-
Period: 15 to 16
Columbian Exchange
The Columbian Exchange was the widespread transfer of plants, animals, culture, human populations, technology, and ideas between the Americas and the Old World in the 15th and 16th centuries, related to European colonization and trade after Christopher Columbus's 1492 voyage. -
Period: 15 to 16 BCE
Slave Trade
Timeline of Atlantic Slave Trade. At least 10 million Africans were enslaved and transported to Europe and the Americas between the 15th and 19th centuries as part of the Atlantic slave trade. The brutal trade was spurred by a strong demand for labor on plantations in the Americas. -
Nov 1, 1478
Start of The Spanish Inquisition
The Inquisition was originally intended primarily to identify heretics among those who converted from Judaism and Islam to Catholicism. The regulation of the faith of newly converted Catholics was intensified after the royal decrees issued in 1492 and 1502 ordering Jews and Muslims to convert to Catholicism or leave Spain. -
Period: 1491 to 1547
King Henry VIII Reign
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. Henry was the second Tudor monarch, succeeding his father, Henry VIIHenry is best known for his six marriages and, in particular, his efforts to have his first marriage, to Catherine of Aragon, annulled. His disagreement with the Pope on the question of such an annulment led Henry to initiate the English Reformation, -
1492
Christopher Columbus Lands in The New World
Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sets foot on the American mainland for the first time, at the Paria Peninsula in present-day Venezuela. Thinking it an island, he christened it Isla Santa and claimed it for Spain. -
1506
Mona Lisa Completed
The Mona Lisa is also one of the most valuable paintings in the world.It holds the Guinness World Record for the highest known insurance valuation in history at one hundred million dollars in 1962. It was completed in around 1503 or 1504. The artists name wasLeonardo da Vinci. -
1513
"The Prince"
is a 16th-century political treatise by the Italian diplomat and political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli. From correspondence a version appears to have been distributed in 1513, using a Latin title However, the printed version was not published until 1532, five years after Machiavelli's death. -
1519
Cortes Conquers the Aztecs
The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, beginning in February 1519, was one of the most significant events in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Following Christopher Columbus' establishment of permanent settlement in the Caribbean, the Spanish authorized expeditions or entradas for the discovery, conquest, and colonization of new territory, using existing Spanish settlements as a base. -
Period: 1533 to
Ivan the Terrible’s Reign
A better translation into modern English would be Ivan the Formidable), was the Grand Prince of Moscow from 1533 to 1547, then "Tsar of All the Russias" until his death in 1584. The last title was used by all his successors. -
Period: Sep 7, 1533 to
Queen Elizabeth’s Reign
was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the last monarch of the House of Tudor. -
Period: 1545 to 1563
Counter Reformation
The Counter Reformationwas the period of Catholic resurgence initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation, beginning with the Council of Trent (1545–1563) and ending at the close of the Thirty Years' War (1648).The Counter-Reformation was a comprehensive effort composed of five major elements.
1.Reactionary defense of Catholic sacramental practice
2.Ecclesiastical or structural reconfiguration
3.Religious orders
4.Spiritual movements
5.Political dimensions -
1555
Peace of Augsburg
Peace of Augsburg, 1555, temporary settlement within the Holy Roman Empire of the religious conflict arising from the Reformation. Each prince was to determine whether Lutheranism or Roman Catholicism was to prevail in his lands. -
Spanish Armada
was a Spanish fleet of 130 ships that sailed from La Coruña in August 1588, under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia with the purpose of escorting an army from Flanders to invade England. The strategic aim was to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I and her establishment of Protestantism in England, with the expectation that this would put a stop to English interference in the Spanish Netherlands and to the harm caused to Spanish interests by English and Dutch privateering. -
Edict of Nantes
The Edict of Nantes (French: édit de Nantes), signed in April 1598 by King Henry IV of France, granted the Calvinist Protestants of France (also known as Huguenots) substantial rights in the nation, which was still considered essentially Catholic at the time. -
William Shakespeare's Death
William Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616, his 52nd birthday. In truth, the exact date of Shakespeare's death is not known, but assumed from a record of his burial two days later, 25 April 1616, at Holy Trinity Church. Stratford Upon Avon, where his grave remains. -
Petition of Rights
The Petition of Right is a major English constitutional document that sets out specific liberties of the subject that the king is prohibited from infringing. Passed on 7 June 1628, the Petition contains restrictions on non-Parliamentary taxation, forced billeting of soldiers, imprisonment without cause, and the use of martial law. Following disputes between Parliament and King Charles I over the execution of the Thirty Years' War. -
King Charles the First Executed
In London, King Charles I is beheaded for treason on January 30, 1649. Charles ascended to the English throne in 1625 following the death of his father, King James I. In the first year of his reign, Charles offended his Protestant subjects by marrying Henrietta Maria, a Catholic French princess. -
Martin Luther posts 95 Theses
Popular legend has it that on October 31, 1517 Luther defiantly nailed a copy of his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle church. -
Joan of Arc burned at the stake
According to historians, Joan of Arc was 19 when she was burnt at the stake in Rouen by the English on 30 May, 1431. -
Johannes Gutenburg invents the printing press.
In the 1400s Johannes Gutenberg of Germany invented a new method of printing. It used movable type-metal letters that could be arranged and rearranged to form words -
Michaelangelo begins painting the sistine chapel
The Sistine Chapel ceiling, painted by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512, is a cornerstone work of High Renaissance art. -
The Hundred Years war
The Hundred Years' War was a series of conflicts waged from 1337 to 1453 by the house of plantagent, rulers of the Kingdom of England, House of Valois. -
Renaissance Begins
It immediately followed the period in Europe known as the Middle Ages. The Renaissance began in Italy during the 14th century and reached its height in the 15th. In the 16th and 17th centuries it spread to the rest of Europe. -
Crusades are Fought
The Crusades were a series of religious wars fought between Christians and Muslims over control of the Holy Land. Traditionally, they took place between 1095 and 1291. -
Black Death begins in Europe
The Black Death arrived in Europe by sea in October 1347 when 12 Genoese trading ships docked at the Sicilian port of Messina after a long journey through the Black Sea.
