La expansión del siglo XV: rivalidad luso-castellana

Abstract

: During the 15th century the Castilian kingdom continued its territorial expansion towards the south —except for some military campaigns in the peninsula—, and towards the North of Africa and the Atlantic islands where they faced up with the Portuguese dominion. This movement propitiated a rivalry that was kept until the signature of the treaty of Alcáçobas in 1479. In this period of time the political relationships between the two kingdoms were, in general, harmonic and friendly, but the discrepancies concerning the Atlantic area split them and it derived in several conflicts. In these, nearly 50 years, of rivalry between Castile and Portugal, we find different political positions in relation with the territorial expansion and with the pontifical documents that gave support to both parts. By this means, we can see the development of the legal-moral doctrine that would be used in subsequent discoveries and conquests in the New World.