Boundaries and Borders

The way I remember it, the Pope drew a line down the middle of the Atlantic ocean to avoid conflict between Spain and Portugal which were both doing a lot of exploring in those days.  I'm not sure why the Pope got the job, but I suppose it was because Spain and Portugal were Catholic countries and the Pope was somebody they both would listen to.  The intent was that Spain would get the Americas and Portugal would get Africa.  One day some Portuguese sailors got lost either going to or coming from Africa and accidently discovered the easternmost tip of, what it today, Brazil, which happened to be on the Portuguese side of the Pope's line.  It was only a small portion of Brazil that stuck out over the line, and I'm not sure how the Portuguese ended up with the rest of Brazil or, for that matter, how any of the borders between South and Central American countries were determined.

I seem to remember seeing a PBS show that mentioned Argentina as a country with lots of Germans in it.  I don't know how they ended up there, but I know that some of the NAZI war criminals went there to hide out after the war.  I think that's because there was already an established German presence in the country.  I also seem to remember reading, probably on Wiki, that there were plans to establish a Portuguese government in exile in Brazil after Napoleon's people took over Portugal, but it never came to pass.

My comments about the Great Spirit's ownership of Indian lands were based on reading and conversation about our local Chippewa and Ottawa tribes.  I don't know to what extent that belief was shared by other tribes throughout the country, but I don't think that many Indians had the same concept of land ownership that we do today.  Neither did most Europeans either, for that matter.  In Europe, the land was owned by the king, and he granted charters for its administration to his noblemen.  Even today, there are more renters in Europe than land owners.  When France lost it's holdings in North America to England, the King of France bestowed the land on the King of England, in keeping with the custom of the times.  The King of England would have done the same when he ceded the Northwest Territory, but there was no King of America, or even a president yet, so he gave the land to the Continental Congress, with the condition that the Indians would be allowed to remain on the land.