Dudum siquidem
Dudum siquidem (Latin for "A short while ago") is a papal bull issued by Pope Alexander VI on , one of the Bulls of Donation addressed to the Catholic Monarchs Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon which supplemented the bull Inter caetera and purported to grant to them "all islands and mainlands whatsoever, found and to be found, discovered and to be discovered, that are or may be or may seem to be in the route of navigation or travel towards the west or south, whether they be in western parts, or in the regions of the south and east and of India". Background The bull Aeterni regis of 1481, delivered by Pope Sixtus IV, had confirmed the substance of the Treaty of Alcáçovas, which itself had confirmed Castile in its possession of the Canary Islands and had granted to Portugal all further new lands to be won by Christendom in Africa and the East Indies. At the beginning of the year 1492 the Christian reconquest of Spain was completed by the capture of Granada. The voyages of Christopher Columbus, seeking a westerly route to the riches of the Indies, began in the summer of the same