In 1452—the year before Constantinople fell—Nicholas issued a papal bull entitled Dum Diversas, which bestowed upon Portugal “official dominion” over the west coast of Africa and all the islands of the eastern Atlantic. This legalized Henry’s territorial gains as a part of Portugal’s empire. The bull specified that Portugal had the right to enslave any “Saracens” (another term for Muslims) and pagans living in the region. Still decades before Europeans would cross the Atlantic and centuries before the transatlantic slave trade would peak, the significance of this stunning papal document cannot
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