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To: tsowellfan
In 1481 Pope Alexander VI decreed that all lands 100 leagues West and South of the Azores belong to Spain.

Many things have happened since then but it appears the spawn of Spain are fulfilling the papal bull to the detriment of the English experiment called the US Constitution.

There are always exceptions but on average,which colonies have become the most successful countries—the Spanish or the British? I would prefer to to live under what works but that was and is still a revolutionary thought.

22 posted on 07/14/2012 11:05:08 AM PDT by Happy Rain ("Shakespeare and Bach have felt EVERYTHING!"--E.Power Biggs)
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To: Happy Rain
Pope Alexander VI was elected in 1492. He happened to be Spanish himself (Borgia <- Borja). He divided the non-Christian world between Spain and Portugal in 1493 after Columbus returned from his first voyage (which the Spanish and Portuguese made an adjustment to his line in 1494).

Granted that the countries started by settlers from the British Isles have tended to turn out better than the former Spanish colonies, there are a number of reasons--not all going back to the differences between Spain and England in 1492 (since England itself had a lot of developing to do before absolutism was defeated there). The former British colonies in Africa and Asia, where the English were a small minority, and often left afterwards, have not done as well as the countries created by settlers--the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The former Spanish colonies generally had a minority from Spain ruling over a larger indigenous and impoverished population who had little chance at economic betterment.

30 posted on 07/14/2012 11:52:53 AM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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