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Jan 1, 1488
Bartholomeu Dias rounds tip of Africa
Bartolomeu Dias was a Portugese navigator whose 1487-88 Atlantic voyage around the southern tip of Africa opened sea routes between Europe and Asia. In 1486 King João II (King John II) assigned Dias, a member of the royal court, to command a voyage with both spiritual and material aspirations: Dias was to search for the lands of Prester John -- a legendary Christian priest and African king -- and challenge the Muslim dominance of trade with Asia. By 1488 Dias had unknowingly rounded the African -
Jan 1, 1492
Columbus reaches west indies
Columbus's initial 1492 voyage came at a critical time of emerging modern western imperialism and economic competition between developing kingdoms seeking wealth from the establishment of trade routes and colonies. -
Jun 7, 1494
Treaty of Tordesillas
The Treaty of Tordesillas was intended to resolve the dispute that had been created following the return of Christopher Columbus. In 1481, the papal bull Aeterni regis had granted all land south of the Canary Islands to Portugal. -
Jan 1, 1498
Vasco de Gama Sails to India
Vasco De Gama, the Portuguese explorer, arrived in India. He established a trading post, thus creating a new trade route between Europe and the East. -
May 20, 1498
Vasco da Gama sails across Indian Ocean to India
The fleet arrived in Kappad near Calicut, India on 20 May 1498. The King of Calicut, the Saamoothiri (Zamorin), who was at that time staying in his second capital at Ponnani, returned to Calicut on hearing the news of the European fleets's arrival. The navigator was received with traditional hospitality, including a grand procession of at least 3,000 armed Nairs, but an interview with the Zamorin failed to produce any concrete results. The presents that da Gama sent to the Zamorin as gifts from -
Mar 9, 1500
Pedro Cabral lands in South America
The fleet under the command of the 32–33-year old Cabral departed from Lisbon on 9 March 1500 at noon. The previous day they had been given a public send-off which included a Mass and celebrations attended by the King, his court and a huge crowd. On the morning of 14 March the flotilla passed Gran Canaria, the largest island in the Canary Islands.[44][47] It sailed onward to Cape Verde, a Portuguese colony situated on the West African coast, which was reached on 22 March. -
Apr 1, 1511
Albuquerque sails to Malacca
In April 1511, Afonso de Albuquerque set sail from Goa to Malacca with a force of some 1200 men and seventeen or eighteen ships.[3] The Viceroy made a number of demands - one of which was for permission to build a fortress as a Portuguese trading post near the city.[4]. All the demands were refused by the Sultan. Conflict was unavoidable, and after 40 days of fighting, Malacca fell to the Portuguese on August 24. Although Malacca seems to have been well supplied with artillery, but the combinati -
Jan 1, 1521
Spanish defeat the aztecs
The Spanish conquest of the Aztecs in 1521, led by Hernando Cortes, was a landmark victory for the European settlers. Following the Spanish arrival in Mexico, a huge battle erupted between the army of Cortes and the Aztec people under the rule of Montezuma. The events that occurred were crucial to the development of the American lands and have been the subject of much historical debate in present years. -
Aug 13, 1521
Spain rules Mexico (beginning and ending years)
Tenochtitlan was not to surrender without a fight. Surrounded by water and populated by a warrior society that thoroughly hated the Spanish, the city could defeat any direct assault. So the Alliance mounted a siege, destroying the causeways from the mainland and the aqueduct that provided drinking water. The alliance completed its encirclement by building a fleet of brigantines, which gave control of the lake to the Spanish. The siege of Tenochtitlan lasted eight months. Already weakened by lac -
Jan 1, 1522
Magellan circumnavigates the world
Magellan's expedition of 1519–1522 became the first expedition to sail from the Atlantic Ocean into the Pacific Ocean (then named "peaceful sea" by Magellan; the passage being made via the Strait of Magellan), and the first to cross the Pacific. It also completed the first circumnavigation of the Earth, although Magellan himself did not complete the entire voyage, being killed during the Battle of Mactan in the Philippines. -
Jan 1, 1532
Spanish defeat Incas
The Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire was one of the most important campaigns in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. This historic process of military conquest was made by Spanish conquistadores and their native allies. After years of preliminary exploration and military skirmishes, 169 Spanish soldiers under Francisco Pizarro and their native allies ambushed the Sapa Inca Atahualpa (emperor of the Inca Empire) and captured him in the 1532 Battle of Cajamarca. It was the first step in a -
