The Pope divided the world between the Spanish and Portuguese. It was thought that the Americas fell in the Spanish half, but Brazil was found to be east of the line.
Iberian hegemony was challenged by European powers, notably the French, Dutch, English and Danish. During the power struggles which did not really end until 1815, Sephardim in the Americas followed the Dutch and English. Eventually, having won and then lost a colony in Brazil, the Dutch were principally left with the Netherlands Antilles, including the island of Curacao and Dutch Guiana, now Suriname. Sephardim settled in the English Caribbean islands of Barbados and Jamaica, and in New York, Philadelphia and Charleston in North America.
Sadly, Jewish pirates of the Caribbean is a 21st Century invention.
