Coming-of-age Connectivity?

June 7, 2025, marked the completion of 531 years of the Treaty of Tordesillas, enacted on that day in 1494 by the governments of Spain and Portugal. The Treaty, named after the city in Spain where it was made, neatly divided the “New World” of the Americas between the two superpowers.

Spanish explorer Christopher Columbus led an expedition, backed by Spain's Catholic Monarchs, seeking to establish a new route to Asia. By mistake, he reached the Caribbean. His arrival there was the beginning of a period of European contact with the Americas, which would lead to conquest and settlement, and the deaths of many millions of indigenous people to diseases and war. New studies reveal that Columbus was born to a Jewish family in western Europe, but concealed his Jewish identity, or converted to Catholicism, to escape religious persecution.

In 1493, after reports of Columbus’ discoveries had reached Spain, the Spanish rulers Ferdinand and Isabella enlisted papal support for their New World claims to prevent the Portuguese and other possible rival claimants. To accommodate them, the Spanish-born pope Alexander VI issued bulls setting up a line of demarcation from pole to pole 100 leagues (about 320 miles) west of the Cape Verde Islands—about 500 km off the coast of West Africa. Spain was given exclusive rights to all newly discovered and undiscovered lands in the region west of the line. Portuguese expeditions were to keep to the east of the line. Neither power was to occupy any territory already in the hands of a Christian ruler, the Treaty professed.

King John II of Portugal was dissatisfied with the agreement as Portugal’s rights in the New World were insufficiently affirmed. It was pointed out that the Portuguese would not even have sufficient room at sea for their African voyages. In a subsequent meeting, Spanish and Portuguese ambassadors reaffirmed the papal division by moving the dividing line to 370 leagues (1,185 miles) west of the Cape Verde Islands, or about 46°30′ W of Greenwich. Pope Julius II finally sanctioned the change in 1506. The new boundary enabled Portugal to claim the coast of Brazil. Thus, through a Papal bull, issued by the Vatican, the world got divided between the two superpowers of Europe and entered into a phase of colonial expansion of Europe on the non-Christian Old World.

Decline of the Silk Route

Silk Road was an ancient trade route, linking China with the West. It carried goods and ideas between the two great civilisations of Rome and China. Silk went westward, and wools, gold, and silver went east. Originating at China’s Xi’an during the westward expansion of China’s Han Dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE), the 4,000-mile caravan tract terminated at the Mediterranean ports of Antioch and Tyre. Antioch, located on the Orontes River in modern-day Turkey, served as a major trading hub. Tyre, situated on the Mediterranean coast in modern-day Lebanon, was a renowned port city.

The Silk Road acted as a passage not only for commodities such as silk, ivory, and spices but also for ideas, inventions, and even religions. China received Nestorian Christianity (originating from the teachings of Nestorius, the Patriarch of Constantinople) and Buddhism (from India) via the Silk Road. In India, Christianity arrived in the Malabar Coast through East Syrian traders in the first century. Bishops sent from the Babylonian (Persian) Patriarchate to Kerala were traditionally Nestorian. The Chaldean Syrian Church, based in Trichur, is considered the faithful remnant of the pre-Portuguese (1498) Syrian Christian presence in Kerala.

The fall of Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey), to the Turks in 1453 diminished its importance as a market for the exchange of goods between East and West. By that time, the Muslims had almost complete control of the central and western Asian lands through which the Silk Road navigated. They began to charge exorbitant taxes on the goods passing through those regions. This compelled the European traders to explore for an alternative route to Asia.

The discovery of a new sea route to Asia by explorers and traders, particularly the Portuguese, led to the decline of the age-old Asian trade route. While Columbus ended up discovering America instead of Asia, the Portuguese explorers remained focused. Prince Henry the Navigator fostered exploration by establishing a school for navigation in Sagres on the southeastern tip of Portugal. Explorer Bartolomeu Dias sailed down the Atlantic and rounded the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa in 1488, and in 1497-98, Vasco da Gama extended Portuguese reach across the Indian Ocean to become the first European explorer to reach India by sea. The sea route paved the way to the colonial occupation, by European powers, of southern Africa and most of the lands bordering the Indian Ocean. Later, industrial revolution in Britain, in the 19th century, immensely helped the Europeans to retain their grip on newly established colonies.

Revival of the New Silk Road

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), sometimes referred to as the New Silk Road, is one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects of China. Launched in 2013, BRI has two components—the Silk Road Economic Belt and the Maritime Silk Road. At present, it has 147 member countries. Significantly, India is not a member of BRI. Analysts believe that China’s colossal infrastructure investments may usher in a new era of trade and growth for economies in Asia and beyond. As a part of this Chinese initiative, railway officials from Iran, China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Turkey met in Tehran, on May 12, to advance a transcontinental rail network linking Asia to Europe. The six nations agreed on competitive tariffs and operational standards to streamline regional rail services and boost trade connectivity. A new commercial rail route linking China and Iran has officially launched with the arrival of the first cargo train from the eastern Chinese city of Xi’an at Aprin Dry Port near Tehran.

Significantly, the China-Iran rail connection project is a strategic alternative to the India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) project which aims to turn Israel into a gateway for trade in goods and energy in West Asia.

The new line—part of the evolving East-West Corridor linking China to Iran, the Persian Gulf littoral states, Africa, and ultimately Europe—presents one of the most secure trade routes currently in play. On May 6, 2025, in a landmark move, poised to reshape the geopolitics in the Horn of Africa, two newly joined BRICS member countries—Iran and Ethiopia—entered into a security agreement. The deal outlined a range of collaborative efforts, such as combating cross-border crime, exchanging intelligence, and enhancing military and security capabilities through training and capacity-building initiatives.

The train from Xi’an took only 15 days to reach Tehran, and most importantly, the rail route does not provide the USA any scope for stopping and inspecting Iranian oil tankers at sea. Strategic analysts believe that the rail line will not only boost trade between the two countries but will also undermine America’s influence in the region. This probably has compelled US President Trump to say on Tuesday (June 24) that China can continue to purchase Iranian oil after Israel and Iran agreed to a ceasefire. The Old World, under the leadership of the People's Republic of China (PRC), is reclaiming its past glory.

The writer is a professor of Business Administration who primarily writes on political economy, global trade, and sustainable development. Views expressed are personal