In 1494 Spain and Portugal, mediated by the papacy, signed the Treaty of Tordesillas, which divided the newly encountered lands outside Europe along a meridian some 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands. Territories east of the line fell to Portugal and those to the west to Spain, with no consultation of the peoples who lived there. The line gave Portugal a claim to Brazil and Spain claims across much of the Americas, shaping where each power founded colonial cities and ports. It was later supplemented by the Treaty of Zaragoza for the Pacific.
It was the first attempt to partition the wider world by abstract cartographic line, setting a template for imperial claims that determined which colonial powers planted and planned cities across the Americas.