Treaty Of Alcáçovas Case Study

The Treaty of Alcáçovas, also known as Peace of Alcáçovas-Toledo, was the first agreement to regulate the colonial possessions. It received this name because it was signed in the villa of Alcáçovas, in 1479, by the Catholic Monarchs of Castile and Aragon and Alfonso V of Portugal ad his son, Juan.
It was developed in order to solve the following main issues:
- End with the hostility, that had increased after the War of the Castilian Succession, between Castile and Portugal
- Divide the territories of the Atlantic Ocean between the two countries
- Establish the destiny of Juana de Trastamara (also known as la Beltraneja), spouse of Alfonso V, in case she leave the convent
- Pardon all the Castilian supporters of Juana
- Make a contract of marriage
However, they were not allowed to navigate to the south of the Cape Bojador, now that it was under portuguese control.

As we can see, Portugal won almost the hegemony in the Atlantic Ocean, not only for the lands they won but also for those that were not discovered yet, while Castile only had the Canary Islands. Thus, the portuguese seemed to be the most beneficiated, but we also need to keep in mind that in that period of time it was unknown what the African and the Indian coast could bring, and that supposed an important risk. However, the result was very positive, as we can see in all the discoveries of well known navigators as Alfonso de Paiva or Vasco da Gama.
Also, in relation to the disputes we mention before about who would be the owner of the taxes of the territories discovered. This is known as “quinto real” or “quinto del rey”, which is the tax received by the Crown of the good coming by boat from the territories of the Atlantic known as “Guinea” and “Gold Mine”. Therefore, in the treaty of Alcáçovas the kings of Castile and León accepted that this tax were received by Portugal in the castilian ports, incluiding boat that had start the trip to the mine before the signature of the
However, the most accepted one is that Juan II of Portugal, although he kept the idea that the treaty let him navigate the Atlantic Ocean to the West, he suggested other solution: they will only make trips to the South of the meridional parallel of the Canary Islands. Nevertheless, this solution did not satisfy to the Catholic Monarchs, now that if it was accepted, Castille would be out of the african expansion and out of the Indies route, so they kept continue claiming that Portugal was only owner of the isles that were signed in the