Alexandre de Gusmão
| Alexandre de Gusmão | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born |
17 July 1658 Santos, State of Brazil, Portuguese Empire |
| Died | 9 May 1736 (aged 77) Lisbon, Kingdom of Portugal |
| Alma mater | University of Coimbra |
| Profession | , Diplomat |
Alexandre de Gusmão (Santos, 17 July 1695 – Lisbon, 9 May 1753) was a diplomat born in the Portuguese colony of Brazil. He is regarded as one of the best diplomats of his time, chiefly for his role in negotiating the Treaty of Madrid in 1750 (revoked in 1761), when Portugal and Spain were attempting to delimit their territorial possessions in South America and Asia. Born in the city of Santos, he may be considered one of the precursors of the application of the principles of Illuminism to international relations, adopting the principle of uti possidetis, according to which each state has the right to the land that it actually occupies, as well as the idea of "natural boundaries", which suggests the use of prominent geographical accidents – such as rivers and mountain ranges – to set the limits between states. He graduated in Law and was the representative of Portugal to various states, among which Rome, where he came to be invited to join Pope Innocent XIII's court. He was also a brother of Bartolomeu de Gusmão, a priest and naturalist recalled for his early work on lighter-than-air airship design (balloons).
During the period of the Iberian Union (1580–1640), due to the Portuguese dynastic succession crisis, Portugal and all its territorial possessions in Africa, Asia and the Americas came under the control of the Philippine Dynasty, of Spain. Because both countries had come under the same rule, there ceased to be boundaries between their territories in their colonies, which had been established by the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) in America and the Treaty of Zaragoza (1529) in Asia. Hence, the colonial explorers (bandeirantes) from the Portuguese colony of Brazil expanded westwards into the centre of the continent, occupying what was once Spanish and Amerindian territory. In Asia, on the other hand, Spanish explorers expanded to occupy territory which had been attributed to Portugal under the Treaty of Zaragoza.
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