Question

Which statements accurately describe Portugal's claim to Brazil? Select all choices that apply. --This means there is more than one answer--
A- a map of South America that shows the 1494 Line of Demarcation explains why the people of Brazil speak a different language from most of the people living in the rest of South America

B- The explorer who claimed Brazil was following a plan to sail far to the west to find and claim land for Portugal

C- The explorer who claimed Brazil was able to do so because Brazil lay east of the Line of Demarcation drawn at the Treaty of Tordesillas.

Answer 1

The answers are A and C

Answer 2

The correct answer choices are A and C.

As Portugal learned about Spain's exploration expeditions led by Columbus, and fearing the Spaniards might interfere with their exclusive sea routes to the Far East, it filed a complaint before the pope at the time, Alexander VI (also known as Rodrigo Borgia, a high hierarchy priest of the Catholic Church born in Valencia, Spain, and apparently sympathetic to the Catholic Monarchs of Spain). In response to Portugal's complaint the pope issued a papal bull (a legal settlement ordered by the Church) and a demarcation line was traced leaving most of the known and yet-to-be-found lands and water bodies westwards under Spain, and those eastwards under the control of the Portuguese. A lucky "accident" left the lands today known as Brazil as the only colony in America ruled by Portugal, which explains why Brazilians are the only Latin Americans who speak Portuguese and not Spanish. A formal agreement, based on the papal bull, was signed by Spain and Portugal and became known as the Treaty of Tordesillas, named after the city where the signature of the document took place.