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and a favorably placed land mass
which, unlike the nations of Europe.
is so loca ted as to prevent it from
being ov..::rrun by powerful neighbor
sta tes?
Or has an unseen hand guided
this nation from its inception in
1607 when the struggling colonists
from England
establi~hed
their first
toehold in the New World?
A Three-Power Struggle for America
Few Americans rea lize that there
was a fierce three-powe r strugglc
waged during the coursc of two cen–
tu ries for the control of the vast land
mass o f North Ame ri ca . Spa in .
Francc. and Brilain a ll sought con–
trol of this rich continent. ..,
In the samc yea r tha t Columbus
made
hi~
epic voyage
to
the West
lndies - 1492 - Pope Alexandcr VI
gra nted Lo Spain and Portuga l all of
o rth. Cent ral and South America.
After learning of the discovery of
th e previou ly unknown lands of the
ew World, Pope Alexander de–
c~d ed
thc best way to prevent rivalry
and bloodshed betwecn Spain and
Portuga l
wa~
Lo divide the newly
The
PLAIN TRUTH July 1976
di scovered wor ld betwecn them. Ac–
cordingly he drew an imaginary line
from no rth to south through a point
severa! hundred mil es west of the
present-day Atlan ti c islands ca lled
the Azores. Al! the land to the east
of this "line of dema rca tion•· went
to Portuga l. and a ll to the we t fell
to Spain's lo
t.
By the Trcaty of Tordesillias.
signed between Spain and Portugal
in 1493. this "linc of demarca ti on"
was moved slightly further west.
The only territory in the New World
which was ass igned Lo Portuga l was
th e big eastcrn bulge of the Sou th
American conti nent, rough ly corre–
sponding to present-day Brazil. All
of the rest of the territory in the
ew Wo rl d went to the Spaniards.
This meant that Spain was give n a l!
of North and Centra l America plus
most of South America.
However, there was one major
problem \\ ith this imaginary divi–
sion of the
ew World. Britai n.
France and Holland just did not be–
li eve any man (whcther pope or
king) had the God-given right Lo
give away such vast amounts of the
THE BEGINNING:
The landing of the
Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock in 1620;
the signing of the Dec/aration of Jn–
dependence in Philadelphia, July 4,
1776.
Cred1ts ReprOduced by permiSSIOn ol Huntmgton L1brary.
San Marmo. Ca . Copyr1ght Yate Umvers1ty Art Gattery
ea rth 's unclaimed real estate. They
th erefore ignored the pope's "line of
demarca rion" when it came
LO
es–
tab lishing, at a later date. colonies
in the New World.
Britain' s Showdown With Spain
Later. however, a real struggle fo r
possession of North Ame rica devel–
oped between Britain and Spain. As
fabulous quantitics of gold and sil–
ver began flowing from the New
World - primarily from Mexico
and Peru - back to Europe. the
greed and curiosity of many nations
were aroused. Greedy adven turers
wa nted to get their hands on sorne
of this ·eemingly unlimited t reasure.
At this point in hi tory, England
produced some daring men of the
sea such as Sir Francis Drake and
Sir John Hawki ns. Th ese bold ad-
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