Expansion, Exploration, and Encounters

  • 1368

    The Beginning of The Ming Dynasty

    The Beginning of The Ming Dynasty
    Hongwu, a peasant's son, brought the Mongols out of China. That year he also became the first Ming emperor. He ruled from Nanjing. He was also responsible for an Agricultural Reform that increased rice production, irrigation, cotton, and sugar cane. However, he killed thousands of officials. In general, he was an important emperor to bring stability to China. He died in 1398.
  • 1406

    The Forbidden City

    The Forbidden City
    The Forbidden City, was built under the decision of Yonglo, The construction took 14 years, from 1406 to 1420. It was characterized by red walls, with dozens of buildings, palaces and temples. The city took this name because commoners and foreigners could not get access to the area.
  • 1415

    Conquest of the Muslim city of Ceuta

    Conquest of the Muslim city of Ceuta
    Prince Henry, the son of the Portugal king, helped to conquer the Muslim city of Ceuta in North Africa. The Portuguese found huge quantities of pepper, cinnamon, cloves, and many other spices.
  • 1451

    The Triangular Trade

    The Triangular Trade
    In 1451(until 1870) was developed a transatlantic trading network known as the triangular trade: the Africans were transported to the Americas. Europeans transported manufactured goods to the west coast of Africa, where the traders exchanged the goods for captured Africans. The Africans were transported across the Atlantic and sold in the West Indies.
  • 1488

    Bartolomeu Dias Exploration

    Bartolomeu Dias Exploration
    Bartolomeu Dias reached the tip of Africa by going down the coast. He began to explore the southeast coast of Africa.
  • Aug 3, 1492

    The first voyage of Christopher Columbus

    The first voyage of Christopher Columbus
    Christopher Columbus sailed west across the Atlantic in search of an alternate trade route to Asia. However he never reached Asia, he stepped onto an island in the Caribbean. Nevertheless Columbus with his crew thought they reached the East Indies. For this reason they called the inhabitants who greeted him "los indios". The natives were not Indians but a group who called themselves Taino.
    In early 1493 he returned to Spain.
  • Jun 7, 1494

    Treaty of Tordessilas

    Treaty of Tordessilas
    Treaty signed between Spain and Portugal, declared a division of the New World into two different areas of domination along a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands, off the west coast of Africa. The lands to the east would belong to Portugal and the lands to the west to Castille.
  • 1497

    Vasco Da Gama Exploration

    Vasco Da Gama Exploration
    Vasco Da Gama started exploring the East African coast in 1497. In 1498 he reached the port of Calicut, on the southwestern coast of India. He found many spices and precious gems in the town's stores. he returned with his crew to Portugal in 1499 filled with some spices such as pepper and cinnamon.
  • 1497

    Jhon Cabot

    Jhon Cabot
    He was a navigator and explorer who by his voyages in 1497 and 1498 helped lay the groundwork for the later British claim to Canada.
    https://www.history.com/topics/exploration/john-cabot
  • May 18, 1499

    Amerigo Vespucci and his voyages

    Amerigo Vespucci and his voyages
    Amerigo Vespucci began his voyage in 1499 when he explored the coast of modern-day Brazil. Vespucci charted the stars and constellations of the southern hemisphere and he noticed that they were different from the constellations visible in Europe. In 1501 he noted once more the different constellations. Vespucci was beginning to believe they were not in India.
    https://exploration.marinersmuseum.org/subject/amerigo-vespucci/
  • 1519

    Hernando Cortes and the conquest of Mexico

    Hernando Cortes and the conquest of Mexico
    Hernándo Cortés was born in 1485 in Medellín, western Spain. He initially studied law but left university to make his fortune in the Americas. In 1519 he landed on the shores of Mexico. the group of Spanish people who took part of the voyage were called the "conquistadors". They reached the regions of Mexico, South America, and US. They reached the area of the Aztec Empire and he took the emperor hostage demanding a huge ransom from his people.
  • 1522

    Resistance and Rebellion- Stono Rebellion

    Resistance and Rebellion- Stono Rebellion
    In that period Slaves found ways to resist to the slavery. In 1522 about 20 slaves on Hispaniola attacked and killed several Spanish colonists. Larger revolts occurred throughout Spanish settlements during the 16th century. in 1739 a group of slaves in South Carolina led a rebellion known as the Stono Rebellion that continued into the 1800s.
  • 1532

