The Papal Bulls Dividing the Americas between Spain and Portugal: A Reappraisal

Abstract The papacy recently repudiated the doctrine of discovery that was relied upon by European nations when they colonized lands inhabited by Indigenous peoples. However, the Vatican did not repeal the papal bulls that authorized and provided canon law support for colonization of West Africa and the Americas by Portugal and Spain. This article examines these bulls and questions the Pope’s legal authority to issue them. It contends that the bulls bound only the Christian monarchs who accepted the Pope’s authority in this regard. They had no legal force insofar as the Indigenous peoples were concerned. Moreover, the historical record reveals that other colonizing European powers, such as France and England, rejected the validity of the bulls. In fact, Spain and Portugal acquired their overseas empires in the fifteen and sixteenth centuries, not by means of discovery or papal bulls, but by subduing Indigenous peoples and forcibly occupying their territories.