Date Posted:09:15:35 01/10/08 Thu Author: Stephen Luscombe Author Host/IP: NoHost / 82.152.254.32 Subject: Re: British empire, the biggest empire? In reply to:
Saruman
's message, "Re: British empire, the biggest empire?" on 02:37:12 01/09/08 Wed
>>Of course, the Spanish claims were based on the Papal
>>Bull which divided the planet into a Portugese and
>>Spanish zone. Protestant nations never agreed to this
>>designation and so it was only the biggest as far as
>>the Spanish were concerned. Additionally, most of that
>>claim was pure notional ownership. eg much of South
>>America was (still is) dense jungle that belonged to
>>noone but the native Americans who inhabited.
>>Technically they were Spanish (or Portugese) but in
>>reality were completely unaware of the gift that the
>>Pope had bestowed on the Catholic nations.
>
>I want to believe that the British Empire was bigger
>but ... Australia, Canada and much of the jungle
>African territories also are practically empty ...
>Must we should consider these areas?
I suppose the difference was that other countries around the world agreed with the British claims and so would not counter them, whereas the Spanish claims were disputed by non-Catholic nations who ignored the Pope's claims.
