page_title: Francisco Xavier de Mendonça Furtado
section_title: Treaty of Madrid
hierarchical_section_title: Francisco Xavier de Mendonça Furtado / Brazil before Mendonça Furtado's appointment / Treaty of Madrid
caption_attribution_description: English: Geographical Map of South America, prepared and engraved by Don Juan De La Cruz Cano y Olmedilla, Geographer, Chosen by His Majesty, individual of the Royal Academy of San Fernando, and the Royal Basque Society of Friends of the Country; keeping in mind Various Maps and original reports according to Astronomical Observations, Year of 1775. (This is the 2nd edition, the first having been printed for proofreading only.) Português: Mapa Geografico de America Meridional, dispuesto y gravado por D[on] Juan de la Cruz Cano y Olmedilla, Geog[gra]f[ic]o, Pens[a]do de S[u] M[ajestad], individuo de la R[ea]l Academia de S[a]n Fernando, y da la [Real] Sociedad Bascongada de los Amigos del Pais; teniendo presentes Varios Mapas y noticias originales con arreglo á Observaciones astronómicas, Año de 1775.
context_page_description: Francisco Xavier de Mendonça Furtado served in Portugal's armed services rising in rank from soldier to sea-captain, then became a colonial governor in Brazil and finally a secretary of state in the Portuguese government. His major achievements included the extension of Portugal's colonial settlement in South America westward along the Amazon basin and the carrying out of economic and social reforms according to policies established in Lisbon.
context_section_description: As already noted regarding the 1735–37 Spanish-Portuguese War over disputed claims on the Banda Oriental, that had been both preceded and followed by ongoing tension between Spain and Portugal regarding their constant intrusion into each other's territorial boundaries. With Spanish Jesuits already in South America from the 17th century's first decade, and with Spain's king's set on expanding Spain's territory, he gave early instructions for them to set up missions at advanced posts in the upper Amazon. Likewise, under direction from their king, Spain's Carmelites had played a role in extending its influence along the Negro, Madeira and Javary Rivers. Portugal, both officially and unofficially, engaged in similar activities, the westward movement by the Bandeirantes in search for slaves and gold being one example; but the single major force for pushing Brazil's border further to the west on the Amazon came from the Portuguese Jesuits as they set up new aldeias.
  
  The solution for defining Spain's and Portugal's territories was set out in the 1750 Treaty of Madrid where it was stated in Art. I that this new treaty would be "the only foundation and rule that from now on should be followed for the division and limits of the domains throughout the Americas and Asia", making specific reference to those established under Pope Alexander VI's 1493 Bulls of Donation, the treaties of Tordesillas, Lisbon and Utrecht, "and of any other treaties, conventions and promises." So it was stated in that same article:
  "[T]hat all this, insofar as it deals with the line of demarcation, will be of no value and effect, as if it had not been determined in everything else in its force and vigor. And in the future it will not be treated more than the aforementioned line, nor can this means be used for the decision of any difficulty that occurs on the limits, but only of the border that is prescribed in the present articles, as an invariable rule and much less subject to controversy."
  Although the treaty was an agreement about Portuguese and Spanish territories worldwide, its largest concentration was on defining their borders in the South American continent. Although this task begins in Art. IV, the fact that Art. III focuses specifically on two areas, the Amazon basin and Mato Grosso suggests that there had already been considerable dispute about their territorial ownership; and the Article concludes with the statement: "For this purpose His Catholic Majesty [ie the King of Spain], in his name and his heirs and successors, desists, and formally renounces any right and action, that by virtue of said treaty [Treaty of Tordesillas] or by any other title, may have the aforementioned territories."(Art. III.)
  
  In several articles from Art. IV onwards, rivers, waterways and landmarks are used frequently as demarcations, or where there are no such opportunities, straight lines are run between mountain peaks. The demarcation begins on the coast at the point where the former Banda Oriental del Uruguay borders with Brazil, describing it in the following way:
  "The boundaries of the domain of the two Monarchies will begin in the bar that forms, on the coast of the sea, the stream [ie Chuí Stream (Brazilian Portuguese: Arroio Chuí; Rioplatense Spanish: Arroyo Chuy)] that comes out at the foot of the Monte de los Castillos Grandes from whose skirt the frontier will continue, searching in a straight line the highest, or summit of the mountains, whose slopes go down on one side to the coast that runs to the north of the stream, or to the Merin Lagoon, or the Miní, and for the another, to the coast that runs from said stream to the south, or to the Rio de la Plata. By fortune the summits of the mountains shall serve as a line of the domain of the two Crowns. And so the border will be followed, until finding the main origin and head of the Negro River, and above them continue to the main source of the Ibicuí River, following, downstream of this river, to where it flows into the Uruguay River by its eastern bank, leaving to Portugal all the slopes that go down to the
caption: Geographical Map of South America, prepared and engraved by Don Juan De La Cruz Cano y Olmedilla, Geographer, chosen by His Majesty, an individual of the Royal Academy of San Fernando, and the Royal Basque Society of Friends of the Country; considering Various Maps and original reports according to Astronomical observations, Year of 1775. (Spanish: Mapa Geografico de America Meridional, dispuesto y gravado por D. Juan de la Cruz Cano y Olmedilla, Geogo. Pensdo. de S.M. individuo de la Rl Academia de Sn Fernando, y da la Sociedad Bascongada de los Amigos del Pais; teniendo presentes Varios Mapas y noticias originales con arreglo á Observaciones astronómicas, Año de 1775.) This is the 2nd edition, the first having been printed for proofreading only.[70]. From the King George III's Topographical Collection held in the British Library.
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