In 1493, Pope Alexander VI, a Spaniard, decreed that all new lands discovered west of the Azores were Spanish.

CNN: Monday,

They were commissioned by a papal envoy, Rodrigo Borja, a Spaniard who went on to become Pope Alexander VI in 1492.

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In 1493, Pope Alexander VI divided the world between the Spanish and the Portuguese, with the latter given the rights to all the African continent had to offer, including the slave trade.

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