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A period of unusually cool temperatures with no determined cause
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A diabolical process in which Christian Russian communities were forced to give up select young boys (10-18) every few years to be raised away from their family and culture and trained and educated to be valuable political and military members.
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A period of time marking the beginning of a truly connected world, where every continent knows of each other. It is characterized by massive global expansion and colonization, as well as death accompanying that.
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The reigning Pope grants Spain and Portugal "full and free permission to invade, search out, capture, and subjugate the Saracens [Muslims] and pagans and any other unbelievers… and to reduce their persons into perpetual slavery.”
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A display of the massive power of the Ottoman Empire, as they conquer the 1100-year-old capital of the Byzantine Empire. The fall of this city marks the end of the long-standing Byzantine Empire
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The Songhai Empire, a powerful African empire that revolutionized trading cities. Its cities of Timbuktu and Djenne were cultural, economic, and intellectual hubs which were described as many as beautiful lands of cultural diffusion.
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Russia emerges from over 100 years of Mongol rule and begins to build its own powerful empire out of Moscow.
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Christopher Columbus was an unfavorable Spaniard who got permission from Spain's Monarchy to travel westward, in hopes of establishing a new trade route to India. Instead, he hit the Americas and sparked one of the most massive genocides in history
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The Empires of Spain and Portugal both wanted to capitalize on the discovery of the continent of America but were often at war as to which lands belonged to with state. This very long and tedious treaty very explicitly stated exactly that and did its very best to ensure there would be no loopholes or confusion.
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Led by Vasco da Gama, this voyage was the result of a century-long effort by the Portuguese to establish a sea route to the east by creeping along and around Africa.
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Between 1500-1866, ~12.5 million Africans were shipped across the Atlantic, 10.7 million being delivered; 1.8 million (14.4%) dying during the trip.
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A relatively insignificant (yet still powerful) gunpowder is established in Persia
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Malinal lived a very interesting life. She was an Aztec woman who was married to Hernán Cortés as a gift but proved to be a valuable interpreter, persuasion-ist (against her own people), and generally useful for information about the land. She aided the Spaniards' conquest of her lands and therein brought about millions of deaths on her own people.
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The Kingdom of Benin had long been contributing to the slave trade, but as it picked up the ruler of the Kingdom decided to outright ban participation. This ban lasted until the early 1700s when their exports had been monopolized by Europeans and they had little choice but to participate.
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Led by Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés, Spanish invaders as well as warring Natives overthrew and demolished the Aztec Empire and its many beauties and history. A great tragedy.
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An Islamic empire located in India. It temporarily had overly tolerant religious policies and lived in relative peace despite having a 1:4 Muslim (ruling) to Hindu (ruled) population. Toleration policies established under Akbar the Great and demolished (along with the emperor) under Orangut- uh I mean Aurangzeb)
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Two non-consecutive attacks on Vienna by the Ottoman Empire. The first in 1529, and the second on 1683
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Industrial farms run by slave labor. The slaves were both natives and imported Africans. Crops farmed were mostly cotton, tobacco, and sugarcane.
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After Spaniards destroyed their first grand Native American civilization, they decided they hadn't had enough mass-genocide, and chose to also destroy the second of the incredible Native American civilizations, the Inca Empire. Tragedy ensues.
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The Ottoman Empire, a Sunni Muslim state, was constantly fighting with the Safavid Empire, a Shia Muslim state, because of their religious differences. This was an expression of a long-lasting Islamic division.
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Akbar the Great (r. 1556-1605) was a Mughal Emperor who recognized religion as the main divide in his empire and sought to fix that by making various accommodations for both main religions. He majorly improved the empire, abolished arbitrary taxes, discouraged sati and child marriage, encouraged the marriage of widows, created the House of Worship where all religions would be represented, etc.
Created an incredibly prosperous state, before it was ruined by Aurangzeb. -
Potosí was a shoddy city built around the mountain of Potosí while the mountain was being mined for huge amounts of silver. It at one point rivaled huge cities and was the envy of Europe, but soon crumbled to disgrace as the mountain ran dry. However, the city still exists today as a mockery of its former glory.
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Russia, becoming its own empire, begins its process of expansion into the Siberian forests to its east
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The Spanish takeover of the Philippine islands granted them an edge in both American power, and international commerce.
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Still not having satisfied their bloodlust, the Spanish move on to murder and enslave the few Natives in the Phillippines who have not yet died from guns or germs
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The Little Ice Age peaked in the 1600s, causing massive devastation in the Americas (ex. it wiped out 50% of Peru's population). It is speculated that the peak was caused by the death of millions of Native Americans. Natives took care of the forests with controlled burning, releasing Co2, and limiting plants' intake of Co2, but without them around forests were not properly managed. This may have lead to the cooling of the Earth.
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China consolidated various tax levies into one big tax, to be paid by citizens in silver. This sudden demand caused silver’s price to skyrocket. This was both a result of and a contributing factor to the "silver drain"
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Europeans took Arabian sugar-farming techniques to the Americas, where they used native and African slaves to become the largest exporters/producers of sugar in the world
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Queen Nzinga of Africa's Matamb region was a powerful ruler who guided the state during times of European intrusion and kept her state free of Portuguese imperialism. She ruled from 1626 to 1663.
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These two trade companies establish themselves in Asia and begin to enter their countries into the Asian market.
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The Philippine Islands, which had been conquered by the Spanish, experienced a massacre. The Spanish, tired of Chinese culture and their resistance to religious conversion, massacred the Chinese population, killing ~20,000 (almost the entire Chinese population)
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Emperor Jahangir was addicted to alcohol and opium, and could not function as a ruler for much of his reign. Instead, his 20th and favorite wife, Nur Jahan, ruled in his place. She spent her rule fighting for the same things which Akbar the Great did
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The first permanent English settlement is established in the Americas.
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A French colony is established in Quebec, later to transform into modern-day Canada
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An objectively awful Mughal Emperor. He was racist, religiously intolerant - destroyed Hindu temples, reimposed the jizya. He intentionally destroyed everything great which Akbar the Great worked so hard to build. He was a terrible person who inarguably caused the destruction of the Mughal Empire, as his laws were hated by a vast majority of the population, who often rebelled, and also by many neighboring countries, such as those who aided the British in ending the empire.
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The Dutch briefly colonized Taiwan, an island off the southern coast of China. They attempted to produce deerskin, rice, and sugar there, but the local people were unwilling to work, so they opened the island to Chinese immigration. This did not go well, however, and the Chinese took over the island and expelled the dutch.
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When some independent English traders plundered Mughal ship, British East India Company officials were detained for two months and paid a hefty fine.
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Caused by the Little Ice Age, China experiences its worst drought in 5 centuries.
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The Tokugawa Shogunate, worried about Europe's effect on Japan's unity, decides to completely ban all European trade, with the exception of the Dutch who could trade at one site. They continued to trade with Asian markets, separate from Europeans.
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The Qing Dynasty made an 80-year military endeavor to vastly expand the Empire inwards, towards Central Asia. This effort was widely successful and rewarded them with one of the largest increases in territorial expansion in Chinese history.
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The French were expelled from the Southeast Asian state of Siam
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A Muslim African who was captured and sold into slavery after a bad deal with an Englishman. He was found by a lawyer in America and through a long process was brought back to his home, just 4 years after being captured.
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Chinese and Indian clothing materials became so cheap with still great quality that the French decided to ban Indian cotton and Chinese silk in an effort to protect the French industry.
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A Peruvian revolt, in the name of the last Incan Emperor
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The Haitian revolution was the only large-scale revolution that ever ended in lasting freedom in colonial America.