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The Black Plague struck Europe and Asia, and arrived in the Sicilian port Messina (Italy) in October 1346 when 12 ships came to shore. It was thought that the black plague was God's punishment, so heretics and Jews were killed. The plague still isn’t eradicated, and it is estimated that there are between 1,000 and 3,000 cases a year. The Black Death ravaged the world for centuries after the initial pandemic, but modern health practices have greatly reduced the spread.
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The Ming Dynasty was established in 1368 by Zhu Yuanzhang following the collapse of the Mongol empire. The position of emperor was much more powerful in the Ming Dynasty, and the position of Prime Minister was abolished. The Forbidden City was built during the Ming Dynasty under emperor Yongle. The Ming Dynasty fell in 1644 and was succeeded by the Qing dynasty.
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From 1401 to 1402 there was a competition amongst the sculptors of Florence to make a sculpture that would sit on the doors of the Baptistery. 7 artists competed, and they all made a sculpture of the Sacrifice of Isaac. These artists were judged by 34 Florence natives. Lorenzo Ghiberti bested Filippo Bruneschelli. It took Ghiberti 21 years to complete these doors, and they cemented his status as one of Italy’s greatest sculptors ever.
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The first Portuguese voyage to Africa was to Porto Santo in 1418, which is a port off the coast of west Africa. The Portuguese made a very important discovery in 1471, when they sailed to the coast of modern day Ghana. This coast had tons of gold, and this date could be considered the start of Portuguese colonization of the African Coast. It eventually led to millions of slaves being taken from Africa and taken to Europe and the Americas through the Atlantic slave trade.
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Johannes Gutenberg invented the modern printing press sometime around 1440 in Germany. However, the oldest printed work is the Diamond Sutra, which was printed in 868 in Dunhuang, China, during the Tang Dynasty. The first moveable type was developed by Bi Sheng around 1000, and Wang Chen made many improvements on this device in 1297. I am counting the Gutenberg press as the first printing press because it was the first machine that could "print" in similar way to what we do right now.
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Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Empire on May 29th, 1453 after the Ottomans besieged the city for 55 days. Sultan Mehmed II led the Ottomans into battle. The Byzantine emperor tried to get help from neighboring countries, but he didn’t have much success. The city of Constantinople had huge walls protecting it from invasion, but that didn’t stop Mehmed. He seiged the city, and finally, on May 29th, the Ottomans succeeded on their third attempt to break the gate of St Romanus.
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The treaty of Tordesillas was a treaty that divided up the land and people of the New World between Portugal and Spain. After Columbus came to the Americas, the Portugese and the Spanish divvied up the Americas between themselves. Spain got the vast majority of the Americas except for the westernmost parts of South America, and Portugal got everything to the west of that line. For this reason, Brazilians speak Portuguese, but Spanish is spoken pretty much everywhere else in South America.
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Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel between 1508 and 1512. This project was commissioned by Pope Julius II. Prior to this project, Michelangelo was a respected sculptor, but his painting skills had not been discovered yet. Reportedly, Julius gave Michelangelo such a hard task at the request of Michelangelo’s two biggest rivals, the painter Raphael and the architect Bramante. They hoped that Michelangelo would fail or give up, but he produced one of the greatest works ever.
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On October 31, 1517 a monk by the name of Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the castle church of Whittenberg. One of his main complaints was that the Roman Catholic church was asking for payment in exchange for forgiving sins (indulgences), which is obviously corrupt. This is one of the greatest acts of defiance in history. At this point in time, the church had a ridiculous amount of power, and Luther's defiant acts gave birth to Protestantism, which was originally those that took his side.
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In August 1518, King Charles 1 authorized Spain to ship slaves from Africa directly to the Americas. This greatly increased the amount of slaves being transported from Africa to the Americas. Many slaves were shipped to Brazil because Brazil had a booming sugar economy at the time and needed workers. King Charles’ actions set a precedent for slavery in America for hundreds of years to come.
