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Oct 12, 1492
Columbus Reaches America
Columbus arrives in the Bahamas. Europeans are in the Americas to stay. Columbus eventually makes four voyages to the New World, but dies dejected and forgotten in Valladolid, Spain in 1506. -
Jun 7, 1494
Treaty of Tordesillas
in the town of Tordesillas, Castilla and Portugal sign a treaty that divides the Atlantic Ocean through a line drawn from pole to pole, 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands, leaving the eastern hemisphere for the Crown of Portugal and the Western Hemisphere -
1501
Encomienda System
The encomienda was a socioeconomic institution through which a group of individuals were obliged to give back to another in work, species or by other means, to supposedly enjoy a good or benefit they had received. -
1507
America Named
Geographer Martin Waldseemüler is first to use the name "America" to refer to newly-discovered continents, after Italian merchant, explorer, and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci. Columbus loses out on lucrative naming rights. -
1513
Ponde de León Discovers Florida
Juan Ponce de León discovers Florida
