Since the return of Columbus, the competition between Spain and Portugal for the newly discovered land has begun.

João II believed that Portugal had already taken the lead in receiving the endorsement of the Pope on several occasions in the past. But Queen Isabella was quicker, and she realized from the beginning that she needed to ask the Pope to secure Spanish ownership of the New World (which Ferdinand had already told her was the New World). Before Columbus had yet to return to the court in Barcelona, her envoys set out. Ferdinand took the opportunity to quadruple the 10,000 ducats he had promised to give to the Pope in 1493 and asked the envoy to take them with him.

For the wealth of Alexander VI, this small amount of money was really a small gift, but Ferdinand asked the messenger to send it in the name of Isabella, so that "the gift is light and affectionate", because the treasury of Castile was very empty, and the queen had no money, and all Europe knew about it......

As a Spaniard, the Pope naturally supported the motherland. Although Isabella did not have a very good relationship with him, she asked the Pope to give it all. Moreover, Ferdinand changed the historical practice and repeatedly made overtures to the Pope.

Seeing the queen send 40,000 ducats of gold coins, Alexander VI was so moved that the queen of Columbus racked her brains to make up more than 5,000! So the pope acted quickly and issued four edicts in succession.

First of all, the Pope had to be reserved, emphasizing in his edict that the propagation of the Gospel of religion was the main reason for granting the territory of Castile: "This [evangelization] is undoubtedly the most important...... Because of God's mercy and grace, I was summoned to the Holy Seat of St. Peter, even though I did not have the qualities of St. Peter (very self-aware)...... You have added glory to the name of God......"

And then it's time to get on the dry goods.

The Dale of May 4, 1493 confirmed:

"Draw a line between the North and South Poles at a distance of 100 leagues from the so-called Azov Islands and Cape Verde (usually 5.92 kilometers for 1 mile). All the islands and continents to be discovered and to be discovered to the west and south of this meridian, whether India or elsewhere, belonged to the rulers of Castile and León. ”

It is worth mentioning that this edict, as in history, completely assigned the area west of the meridian to the "ruler of Castile and León", that is, Queen Isabella, who had nothing to do with Ferdinand.

Of course, Ferdinand would not rob his wife of something because of this, he is not so thick-skinned.

It is also interesting to note that in this edict, the Pope apparently deliberately mentioned only the attribution to the west of the meridian, but to the east of the meridian. This was a tactic by the Pope to help Castile gain rights, and if Portugal wanted to gain ownership of the lands east of the line, it had to recognize the area west of the line as belonging to Castile.

Alexander VI did not expect that he deliberately did not write about the arrangements for the area east of the line, which would make this edict even more famous in history.

Despite Alexander VI's personal reputation, the popes that followed him spoke highly of the edict, calling it the Meridian Edict because it was "the largest, most far-reaching, and last edict of all popes to dispose of secular power", and it was regarded as the last symbol of the great power of the pope at the end of the Middle Ages, with which Spain truly possessed half of the world, even more than the edict provided.

"As a result of this edict, 60 percent of the world's population eventually became Catholic, and Russia was the only Christian country that maintained the Orthodox faith, and by 1992 a quarter of its Christians had converted to Catholicism." - General History of the World

In the future, the powerful Spanish Empire, as in history, always supported the Holy See and became a strong backing for the declining Pope. With the patronage of the superpower, the Pope maintained more than 40,000 square kilometers of Papal States for more than 520 years.

In 2015, thanks to the efforts of successive popes, Tuscany finally joined the Papal State through a referendum, and in an interview at that time, a Russian journalist (Russia is an Orthodox Church) asked the pope with gunpowder: "Our Prime Minister Vladimir once asked, how many divisions does the pope have?" ”

Francis: "There are only two, and one of them is in Smolensk. ”

At that time, Russia had been isolated and oppressed by the European Union for three hundred and sixty-seven years (1648~2015), in fact, the reason why it did not become a Catholic country was completely because the Spanish Empire deliberately "created" a threat on the east side of Europe to unite the seven countries of the European Union, and the European countries continued to send additional troops to the border of Poland and Russia, Sweden and Russia, Smolensk has been occupied by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth for hundreds of years, and by 2015, the seven countries of the European Union and the Papal States have gathered 8 divisions and 250,000 troops around Smolensk alone, A direct threat to Moscow.

The reporter was very angry by the Pope's sarcasm, but continued to interrogate him with a pretended to be aggressive.

"Today is even the largest day in the history of the Papal States, but I don't see that the Pope can dispose of anything other than this projectile land that would make others dare not question it."

Francis I thought for a moment, took a map and said, "At least half the world." ”

……

"Smack!" João II didn't know how many times he had dropped the glass, he had just protested to Castile and threatened to go to Rome to complain to the Pope, but the Pope came to such a show, which was really a slap in the face.

But João II can't help it, he is strong and cold, but when it comes to going to war? He didn't dare to say that he could win, it was true that Portugal was a maritime power, but Castile and Aragon, especially the latter, were also traditional maritime powers, and their overall national strength was more than their own. And if the two countries fight, they will completely tear their faces in the future, João II has a secret that he dare not say, although he does not like his brother, but deep down he longs for his brother to marry the widow Princess Isabella, and fulfill his long-cherished wish to unify the Iberian Peninsula for him - this is João II's greatest wish, and even India can let go. Moreover, João II had long been convinced that India was in the east, so even according to the papal meridian, Portugal would still make a profit.

However, even so, Portugal could not be smacked in the face and then succumbed to it, that would be too cowardly, and João II continued to protest and demanded negotiations with Castile.