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Tenochtitlan was the capital of the Aztec empire, and fell on August 13th, 1521. It was taken by Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes. The Spaniards sieged Tenochtitlan for 93 days, until the Aztecs relented. While under siege, the Aztecs were ravaged by smallpox, a disease introduced to them by the Spaniards. The Aztecs had very primitive weapons and armor in comparison to the Spaniards’ guns, crossbows, steel swords and cannons. After the Spaniards won, they destroyed the great city.
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Between 8,000 and 5,000 B.C., the Inca were the first to cultivate potatoes, and they did it in Peru. When the Spanish conquistadors conquered Peru in 1536, they brought potatoes back to Europe. The potato was a very important food to Europe because it allowed populations to grow, as the potato is a filling, cheap, easy-to-grow food.
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He became the leader in 1588 and died in 1629. He defeated the Uzbeks after he signed a peace treaty with the Ottomans, then he teamed up with English to slowly chip away at the enormous Ottoman empire. First, they took back Baghdad, (their former capital), and took back much of the land that they had lost to the Ottomans before. The Safavid Empire also became very wealthy through trade with the British and Dutch.
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The Iroquois League is considered one of the first democracies. The group was originally formed by five Native American tribes, the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Tuscaraora, and the Seneca. The confederacy was either formed sometime between 1450 and 1600 or in 1142, historians aren't sure of the exact date. It was formed mainly to prevent invasion from neighboring tribes, and they were finally defeated in 1779 by American General John Sullivan.
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Tokugawa Ieyasu was a powerful feudal lord who eventually unified Japan under one ruler (himself). Before the Shogunate, Japan was basically just an ununified mess of warring tribes and clans. Ieyasu won the battle of Sekigahara on October 21, 1600, which gave him control over all of Japan. The Shogun is head of the military. After the unification of Japan, the country began to thrive with it’s more centralized power source.
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The first enslaved Africans to arrive in the British Colonies were brought to Virginia on August 20, 1619 aboard the White Lion, which was a ship owned by a man named Robert Rich. This ship was flying a Dutch flag. There were about 20 enslaved Africans. They were originally kidnapped by a Portugese colonial ship, but this ship was attacked by two ships, the White Lion and the Treasurer. The White Lion took about 60 of these slaves to the colony of Virginia, and traded around 20 of them for food.
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The trail started on April 12th, 1633 and ended on June 22, 1633. Galileo was being tried because he had said that the Earth revolved around the sun and that it was not the center of the universe, which went against the teachings of the Catholic Church. Galileo was found to be guilty of heresy, and spent the rest of his life on house arrest. The church also banned his book and forbade him from teaching that the sun was the center of the universe.
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The thirty years war was a series of wars fought by various European nations. As a result of this war, the Netherlands gained independence from Spain, Sweden gained control of the Baltic, and France became the premier power of the west. Also, the Holy Roman Empire dissolved and Germany was allowed to determine their own religion. The Peace of Westphalia was negotiated in Munster and Osnabruck, and it ended the 30 years war.
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Happened from August 10 to August 21 in 1680. The Pueblo Indians revolted against the Spaniards to gain their independence in New Mexico. After New Mexico was colonized in 1598 by the Spanish, the Pueblo Indians had Catholicism forced on them by the Spanish. They were severely punished by the Spaniards and received severe punishments (bodily harm). Then, the Pueblos revolted and were free from Spanish rule for 12 years, until they were reconquered by the Spanish in 1692.
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Maria was born on April 2nd, 1647 in Frankfurt, Germany. Her magnum opus is a book containing many discoveries about insects. She helped disprove the popular theory that insects emerged from mud. She traveled to Suriname in 1699 with her daughter and studied the insects. In 1705, she published a groundbreaking book with 60 illustrations of insects that almost no European had ever seen. This book was crucial in changing our perceptions on how insects lived.
