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|
 Title page of the Treaty of Madrid (1750) | |
| Signed | 13 January 1750 (1750-01-13) |
|---|---|
| Location | Madrid,Spain |
| Parties | |
| Languages | Spanish Portuguese |
TheTreaty of Madrid (also known as theTreaty of Limits of the Conquests)[1] was an agreement concluded betweenSpain andPortugal on 13 January 1750. In an effort to end decades of conflict in the region of present-dayUruguay, the treaty established detailed territorial boundaries betweenPortuguese Brazil and the Spanish colonial territories to the south and west. Portugal also recognizedSpain's claim to the Philippines while Spain acceded to the westward expansion of Brazil. The treaty included a mutual guarantee of support in case either state's American colonies were attacked by a third power.[1]
Most notably, Spain and Portugal expressly abandoned thepapal bull,Inter caetera, and the treaties ofTordesillas andZaragoza as the legal basis for colonial division.[2]
Earlier treaties, such as theTreaty of Tordesillas and theTreaty of Zaragoza, drawn up by both countries and mediated byPope Alexander VI, stipulated that thePortuguese Empire in South America could extend no further west than 370leagues west of theCape Verde Islands (called theTordesillas meridian, approximately the46th meridian). Had those treaties remained unchanged, the Spanish would have held both what is today the city ofSão Paulo and all land to the west and south. Thus, Brazil would be only a fraction of its present-day size.
Gold was discovered inMato Grosso in 1695. Starting in the 17th century, Portuguese explorers, traders, and missionaries from the state ofMaranhao in the north, and gold-seekers and slave-hunters (the famousbandeirantes of São Paulo} in the south, had penetrated far to the west and south-west of the old treaty line, also looking for slaves.
Newcaptaincies (administrative divisions) had been created by the Portuguese beyond Brazil's previously-established boundaries:Minas Gerais,Goias, Mato Grosso, andSanta Catarina.
The Portuguese wanted to strike a balance between the boundary claims of Spain and Portugal by allotting the greater part of the Amazon basin to themselves and that of theRío de la Plata to Spain. They also sought to secure the undisputed sovereignty of the gold and diamond districts ofGoiás andMato Grosso for the Portuguese Crown, as well as to secure Brazil's frontier by the retention of theRio Grande do Sul and the acquisition of the SpanishJesuitMisiones Orientales on the left bank of theUruguay River. They hoped that the meeting would allow them to secure the western frontier of Brazil and river communication withMaranhão-Pará by ensuring that navigation on the riversTocantins,Tapajos andMadeira remained in Portuguese hands.
Spain wanted to stop the westward advance of the Portuguese, who had already encroached on much of what was theoretically Spanish territory, even though it consisted mostly of virgin jungle. They also sought to transfer to Spain the Portuguese colony ofSacramento, which had functioned as a back door for the illegal Anglo-Portuguese trade with theViceroyalty of Peru, and which rendered the Spanish city ofBuenos Aires dangerously exposed to foreign invasion. Furthermore, they hoped to undermine the Anglo-Portuguese alliance, and thus eventually facilitate a Spanish-Portuguese alliance against British aggression and ambition in South America.
ThePhilippines were under Spanish sovereignty.
The original treaty was in both Portuguese and Spanish, and consists of a lengthy preamble and 26 articles.
The Treaty of Madrid was based on the principles ofUti possidetis, ita possideatis fromRoman law ("who owns by fact owns by right") and "natural boundaries", stating respectively in the preamble: "each party must stay with what it now holds" and "the boundaries of the two Domains... are the sources and courses of the most notable rivers and mountains", and thereby authorizing the Portuguese to retain the lands they had occupied at the expense of theSpanish Empire. The treaty also stipulated that Spain would receive theSacramento Colony and Portugal theMisiones Orientales. They were seven independentJesuit missions of the upperUruguay River. The Treaty of Tordesillas was specifically abrogated.
The treaty sensibly sought to follow geographic features in fixing the boundary: it moved westward from a point on the Atlantic coast south of Rio Grande do Sul, then northward irregularly following parts of the Uruguay,Iguaçu,Paraná,Paraguay,Guaporé,Madeira, andJavary Rivers, and north of the Amazon, ran from the middle Negro to the watershed between the Amazon and Orinoco basins and along the Guiana watershed to the Atlantic.[3][4]
Soon after the signing of the treaty, two commissions for demarcation were created. The northern one was chaired by the State Governor of Grão-Pará and Maranhão, and the southern one by the Portuguese Governor of Rio de Janeiro.
The Treaty of Madrid was significant because it substantially defined the modern boundaries of Brazil. However, the resistance of the Jesuits to surrendering their missions, and the refusal of the Guaraní to be forcibly relocated, led to the nullification of the treaty by the subsequentTreaty of El Pardo, signed by both countries in 1761.
The opposition by the Guaraní led to theGuaraní War of 1756. There were frequent skirmishes in the Banda Oriental after the 1750 treaty.[1] The terms of the Treaty of Madrid, with a few exceptions, were re-established in theFirst Treaty of San Ildefonso in 1777, and that treaty was again negated in 1801.
