Repercussions of Iberian Union on the Boundaries of Portuguese America. A discussion of the Eighteenth Century Border Treaties

Abstract

In the present article, we take a brief journey through the History of the Portuguese expansion into America, in order to explain how the meridian fixed by the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494 was neglected and crossed during two centuries. Likewise, we give details about the way the conquest and colonization process was reported in the Hispanic-Portuguese diplomatic treaties, which reached its zenith in the Treaty of Madrid in 1750. This treaty was the first to establish the borders which, with little differences, demarcated the territory of current Brazil, and it could therefore be considered a turning point in the historical formation of the territory of Latin America’s giant.