Diario las Américas., 1958-06-11
Know thy
.Nei9hbotI
Nv ANTONIO RUIZ

BRAZIL - Regarding terrltof-
ial expansion, the history of Bra.
iii has some resemblance to that
of the United States. Both spread
out to the west, and both had to
struggle against the Indians, and
the hardships of the backlands. In
both cases, determined pioneers
had to open trails of penetration
in their desire to conquer new
lands. Even today it is along these
routes that civilization and pro-
gress flow into the interior OF Bra
I'll.
The North Americans, however,
began their task later and complet-
ed 1t sooner. In less that a cen
fury they crossed the continent
from coast to coast, sowing the
seed of civilization that the pill
grims had brought with them. Bra
I'll started earlier, in the first cen
fury after her discovery, and has
not yet d the journeys
end. For, though its explorers soon
attained the farthermost limits of
their territorial expansion, giving
the colony a greater area than
that of the United States, they
left behind enormous stretches of
virgin lands inhabited by people
as primitive as those encountered
by the first Portuguese who land
ed at the Atlantic shores at the
beginning of the 18th. century.
The Portuguese and the Spanish
had been for a long time ~disputing
each other the priorities of over
seas discoveries and the conquest
of new lands. The fleets of the two
countries sailed on long voyages,
returning laden with faboulous
wealth from the lands they had
found: gold, precious stones, rare
fabrics from India and China, Spi.
ces from Malacca, etc. For that
reason, the news of the discovery
of America by Columbus, in the
name of the Catholic Monarchs OF
Spain, was not well received at
the Court of the Portuguese King
Dom JOao II.
To avoid a war between the two
countries, Pope Alexander VI
divided the world to be conquered
by a line that was to pass 10C
leagues to the west Of Cape Verde
Islands, an archipelago 800 miles
from the coast of Africa. East OF
this line of demarcation, all the
land discovered was to belong to
the King of Portugal, west of it to
the Spanish Monarchs.
In the year 1894 Portugal and
Spain agreed, by the Treaty Of
Tordesillas, to extend this limit
$40 leagues farther west from the
islands, and thus they traced the
Line of Tordesillas, separating the
Spanish and the Portuguese worlds.
When Brazil was discovered six
years later by Pedro Alvarez de
Cabral, a Portuguese admiral, the
geographer calculated that the
line of demarcation cut through
the new land from the site of the
present city of Belem de Para, al
the mouth of the Amazon River, to
a place called Laguna, in what is
now the State of Santa Catarina
In tht way the limis of Brazil
were established even before The
country was discovered, and this
also explains why, in South Anne
RIGA, the Portuguese settled on the
Atlantic side and coast. Eighty
years later, however, Philip Il
of Spain, was acknowledged also a:
king of Portugal, and the two Iber
ian kingdoms yer united under
one crown in 1880. The Tordesilla.
line ceased then to exist.
Both Spanish and Portuguese ex
ploeres could then extend theil
conquests and spread all over the
world without hindrance, since
they belonged to the same mon
arch. The Portuguese began to ex
plore west of the line of demarca
ton and to occupy territory be
yond it, in the direction of thu
Spanish colonies established or
the Pacific coast, and in a few
years the area of Brazil was NOR
than doubled.
Snanish Version Page 3