<Tr> <Th> Author (s) </Th> <Td> Pope Alexander VI (later confirmed and ratified by Pope Julius II in 1506) </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Signatories </Th> <Td> Ferdinand II of Aragon Isabella I of Castile John, Prince of Asturias John II of Portugal </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Purpose </Th> <Td> To divide trading and colonising rights for all newly discovered lands of the world located between Portugal and Castile (later applied between the Spanish Crown and Portugal) to the exclusion of other European nations . </Td> </Tr> <P> The Treaty of Tordesillas (Portuguese: Tratado de Tordesilhas (tɾɐˈtaðu ðɨ tuɾðeˈziʎɐʃ), Spanish: Tratado de Tordesillas (tɾaˈtaðo ðe toɾðeˈsiʎas)), signed at Tordesillas on June 7, 1494, and authenticated at Setúbal, Portugal, divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between the Portuguese Empire and the Crown of Castile, along a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands, off the west coast of Africa . This line of demarcation was about halfway between the Cape Verde islands (already Portuguese) and the islands entered by Christopher Columbus on his first voyage (claimed for Castile and León), named in the treaty as Cipangu and Antilia (Cuba and Hispaniola). </P>

The treaty of tordasillas granted spain control over which area