Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
sincetheAmazonestuaryhadbeenseparately administered since1623,andthroughthis
1750 integration, it would enhance the southern seat of power.
Then, instead of endless squabbles over the location of the imaginary grid line of the
forty-sixth meridian, the Tordesillas line, natural geographic formations—in this case
enormous rivers—would become general territorial markers, something visible and ob-
vious to all. This question of gigantic rivers would not resolve everything, as we shall
see, but it was a step forward.
The Treaty of Madrid (1750)
The stimulus for the Treaty of Madrid lay in the messy territory of multiple claims
between the Jesuits, Brazil, and Argentina. Portugal began establishing significant
colonies in Argentinean lands, such as the Colonia of Sacramento, in areas obviously
west of the Tordesillas line and at the heart of some of the richest Jesuit settlements.
The extensive grasslands were coveted by Brazilian cattlemen, but the region had had a
complex history ofinvasion andskirmish. Inthis context ofhighly contested boundaries
to the west and to the north, the first Brazilian scientific boundary commission (1729),
composed of the two “mathematical clerics” ( padres matemáticos” —Diogo Soares and
Domingos Capassi) was initiated and coordinated by Alexandre Gusmão, an essential
first step in the definitive structuring of the boundary. 21 This enterprise involved using
the astronomical innovations in cartography pioneered by the French Royal geograph-
er Guillaume Lisle (1675-1726) to generate greater precision in geographical mapping.
The maps by the padres were meant to accurately document the extent of Luso occupa-
tion and the physical location of the rivers and landmarks. The Spanish crown, however,
in a practice that it (and its ex-colonies) seemed to often repeat, launched no counterpart
to the Portuguese survey.
The specific Portuguese intentions with the 1750 treaty involved three territorial out-
comes: to win Spanish recognition of the terrains occupied by Portuguese/Brazilians in
Rio Grande do Sul (thus extending Brazilian coastal control to the south); to recognize
Portugal's claim to the eastern shores of the Paraná, Paraguay, Guaporé, and Madeira
Rivers,thussecuringformalcontroloftheminingdistrictsofMatoGrosso;andtoattain
sovereignty over the Amazon basin, not just the Atlantic estuary (as defined by the
Tordesillas line). These consolidated “island” Brazil. In return, Portugal would cede the
Sacramento Colônia, at the mouth of La Plata River (Brazil had other river routes to the
Río Paraguay), and,ofspecial interest toSpain, the Philippines, keytothe highly lucrat-
ive Asian silver trade. Those islands were technically Portuguese by virtue of the Asian
projection of the Tordesillas line onto the other side of the globe. 22
This treaty had broader implications for South American territorial history, however.
First and foremost, the treaty largely eliminated the Tordesillas line as a demarcation
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