    Francisco Pizarro and the conquest of South America

    Francisco Pizarro and the conquest of South America
    Francisco Pizarro was another Spanish conquistador who conquested the Inca empire and destroyed its culture, economy, and society. Pizarro and his army met Atahualpa, the Incan emperor, near the city of Cajamarca. The Spaniards crushed the Incan force and kidnapped Atahualpa. Then they moved to other cities under the Incan control and plundered them of gold and silver.
  • 1556

    Akbar's golden Age

    Akbar's golden Age
    Babur's grandson (Babur, was the founder of the Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent), Akbar, ruled India from 1556 to 1605. He reorganized the military power, he equipped his army with heavy artillery. The combination of military power and political wisdom enabled Akbar to unify a land of at least 100 million people.
  • 1568

    Oda Nobunaga seized the capital Kyoto

    Oda Nobunaga seized the capital Kyoto
    Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese daimyo and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period. He defeated his rivals and seized the imperial capital Kyoto in 1568.
  • 1577

    Francis Drake and his second voyage for Queen Elisabeth I

    Francis Drake and his second voyage for Queen Elisabeth I
    Francis Drake was an English explorer who reached the Pacific coast of South America in late 1577.
    Drake had five ships for the expedition. Among his men were John Winter and Thomas Doughty. Major tensions flared between Drake and Doughty during the trip. Upon arriving off the coast of Argentina, Drake had Doughty arrested with the accusation of planned mutiny. After a brief and possibly illegal trial, Doughty was convicted and beheaded.
    www.biography.com/explorer/francis-drake
  • the east India Company

    the east India Company
    The East India Company was an English company formed for trade with East and Southeast Asia and India. Incorporated by royal charter on December 31, 1600, it was started as a monopolistic trading body so that England could participate in the East Indian spice trade.
    www.britannica.com/topic/East-India-Company
  • New France

    New France
    A French explorer, Samuel Champlain, sailed up St. Lawrence (gulf off the eastern coast of Canada reached by another French explorer, Jacques Cartier, around 1534), with about 32 colonists. They founded Quebec, which became the base of France's colonial empire in North America, which is known as "New France".
  • Dutch trade and conquests

    Dutch trade and conquests
    The Dutch established their trading headquarters at Batavia on the island of Java (1619). As a consequence, they started conquering many nearby islands. In addition, they seized both the port Malacca and the Spice Islands of Portugal. By the 1700s they ruled most of Indonesia and had many ports all over the Asian territory.
  • New England

    New England
    In 1620 a group known as Pilgrims founded a second English colony: Plymouth, Massachusetts. They were a group of colonists who were persecuted for their religious beliefs in England. Ten years later another religious group of colonists, the Puritans, who left England for the same reasons as the first group, founded a larger colony at nearby Massachusetts Bay.
  • The Mayflower

    The Mayflower
    The Mayflower set sail on 16th September 1620 from Plymouth, UK, to voyage to America. There were 102 passengers and 30 crew aboard the Mayflower when it landed in Plymouth Bay, Massachusetts. On board were men, women and children from different walks of life across England and the city of Leiden in Holland. Part of them were known as Separatists, a group of people who wanted to be free from the current Church of England.
    https://www.mayflower400uk.org/education/the-mayflower-story/
  • New Netherland

    New Netherland
    Henry Hudson, an Englishman in the service of the Netherlands, sailed west in 1609. He explored three waterways that were named the Hudson River, Hudson Bay, and Hudson Strait. The Dutch claimed the region along these waterways in consequence they established a fur trade with the Iroquois Indians. The Dutch holdings in North America became known as New Netherland.
  • Battle between Native Americans and English settlers

    Battle between Native Americans and English settlers
    The Powhatan tribe attacked colonial villages around Jamestown and killed about 350 settlers. However, one of the most important battles is known as King Philip's War. it began in 1675 when the native American ruler, Metacom led an attack on colonial villages throughout Massachusetts. In the following months, both sides massacred hundreds of victims. After a year the colonists won.
  • Taj Mahal

    Taj Mahal
    An immense mausoleum of white marble, built in Agra between 1631 and 1648 by order of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his favourite wife, the Taj Mahal is the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage.
  • Qing Dynasty

    Qing Dynasty
    The Manchus, people from the region Manchuria invaded China (1644) and the Ming Dynasty, which was already weak, collapsed. This new population seized Beijing and their leader became the new emperor. It was the beginning of the Qing Dynasty.