What is Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)?

The Treaty of Tordesillas was like a big imaginary line that helped two countries decide who would get which new lands far away.

Imagine you and your friend are playing with a giant map on the floor, and it's full of cool new places you both want to explore. But there’s not enough space for both of you, so you draw an invisible line in the middle, like a big imaginary wall, and agree: everything on one side is yours, and everything on the other side is your friend’s.

That’s what happened between Spain and Portugal in 1494. They were both discovering new places across the sea, and they needed to figure out who would get which lands. So they drew this big imaginary line, called the Treaty of Tordesillas, right down the middle of the world, or at least, that’s how it looked on their map.

It worked for a while, but sometimes the line wasn’t so clear, and that led to some interesting adventures and arguments later on.