Discuss the effects of the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) on the Americas.

Candidates will offer a considered and balanced review of the effects of the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) on the Americas. Issues that may be addressed include the economic advantage received by Spain, given their vastly greater award of territory, and the substantial wealth they extracted from the Aztec and Incan Empires (by contrast, the Portuguese obtained little gold and silver from their territory), the dominance of Spanish language and culture in the Americas due to the breadth of their colonization, the refusal of Britain, France or Russia to acknowledge the legitimacy of Pope Alexander VI’s proclamation or of the treaty; the long-term avoidance of conflict between Spain and Portugal in the Americas due to the treaty, and the often disastrous effects of Spanish and Portuguese colonization upon the approximately fifty million indigenous inhabitants of the Americas.