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Period: 1450 to 1500
Bartolomeu Dias rounded Africa’s Cape of Good Hope
A major maritime victory for Portugal, Dias’ breakthrough opened the door to increased trade with India and other Asian powers. It also prompted Genoan explorer Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), then living in Portugal, to seek a new royal patron for a mission to establish his own sea route to the Far East. -
1475
Vasco Nunez de Balboa reached the South Sea.
Helped establish the first stable settlement on the South American continent at Darién, on the coast of the Isthmus of Panama. In 1513, while leading an expedition in search of gold, he sighted the Pacific Ocean. -
1476
Pizarro discovered Peru
Francisco Pizarro was born circa 1476 in Trujillo, Spain. In 1513, he joined Vasco Núñez de Balboa in his march to the "South Sea," during which Balboa discovered the Pacific Ocean. In 1532, Pizarro and his brothers conquered Peru. -
1492
Columbus sailed out of a spanish port and sailed towards the New World.
The expedition sighted land, probably Watling Island in the Bahamas, and went ashore the same day, claiming it for Spain. Later that month, Columbus sighted Cuba, which he thought was mainland China, and in December the expedition landed on Hispaniola, which Columbus thought might be Japan. He established a small colony there with 39 of his men. -
Aug 3, 1492
Columbus returned to Spain from his first voyage
Columbus set sail from Spain to find an all-water route to Asia. On October 12, more than two months later, Columbus landed on an island in the Bahamas that he called San Salvador; the natives called it Guanahani. -
1494
Treaty of Tordesillas happen
Agreement between Spain and Portugal aimed at settling conflicts over lands newly discovered or explored by Christopher Columbus and other late 15th-century voyagers. -
1497
Vasco da Gama, Explore Africa until he reached India.
The Portuguese nobleman Vasco da Gama (1460-1524) sailed from Lisbon in 1497 on a mission to reach India and open a sea route from Europe to the East. ... Two decades later, da Gama again returned to India, this time as Portuguese viceroy; he died there of an illness in late 1524. -
1498
Columbus' third voyage
Columbus left the port of Sanlucar in southern Spain on May 30, 1498 with six ships, bound for the New World on his third voyage. After stopping at the islands of Porto Santo and Madeira, the fleet arrived at Gomera in the Canary Islands on June 19. -
1499
John cabot and amerigo vespucci explore the Americas
He concluded that the land they had found had to be another continent – the “new world” that some Europeans thought might be there. -
1499
Amerigo Vespucci traveled along the east coast of South America.
On the 1499 voyage, Vespucci sailed to the northern part of South America and into the Amazon River. He gave places he saw names like the "Gulf of Ganges," thinking, as his explorer contemporaries did, that he was in Asia. -
1502
Columbus fourth Voyage
On May 11, 1502, four old ships and 140 men under Columbus's command put to sea from the port of Cadiz. Among those accompanying him were his brother Bartholomew, and younger son Fernando, then thirteen years old. At age fifty-one, Columbus was sick, but felt he had one more voyage left in him. -
1517
Spanish conquest of Mexico begins
The first contact with Mexico occurred in 1517, when explorer Francisco Hernández de Córdoba landed on the Yucatan coast. A subsequent expedition by Juan de Grijalva confirmed a land dominated by a powerful people who were despised by those forced to pay tribute to them. -
1519
Hernand Cortes landed on the shores of Mexico
Hernan Cortes, the conquistador captain, established a New World Empire with 600 men against a million Aztecs. His conquest in 1519 set in motion the destruction of one of the greatest ancient societies. The Aztecs were reported to be at the height of their civilization during the sixteenth century. -
1520
Magellan Sails into Pacific Ocean
Ferdinand Magellan Reaches the Pacific Ocean. On this day in 1520, famed Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan entered "The Sea of the South" having sailed from the Atlantic Ocean through the passage that now bears his name, the Straits of Magellan. -
Roanoke was founded
The Roanoke Island colony, the first English settlement in the New World, was founded by English explorer Sir Walter Raleigh in August 1585. The first Roanoke colonists did not fare well, suffering from dwindling food supplies and Indian attacks, and in 1586 they returned to England aboard a ship captained by Sir Francis Drake. -
First Dutch fleet arrives in India
A fleet of eight ships under Jacob van Neck was the first Dutch fleet to reach the 'Spice Islands' of Maluku, the source of pepper, cutting out the Javanese middlemen. The ships returned to Europe in 1599 and 1600 and the expedition made a 400 percent profit. -
Jamestown in Virginia is established by the English
The Virginia Company of England made a daring proposition: sail to the new, mysterious land, which they called Virginia in honor of Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen, and begin a settlement. They established Jamestown, Virginia, on May 14, 1607, the first permanent British settlement in North America. -
First boatload of slaves brought directly from Africa to the Americas.
The number of black slaves in America did not immediately expand after the Dutch brought the first boatload to Jamestown in 1619. Slavery as an institution was not formally recognized in Virginia until 1664. Opposition to the slave trade developed early, particularly among Quakers and Mennonites. -
Plymouth was founded
Plymouth Colony. Plymouth Colony First colonial settlement in New England (founded 1620). The settlers were a group of about 100 Puritan Separatist Pilgrims, who sailed on the Mayflower and settled on what is now Cape Cod bay, Massachusetts. -
English Found Massachusetts bay colony
One of the original English settlements in present-day Massachusetts, settled in 1630 by a group of about 1,000 Puritan refugees from England under Gov. John Winthrop and Deputy Gov. Thomas Dudley. In 1629 the Massachusetts Bay Company had obtained from King Charles I a charter empowering the company to trade and colonize in New England between the Charles and Merrimack rivers. -
La Salle Explores the lower Mississippi River
Tonti was to command the fort while La Salle traveled again to France for supplies. On July 24, 1684, La Salle sailed again from France and returned to America with a large expedition designed to establish a French colony on the Gulf of Mexico, at the mouth of the Mississippi River. -
Christopher columbus reaches the Americas
The explorer Christopher Columbus made four trips across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain: in 1492, 1493, 1498 and 1502. He was determined to find a direct water route west from Europe to Asia, but he never did. Instead, he accidentally stumbled upon the Americas.
