across it. In return, they offered protection fro m pirates. To the north, ships enterin g the Baltic Sea were being fo rced to pay tolls to the D anes. In retributio n, the English Parliam ent, under the reign of H enry V, sought to levy tolls on ships passing thro ugh the E nglish C hannel. As E uropea n monarchs were di vvying up parts of the globe, both waterine and terrestrial, it was Columbus's unexpected discovery of terri to ry on the wes tern side of the A tlantic that led Pope Alexander V I to issue a papal bull in 1493, Inter caetera, alloca ting separate spheres of ac tivity between Spa in a nd Portuga l along the 3 0° W meridian . Both countries interpreted this
to m ean that they had the right to exclude anyo ne else fro m tradin g a nd even from navigating in their respective areas. Naturally, the D utch and E nglish refu sed to accept this situation, and the raids of Sir Francis D rake and o thers were an expression of th is refusal. Dutch lawyer Hugo G rotius revived the Justinia n concept of the freedo m of t he seas in 1609 and defin ed the limits of te rri torial waters a nd t he right of innocent passage th ro ugh territorial waters of o ther nations. Essentially, this puts us where we are today as fa r as the use of the oceans as a highway is concerned . G reat Britain, the erstwhile opponent of these concepts,
eventually became their most vigoro us protagonist. Largely due to G reat Britain's rising eminence and dominance in m aritime pursuits, they becam e firm ly established and a large body of m aritime law was d eveloped, again by Hugo Gro tius, as to how these pri nciples m ay be violated in time of war. Terri torial waters are mo re or less w hat a littoral country ca n cla im . The di s ta nee offshore dem arcating thi s boundary was originally based on how fa r a cannonball could be sho t; now it is usually not less than twelve nautical miles . Economic zo nes are those upon whi ch a litto ral country trad itionally depends fo r its economic survival. Patrimonial waters,
This portion ofthe Cantina Planisphere map of 15 02 shows the meridian agreed upon by Spain and Portugal in the Treaty ofTordesillas in 1494, just west of the line established by Pope Alexander Vi 's Inter caetera the year before. It was named, not for the cartographer who made it, but instead for the man who smuggled a copy of it out of Portugal in 15 02 for the Duke of Ferrara (Italy). This map is one of the first sea charts from the era of European transAtlantic exploration and discovery that can be accurately dated. The map represented the latest information on transAtlantic discoveries and was considered a state secret, kept under lock and key in the Casa da India in Lisbon. The original map measured 86 x 40 inches, and today it is part ofthe Biblioteca Estense collection in Modena, Italy.
," t1m1lus.ntims· .
I ~ CC:\\lllS
omlitJllu
I
1·
:--~----!llr'~.r.~~-.:-::,..-1•~-"~-;;a..'- :; ;::...- ~;; i ; ;;--~~--~~-:-'"~~e: :.:m;.: ~l1~6~1~~"0=1s~:~~~ ;/
J.,_
~·
; 11tp11 11 ll !I! llP11 1f :
I m1rt1t1 r:1 rnm r
34
SEA JHISTORY 128, AUTUMN 2009