World Studies Unit Timeline

Prince Henry the navigator

1400

Prince Henry the Navigator lived during the 1400's and he sponsored many exploratory sea voyages. In 1415, his ships reached the Canary Islands, which had already been claimed by Spain. In 1418, the Portuguese came upon the Madeira Islands and established a colony at Porto Santo. Prince Henry the navigator is regarded as starting what would be known as the Age of Discoveries.

Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press

1445

Gutenberg invented the printing press sometime around 1445 because he felt churches at the time were preaching a bad message by taking peoples $ and saying that would get them to heaven. He wrote negatively about this and to get his works out he invented the printing press so he could mass produce his writings and show people without being stopped. His invention played a key role in the development of the Renaissance, Reformation, the Age of Enlightenment, and the Scientific Revolution.

Bartolomeu sailed around the southernmost tip of Africa

1488

Bartolomeu Dias was an explorer who sailed around the southernmost tip of Africa in 1488, reaching the Indian Ocean from the Atlantic, the first European known to have done so. This was important because it was the discovery of a new body of water and a "shortcut".

Christopher Columbus

1492

Christopher Columbus completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean & is credited for colonizing the new world. His voyages occured between 1492 and 1503.

Michelangelo created his sculpture David

1501

David is one of Michelangelo's most famous works, and one of the most recognizable statues in the entire world of art. David is 13’5″ tall. The near doubled in height David is shown patiently waiting for battle, ready with a slingshot in one hand and stone in the other. The twenty something-Michelangelo carved David between 1501 & 1504. This was carved my Michelangelo during the Renaissance.

Amerigo Vespucci

1502

Amerigo Vespucci discovered that Brazil and the West Indies did not represent Asia's eastern outskirts. This was again very important because new land was being discovered that nobody ever knew about.

Da Vinci made his "Portrait of A Man in Red Chalk."

1512

The portrait of a man in red chalk in the Biblioteca Reale, Turin (Spanish Library) is widely, though not universally, accepted as a self portrait of Da Vinci. It is thought that he drew this self-portrait at about the age of 60. The portrait has been reproduced many times and has become an iconic representation of Da Vinci as a "Renaissance Man". The original painting measures 13 1/8 x 8 3/8 in. It is now held in the marvelous collection of the Biblioteca Reale, Turin.

Erasmus began his translation on the Latin New Testament

1512

Erasmus was a scholar who wrote in a Latin style. He was a humanist who has been called "the crowning glory of the Christian humanists". Using humanist writing techniques, he prepared new Latin and Greek editions of the New Testament, which raised questions that would be influential in the Reformation.

Sir Thomas More wrote Utopia

1516

Utopia is a fiction book with comedic social and political concepts by Sir Thomas More published in Latin. The book is a narrative mostly discussing a fake island society and its religious, social and political customs. Many situations in More's description of Utopia are similar to those of life in monasteries.

Ferdinand Magellan

1519

Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese explorer who organized the Spanish expedition to the East Indies resulting in the first circumnavigation of the Earth (Trip all the way around) (Sailed West to go East). That was important because people realized it was possible to go around the world. This voyage was from from 1519 to 1522.