Biography of ruy lopez de villalobos

John Florens | Jul 25, 2023

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Summary

Ruy López de Villalobos (Málaga, Spain, 1500 - Ambon Island, 1546) was a Spanish nobleman and sailor who explored the Philippine Islands and tried, unsuccessfully, to colonize them and establish a viable trade route with the Spanish territories in America.

He is known because it was his expedition that gave the name to those islands as "Philippines" in honor of Philip II of Spain, then prince, from whom they take their present name.

The discoveries and political-economic interests of the Portuguese and Spanish empires had led them to draw up a distribution of spheres of influence for the explorations, conquests and economic exploitation of the territories that were coming to light on European maps.

In 1494, Spain and Portugal signed an agreement known as the Treaty of Tordesillas, which drew a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands to divide the world into two parts: one Spanish to