaining the ''Tercerias''. *Juana had to choose between staying in Portugal and entering a
religious order A religious order is a lineage of communities and organizations of people who live in some way set apart from society in accordance with their specific religious devotion, usually characterized by the principles of its founder's religious pract ...
or marrying Prince Juan, son of the Catholic Monarchs: she chose the former. *The Castilian supporters of Juana and Afonso were pardoned.


Possessions

This treaty, ratified later by the Papal bull ''
Aeterni regis The papal bull ''Aeterni regis'' nglish: "Of the eternal king"was issued on 21 June 1481 by Pope Sixtus IV. It confirmed the substance of the Treaty of Alcáçovas, reiterating that treaty's confirmation of Castile in its possession of the Can ...
'' in 1481, essentially gave the Portuguese free rein to continue their exploration along the African coast while guaranteeing Castilian sovereignty in the Canaries. It also prohibited Castilians from sailing to the Portuguese possessions without Portuguese licence. The Treaty of Alcáçovas, establishing Castilian and Portuguese spheres of control in the Atlantic, settled a period of open hostility, but it also laid the basis for future claims and conflict. Portugal's rival Castile had been somewhat slower than its neighbour to begin exploring the Atlantic, and it was not until late in the fifteenth century that Castilian sailors began to compete with their Iberian neighbours. The first contest was for control of the Canary Islands, which Castile won. It was not until the union of Aragon and Castile and the completion of the
Reconquista The ' ( Spanish, Portuguese and Galician for "reconquest") is a historiographical construction describing the 781-year period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula between the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in 711 and the fall of the Na ...
that the larger country became fully committed to looking for new trade routes and colonies overseas. In 1492, the joint rulers of the country decided to fund
Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus * lij, Cristoffa C(or)ombo * es, link=no, Cristóbal Colón * pt, Cristóvão Colombo * ca, Cristòfor (or ) * la, Christophorus Columbus. (; born between 25 August and 31 October 1451, died 20 May 1506) was a ...
' expedition that they hoped would bypass Portugal's lock on Africa and the Indian Ocean, and instead, reach Asia by travelling west over the Atlantic.


Precedent in international law

The Treaty of Alcáçovas was the first document to define "the field reserved for the future discoveries" of Spain and Portugal, specifically delineating "the respective rights of the two crowns over the territories of the African Continent and the Atlantic islands." In this way, it can be considered a landmark in the history of
colonialism Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their rel ...
. It is one of the first international documents formally outlining the principle that European powers are empowered to divide the rest of the world into "spheres of influence" and colonise the territories located within such spheres, and that any
indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
living there need not be asked for consent. This remained a generally accepted principle in the ideology and practice of European powers up to the 20th century
decolonization Decolonization or decolonisation is the undoing of colonialism, the latter being the process whereby imperial nations establish and dominate foreign territories, often overseas. Some scholars of decolonization focus especially on separatism, in ...
. The Treaty of Alcáçovas could be regarded as the ancestor of many later international treaties and instruments based on the same basic principle. These include the 1494
Treaty of Tordesillas The Treaty of Tordesillas, ; pt, Tratado de Tordesilhas . signed in Tordesillas, Spain on 7 June 1494, and authenticated in Setúbal, Portugal, divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between the Portuguese Empire and the Spanish Em ...
, which further codified the positions of Spain and Portugal in world exploration, and the resolutions of the 1884
Conference of Berlin The Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, also known as the Congo Conference (, ) or West Africa Conference (, ), regulated European colonisation and trade in Africa during the New Imperialism period and coincided with Germany's sudden emergence ...
, four centuries later, which in much the same way divided Africa into colonial spheres of influence.


See also

*
List of treaties This list of treaties contains known agreements, pacts, peaces, and major contracts between states, armies, governments, and tribal groups. Before 1200 CE 1200–1299 1300–1399 1400–1499 1500–1599 1600–1699 1700–1799 ...


References


Bibliography

Books *, Stephen R.
''1494: How a family feud in Medieval Spain divided the world in half''
D and M publishers inc., Canada, 2011. *, Bailey W. and WINIUS, George D.
''Foundations of the Portuguese Empire, 1415–1580''
Volume 1, University of Minnesota Press, 1985. *, Carl
'' Atlantic emporium: Portugal and the wider world, 1147–1497''
volume 47 de Iberian studies, University press of the South, 2002. . *, Marvin
''The council of the Santa Hermandad: a study of the pacification forces of Ferdinand and Isabella''
University of Miami Press, 1970. . *, Manuela- ''O Sonho da União Ibérica – guerra Luso-Castelhana 1475/1479'', Quidnovi, Lisboa, 2007
book description
*, Malyn (2005
''A history of Portuguese overseas expansion, 1400–1668''
New York: Routledge. *, Ian
''Spain, the mainland''
E. Benn, 1975. Chronicles *, Alfonso de- ''Gesta Hispaniensia ex annalibus suorum diebus colligentis, Década III
and IV
' (the three first ''Décadas were'' edited as ''Cronica del rey Enrique IV'' by Antonio Paz y Meliá in 1904 and the fourth as Cuarta Década by José Lopes de Toro in 1970).


External links


Treaty Between Spain and Portugal, Concluded at Alcacovas, 4 September 1479 (English translation)
*The Library of Iberian Resources Onlin

by Stanley G. Payne. {{DEFAULTSORT:Treaty of Alcacovas Alcacovas History of European colonialism 1479 in Portugal History of the Canary Islands Alcacovas Alcacovas Alcacovas Ferdinand II of Aragon Isabella I of Castile 1479 in Europe 15th century in Aragon 15th century in Castile