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High Renaissance art was the dominant style in Italy during the 16th century. Mannerism also developed during this period. The High Renaissance period is traditionally taken to begin in the 1490s, with Leonardo's fresco of TheLast Supper in Milan, and to end in 1527, with the Sack of Rome by the troops of Charles V.
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On October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus—a skilled sailor searching for a western trade route on behalf of Spain—made landfall in the Bahamas. This marked the first known European contact with the Americas. -
Italian Wars, (1494–1559) series of violent wars for control of Italy. Fought largely by France and Spain but involving much of Europe, they resulted in the Spanish Habsburgs dominating Italy and shifted power from Italy to northwestern Europe.
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David is one of Michelangelo's most-recognizable works, and has become one of the most recognizable statues in the entire world of art. Standing 13'5″ tall, the double life-sized David is depicted patiently waiting for battle, prepped with slingshot in one hand and stone in the other. -
Machiavelli referred to his treatise as De Principatibus (“Of Principalities”) while writing it, and it circulated in manuscript form during the 1510s. When it was first published in 1532, five years after Machiavelli had died, it carried the title Il Principe (“The Prince”). -
On this day in 1570, the first modern atlas—Theatrum orbis terrarum, or Theatre of the World—was published. The author was Flemish cartographer Abraham Ortelius. -
The Nine Years' War, sometimes called Tyrone's Rebellion, took place in Ireland from 1593 to 1603. It was fought between an Irish confederation led mainly by Hugh O'Neill of Tyrone and Hugh Roe O'Donnell of Tyrconnell against English rule in Ireland, and was a response to the ongoing Tudor conquest of Ireland.
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The Anglo-Spanish War was a conflict between the English Protectorate under Oliver Cromwell and Spain, between 1654 and 1660. It was caused by commercial rivalry. Each side attacked the other's commercial and colonial interests in various ways such as privateering and naval expeditions.