Q. Consider the following statements about Treaty of Tordesillas:
1. The rulers of Portugal and Spain divided the world between them by an imaginary line in the Pacific Ocean.
2. This led to the advent of Portuguese to India.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Answer: B
Notes:
In 1497, under the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), the rulers of Portugal and Spain divided the non-Christian world between them by an imaginary line in the Atlantic, some 1,300 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands.
- Under the treaty, Portugal could claim and occupy everything to the east of the line while Spain could claim everything to the west. The situation was thus prepared for the Portuguese incursions into the waters around India.
- It was in 1487 that the Portuguese navigator, Bartholomew Dias, rounded the Cape of Good Hope in Africa and sailed up the eastern coast; he was well convinced that the long sought after sea route to India had been found.
- But it was only ten years later that an expedition of Portuguese ships set out for India (in 1497) and arrived in India in slightly less than eleven months’ time, in May 1498.
Source: Spectrum’s A Brief History of Modern India.
