On May 4, 1493, Pope Alexander VI issued the papal bull Inter caetera, an expansive declaration that sought to impose juridical and theological order on the newly encountered Atlantic world. Produced in the immediate aftermath of Christopher Columbus’s first voyage, the document reflects a…
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On June 7, 1494, two rival powers sat down to sign a treaty that would shape North and South America for the centuries that followed. Following the reports of Christopher Columbus’s discoveries in the Americas, Spanish rulers Ferdinand and Isabella went to the Vatican to help back Spanish…
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