1492: Christopher Columbus makes his first voyage to America.
1493: Pope Alexander VI issues his first papal bull, or charter, giving Spain dominion over all lands discovered and undiscovered in the New World.
1493–1550: Spain explores and colonizes the New World.
1519: The conquistador Hernán Cortés arrives off the coast of Mexico.
1540: Spain forbids any foreign ship from trading with its settlements in the Caribbean.
1544: Potosí’s silver ore is discovered.
1586: The Elizabethan privateer Francis Drake raids Santo Domingo.
1588: The Spanish Armada is defeated.
1596: Francis Drake dies off the coast of Portobelo.
1621: Philip IV ascends to the Spanish throne.
1623: Thomas Warner takes possession of the small Caribbean island of St. Kitts, the first territory settled by a non-Spanish force in the West Indies.
1625: Charles I is crowned king of England.
1626: English settlers take possession of Barbados.
1628: The Dutch captain Piet Hein captures the West Indies treasure fleet, causing Spain to default on her loans.
1635: Henry Morgan is born in Wales.
1642: The first English Civil War begins, between the forces of Charles I and the armies eventually commanded by Oliver Cromwell.
1648: Thomas Gage’s A New Survey of the West Indies is published.
1649: Charles I is executed.
1650: The sugar crop in Barbados is valued at 3 million pounds.
1651: The third English Civil War ends.
1655: The Hispaniola expedition conquers Jamaica for England.
1660: Oliver Cromwell dies. Charles II is crowned king of England.
1664: Morgan sacks Granada.
1664: Elizabeth Morgan, Henry’s cousin and future wife, arrives in Port Royal.
1665–66: Morgan marries Elizabeth.
1667: The Treaty of Breda, signed by France, the United Provinces, and England, declares peace between the three nations.
1668: Morgan makes his raid on Portobelo.
1669: Morgan is granted his first tract of land in Jamaica.
1669: The Oxford explodes. Morgan changes his plan to attack Cartagena.
1669: William Godolphin arrives in Madrid to begin negotiations for a peace treaty with Spain.
1669: Morgan sacks Maracaibo.
1670: The Treaty of Madrid between Spain and England is adopted.
1671: Morgan raids Panama.
1672: Morgan is arrested and brought back to England.
1675: Charles II knights Morgan and appoints him deputy governor of Jamaica.
1676: Morgan returns to Jamaica as deputy governor.
1678: Morgan is appointed acting governor of Jamaica.
1678: Esquemeling’s Buccaneers of America is published in the Netherlands.
1683: The Council of Jamaica suspends Morgan after a dispute with Governor Lynch.
1685: Morgan settles a libel suit with the publishers of Buccaneers of America after reading the English translation.
1688: Henry Morgan dies of dropsy.
1692: Port Royal is struck by a devastating natural disaster.