Michael Fitzgerald’s Reviews > 1494: How a Family Feud in Medieval Spain Divided the World in Half > Status Update

So, as it turns out, by the 1520s, the New World discovery, especially for Spain, was about bringing galleons loaded with gold and silver back to Spain to finance its wars. This story gets sadder and sadder.

So, as it turns out, by the 1520s, the New World discovery, especially for Spain, was about bringing galleons loaded with gold and silver back to Spain to finance its wars. This story gets sadder and sadder.

Now the story of the Spanish exploration of the New World begins, a tragic tale of greed and the destruction of the Mayan Civilization.

Now we get to the crux of the matter: it was Rodrigo Borgia, a Spaniard who bought his way into the papacy, took the name Alexander VI, and then issued the Papal Bull dividing the world north-south so Portugal "got" Africa and Brazil and Spain got America. The bull included the note that it was "pleasing to God that Barbarian nations be conquered and converted to the Roman church.