Castile and Portugal: The Race for World Domination

The great race against the clock to dominate the world had begun. In Portugal, people had been living of pepper for years and the merchants knew that, as long as the people were slaves to their bellies, they would do great business with spices. 

Lisbon had become the main centre of world trade policy. Suddenly, Portugal had gained an enormous inheritance that could hardly enjoy, unless it controlled the African routes of the Indian and Atlantic oceans.

However, Castile, ever vigilant of the Moorish threat, remained blocked. On the contrary, Portugal enjoyed a peace and freedom of action that allowed it to look to the ocean with an ambitious perspective. 

With the expulsion of the Jews from Castile in 1492 by order of the Catholic Kings, not only did an important source of local capital escape, but also the talent of the wise Jewish cartographers and astronomers who placed themselves at the service of the Portuguese crown. 

Francisco de Almeida finished in 1505 the task previously undertaken by his distinguished compatriots, Diaz and Gama, managing to bring under the Portuguese yoke all the squares of India that until then had been controlled by the Turks and Venetians. 

In Castile, the Catholic kings watched in astonishment the Portuguese successes. Despite Columbus' insistence, his new world did not appear to be India, nor were there any tangible benefits in the form of gold, slaves or spices.  

Precisely at the moment of greatest confusion and despair for the Castilians, the discovery of the South Sea by the sailor Núñez de Balboa took place in 1513. If a passage between the two great oceans was found, the Moluccas could be reached by the western route.

However, the problem would not end then, because it was necessary to decide to whom the desired islands actually belonged, as determined by the Treaty of Tordesillas, which had been signed by the Portuguese and Castilians in 1494, dividing the Earth into two halves.