Jan 1, 1542
Portugese begin exploring Africa
As the Portuguese explored the coastlines of Africa, they left behind a series of padrões, stone crosses engraved with the Portuguese coat of arms marking their claims,[18] and built forts and trading posts. From these bases, they engaged profitably in the slave and gold trades. Portugal enjoyed a virtual monopoly on the African seaborne slave trade for over a century, importing around 800 slaves annually. Most were brought to the Portuguese capital Lisbon, where it is estimated black Africans c -
Sep 25, 1555
Peace of Augsberg
The Peace of Augsburg was a treaty between Charles V and the forces of the Schmalkaldic League, an alliance of Lutheran princes, on September 25, 1555, at the imperial city of Augsburg, now in present-day Bavaria, Germany. -
Jan 1, 1564
French Colonization of the Americas
Later, in 1534, Francis sent Jacques Cartier on the first of three voyages to explore the coast of Newfoundland and the St. Lawrence River. The French subsequently tried to establish several colonies throughout North America that failed, due to weather, disease or conflict with other European powers. Cartier attempted to create the first permanent European settlement in North America at Cap-Rouge (Quebec City) in 1541 with 400 settlers but the settlement was abandoned the next year after bad wea -
Slaves takenj from africa to the new world
The Atlantic slave trade, also known as the transatlantic slave trade, was the enslavement and transportation, primarily of African people, to the colonies of the New World that occurred in and around the Atlantic Ocean. It lasted from the 16th to the 19th centuries. Most enslaved people were shipped from West Africa and Central Africa and taken to North and South America[1] to labor on coffee, cocoa and cotton plantations, in gold and silver mines, in rice fields, the construction industry, tim -
Dutch sail to India
Henry Hudson was selected by the Muscovy Company to command an expedition "to discover a passage by the North Pole to Japan and China. -
Henry Hudson finds Hudson Bay
On August 4 the ship was at Cape Cod, from which Hudson sailed south to the entrance of the Chesapeake Bay. Rather than entering the Chesapeake he explored the coast to the north, finding Delaware Bay but continuing on north. On September 3 he reached the estuary of the river that initially was called the "North River" or "Mauritius" and now carries his name. He was not the first to discover the estuary, though, as it had been known since the voyage of Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1524. On Septembe -
English take new netherland
The earliest Dutch settlement was built around 1613, and consisted of a number of small huts built by the crew of the "Tijger" (Tiger), a Dutch ship under the command of Captain Adriaen Block which had caught fire while sailing on the Hudson.[16] Soon after, the first of two Fort Nassaus was built and small factorijen, or trading posts, where commerce could be conducted with Algonquian and Iroquois population, went up (possibly at Schenectady, Schoharie, Esopus, Quinnipiac, Communipaw and elsewh -
Dutch establish settlements on North America
After some early trading expeditions, the first Dutch settlement in the Americas was founded in 1615: Fort Nassau, on Castle Island in the Hudson, near present-day Albany. The settlement served mostly as a trade post for fur trade with the natives and was later replaced by Fort Oranje (in English: Fort Orange) at present-day Albany. Both forts were named in honor of the Dutch House of Orange-Nassau -
England rules United States (beginning and ending years)
During the 1760s and 1770s, relations between the Thirteen Colonies and Britain became increasingly strained, primarily because of resentment of the British Parliament's attempts to govern and tax American colonists without their consent,[52] summarised at the time by the slogan "No taxation without representation". Disagreement over the American colonists' guaranteed Rights as Englishmen resulted in the American Revolution and the outbreak of the American War of Independence in 1775. The follow -
England rules Canada (beginning and ending years)
Territories, colonies and provinces that would become part of modern Canada were under control of the English, and later British, Empire from the sixteenth century, when France also had claims in the area. However, the most populous areas of Canada in the St. Lawrence and Great Lakes region, as well as much of the Maritime province were acquired under the Treaty of Paris of 1763 when France gave up all claims to mainland North America, and former French colonies were transferred to Britain. Cana