Tordesillas exposes until June 9 this key document of the history of Spain, which embodied the agreements between the Catholic Monarchs and João II of Portugal that established the limits of each of the Crowns in the new lands discovered. Preserved in the Archivo General de Indias, in Seville, the Treaty has traveled for the first time to the town where it was signed on June 7, 1494.
To mark the 525th anniversary of the signing, the acting Minister of Culture and Sports, José Guirao, has opened the exhibition and the commemorative events that will be held over three days in the city of Valladolid, including, among other initiatives, a meeting international conference on the Treaty of Tordesillas and the Atlantic policy, open days and guided night visits to the nearby General Archive of Simancas, concerts and a historical re-creation of the signing of the Treaty.
The Treaty of Tordesillas, included since 2007 in the Record of the Memory of the World of UNESCO, also ended litigation that confronted both kingdoms by establishing a new line of demarcation, drawn from pole to pole, 370 leagues from the island of Cape Verde. On the same day, the Fisheries Treaty was signed, in which the limits of the kingdom of Fez and the right to fish on the west coast of Africa are resolved.
In statements to the media, Minister José Guirao has pointed out the importance of the agreement and the process that led to his signature. "For the first time, two European states shared territories and oceans through dialogue and the pact, and without recourse to arms," he said.
An exhibition with eight key documents of modern history
In addition to the original treatise in Portuguese and the copy, translated into Spanish, the exhibition displays two letters dated 1493 and sent by King João II to Fernando el Católico. In one of them, the first known written testimony of the discovery, the Portuguese monarch communicates the arrival of Columbus to Lisbon and the sending of an ambassador to Ministry of Culture and Sportsthe Castilian Court to negotiate the Atlantic expansion. In the second, the Portuguese king agrees to paralyze the departures of new caravels until two months after the Portuguese emissaries inform the Catholic Monarchs. Both documents, unpublished, belong to the Maldonado family, Counts of Villagonzalo, and are guarded in loan in the Historical Archive of the Nobility.
The visitor can also see two letters of Christopher Columbus, one of them handwritten and addressed to Isabel the Catholic on Indian affairs, and the other, informing a royal scribe of the details of his first trip to the Indies. Both are conserved in the General Archive of Simancas. In addition, two other documents complete the exhibition: the Treaty of Fisheries, which is in the National Historical Archive, and the marriage agreements between the Emperor Maximilian and the Catholic Monarchs for the marriage of the Infanta Juana and the Archduke Philip and the Prince Juan with Doña Margarita, an example of foreign policy drawn up by the Catholic Monarchs through marriage alliances.
The celebration hosts an international meeting on the Treaty and its political influence
The town of Valladolid will also hold, from June 7, the international meeting "The Treaty of Tordesillas and the Atlantic policy of the Castilian and Portuguese crowns", which will bring together Spanish and Portuguese researchers and specialists for two days to analyze with a dozen presentations and debates the transcendence of the Treaty in the foreign policy of both monarchies.
The commemorative events of the 525 anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Tordesillas, organized in collaboration with the City of Tordesillas, will be completed with numerous activities scheduled in the town of Valladolid, the Museum of the Fairs of Medina del Campo and the nearby General Archive of Simancas, including guided night visits to the archive on Friday 7 and a historical re-enactment of the signing of the Treaty, which will take place on Saturday 8 at night.
Commemorative exhibition of the V Centenary of the expedition of the first round the world
Within the framework of the celebrations, on Friday, the exhibition "The dream, from the idea to the project", organized by Acción Cultural Española (AC / E) and the Ministry of Culture and Sports, will be inaugurated in Tordesillas to commemorate on the eve of of the 500 years of the first round the world, the genesis of this adventure. The exhibition, curated by Antonio Fernández Torres, now reaches the town of Valladolid, a decisive enclave in the organization and implementation of this great journey in the history of exploration.
Activities of the International Day of the Archives
The commemorative acts of the signing of the Treaty of Tordesillas coincide with the International Day of the Archives, celebrated on June 9 under the theme "Design the Archives in the XXI Century."
For this reason, the state archives have organized open days and guided tours until June 10: on June 7, at the General Archive of Simancas, at Archive of the Crown of Aragon, in Barcelona, in National Historical Archive, in Madrid, and in Historical Archive of the Nobility, in Toledo; on June 9, in the General Archive of Simancas; and on the 10th, in the General Archive of the Administration, in Alcalá de Henares.