Wilhelm Grewe finds Dum Diversas essentially "geographically unlimited" in its application,

perhaps the most important papal act relating to Portuguese colonisation. [11] Although
undefined, Richard Raiswell finds that it clearly refers to the recently discovered lands along
the coast of West Africa.[12] Portuguese ventures were intended to compete with the Muslim
trans-Sahara caravans, which held a monopoly on West African gold and ivory.[13]

Inter Caetera 1456

Pope Calixtus III reiterated the main points of Dum Diversas in his bull four years later,
"Inter Caetera". Once again the Pope was attempting to raise support for a campaign
against the advance of the Turks. Nuncios had been dispatched to all the countries of
Europe to beseech the princes to join once more in an effort to check the danger of a
Turkish invasion. However, the princes of Europe were slow in responding to the call of the
pope, largely due to their own national rivalries. On 29 June 1456, Callixtus ordered the
church bells to be rung at noon (see noon bell) as a call to prayer for the welfare of those
defending Belgrade. Forces led by Janos Hunyady, Captain-General of Hungary, met the
Turks and defeated them at Belgrade on 22 July 1456.[14]

On March 13, 1456, Callixtus issued the papal bull Inter Caetera (not to be confused with
Inter Caetera of 1493). This bull reaffirmed the earlier bulls Dum Diversas and Romanus
Pontifex, which recognized Portugal's rights to territories it had discovered along the West
African coast, and the reduction of the infidels and non-Christians territories to perpetual
vassals of the Christian monarch.

King Afonso had requested that ecclesiastical jurisdiction over lands located in the vicinity of
the southern shore of Guinea be vested with the Order of Christ, the successor organization
to the Knights Templars in Portugal. (His uncle, Infante Henry, was the Grand Master.) The
conquest of these lands "... which the said infante withdrew with mailed hands from the
hand of the Saracen...", had been funded by the resources of the Order.[15]

Some historians view these bulls together as extending the theological legacy of Pope Urban
II's Crusades to justify European colonization and expansionism, [16] accommodating "both
the marketplace and the yearnings of the Christian soul."[17] A combination of pragmatism,
fear of the Turks, and lobbying by vested interests meant that the crusade was associated
with discovery well into the sixteenth century. [18] The proclamations' long-term implications
were, of course, not realized at the time.

In 1537 pope Paul III condemned "unjust" enslavement of non-Christians in Sublimus Dei.
[19]
In 1686 the Holy Office limited the bull by decreeing that Africans enslaved by unjust
wars should be freed.[3]

Dum Diversas, along with other bulls such as Romanus Pontifex (1455), Ineffabilis et
summi(1497),Dudum pro parte(1516), andAequum reputamus(1534) document the
Portuguese ius patronatus.[20] [21] Pope Alexander VI, a native of Valencia, issued a series of
bulls limiting Portuguese power in favor of that of Spain, most notably Dudum siquidem
(1493).