Imperial Spanish Practice

Britons are accustomed to think of the ‘Empire’ as an experience unique to themselves. But in fact all Europe’s Atlantic-facing countries had their external ambitions articulated in imperial expansions. First there was Portugal, which made the Indian Ocean something like a Portuguese lake by the early 16th century. Its control of contact with the west coast of Africa was formidable and guaranteed by successive popes, who were assumed to have the deciding voice in such matters during the late Middle Ages. Spain followed, being allocated all land to the west of the Portuguese dominions. Then came France, whose mercurial monarch, Francis I, justified his involvement by the exclamation that he ‘would like to see the clause in Adam’s will’ which excluded France from a role in the New World.