Treaty of Tordesillas
Great Britain (1600) and the Netherlands (1602) soon joined the Portuguese and Spanish in exploring the world at the beginning of the 17th century. With these new countries, the Treaty was broken and more or less 'canceled'. By this time, Portugal's limited resources made it weaker. Portugal could no longer control its Asian colonies. It no longer had trading superiority. In time, the French, Danes, Swedes and later the Americans joined the earlier Europeans in colonizing South and East Asia. Protestantism did not regard the Pope's authority in the treaty.