Dudum siquidem

[5] Columbus's discoveries in the annus mirabilis created a competitive frenzy between the two principal sea-powers of the day, Portugal and the new Spanish kingdom based in Castile and Aragon.

A papal bull delivered on 4 May 1493, Inter caetera, attempted to divide the non-Christian world beyond Europe between Portugal and Spain, from the point of view of future conquests.

An important, although accidental, effect of the combination of this papal bull and of the Treaty of Tordesillas was that nearly all of the Pacific Ocean and the west coast of North America (the existence of both of which was still unknown) were allotted to Spain.

We grant to you and your aforesaid heirs and successors full and free power through your own authority, exercised through yourselves or through another or others, freely to take corporal possession of the said islands and countries and to hold them forever, and to defend them against whosoever may oppose.

[12] The pope refused to reconsider his position, so King John II of Portugal negotiated directly with Ferdinand and Isabella, accepting Inter caetera as the starting point.

[9] According to the American historian Frances Gardiner Davenport, no copy of this bull has been found in the records of the Vatican, but in the General Archive of the Indies in Seville two original manuscripts of it survive, both with the papal lead seal attached, although not marked "Registrata", as is usual.