Treaty of Zaragoza (1529)

The Treaty of Zaragoza, or Treaty of Saragossa, also referred to as the Capitulation of Zaragoza, was a peace treaty between the Spanish Crown and Portugal, signed on 22 April 1529 by King John III and the Emperor Charles V in the Aragonese city of Zaragoza. The treaty defined the areas of Castilian (Spanish) and Portuguese influence in Asia to resolve the "Moluccas issue", when both kingdoms claimed the Moluccas islands for themselves, considering it within their exploration area established by the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494. The conflict sprang in 1520, when the expeditions of both kingdoms reached the Pacific Ocean, since there was not a set limit to the east.

In 1494 Castile and Portugal signed the Treaty of Tordesillas, dividing the world into two exploration and colonizing areas: the Castilian and the Portuguese. It stated a meridian in the Atlantic Ocean, with the western part exclusive to Spain and the east to Portugal.

In 1511 Malacca, then the center of Asian trade, was conquered for Portugal by Afonso de Albuquerque. Getting to know the secret location of the so-called "spice islands" – the Banda Islands in the Moluccas, then the single world source of nutmeg and cloves, main purpose for the travels in the Indian sea – Albuquerque sent an expedition led by António de Abreu in search of the Moluccas, particularly the Banda islands, where they were the first Europeans to arrive in early 1512, passing en route through the Lesser Sunda Islands. Before reaching Banda, they first touched the islands of Buru, Ambon, and Seram, and then the Banda Islands. Later, after a separation forced by a shipwreck, his vice-captain Francisco Serrão, went again to the north and sank off Ternate, where he obtained a license to build a Portuguese fortress-factory: the Forte de São João Baptista de Ternate ().

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