Used a very good 1494 how a family feud in medieval Spain divided the world in half by Stephen R Bown

I own tells the untold story or the explosive

feud between monarchs, clergy, and explorers

that split the globe between Spain and Portugal

and made the world's oceans a battleground.

When Columbus triumphantly returned from

America to Spain in 1493, his discoveries inflamed

an already-smouldering conflict between Spain's

renowned monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, and

Portugal's João II. Which nation was to control

the world's oceans? To quell the argument, Pope

Alexander VI--the notorious Rodrigo Borgia-

issued a proclamation laying the foundation for

the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, an edict that

created an imaginary line in the Atlantic Ocean

dividing the entire known (and unknown) world

between Spain and Portugal.

Just as the world's oceans were about to be

opened by Columbus's epochal voyage, the treaty

sought to limit the seas to these two favored

Catholic nations. The edict was to have a profound

influence on world history: it propelled Spain

and Portugal to superpower status, steered many

other European nations on a collision course, and

became the central grievance in two centuries of

international espionage, piracy, and warfare.

The treaty also began the fight for "the free-

dom of the seas"

- the epic struggle to determine

whether the world's oceans, and thus global

commerce, would be controlled by the decree

of an autocrat or be open to the ships of any

nation -a distinctly modern notion, championed

in the early seventeenth century by the Dutch

legal theorist Hugo Grotius, whose arguments

became the foundation of international law.

At the heart of one of the greatest interna-

tonal diplomatic and political agreements of the

last five centuries were the strained relationships

and passions of a handful of powerful individuals.

They were linked by a shared history, mutual

animosity, and personal obligations--quarrels,

rivalries, and hatreds that dated back decades. Yet

the struggle ultimately stemmed from a young

woman's determination to defy tradition and the

king, and to choose her own husband.