|
1418—1420 |
Portuguese mariners discover and settle the Madeira Islands in the Atlantic Ocean |
|
1425 |
Enrique of Castile born |
|
1434 |
Gil Eannes sails south along the African coast past Cape Bojador, beginning the Portuguese naval exploration of Africa and the slave trade under Henry the Navigator |
|
1439 |
Portuguese mariners discover and settle the Azores |
|
1440 |
Probable date for Gutenberg's first printing press |
|
1451 |
Isabella of Castile born; Christopher Columbus born |
|
1452 |
Pope Nicholas V issues the bull Dum Diversas, which provides the moral authority for the slave trade |
|
1453 |
Constantinople falls to the invading armies of Mehmet the Conqueror |
|
1454 |
Enrique becomes king of Castile |
|
1455 |
Pope Nicholas v issues the bull Romanus Pontifex, establishing Portuguese monopoly along the African coast |
|
— |
King Enrique marries Juana of Portugal |
|
1462 |
Juana la Beltraneja born |
|
1464—1468 |
War for the Castilian succession |
|
1469 |
Isabella and Ferdinand secretly wed in Toledo |
|
1474 |
King Enrique IV dies in Madrid, Isabella proclaimed queen of Castile; war with Portugal |
|
1476 |
Battle of Toro |
|
— |
Christopher Columbus washed ashore in Portugal after shipwreck |
|
1477 |
A new translation of Ptolemy's Geography published in Bologna |
|
1478 |
Papal bull of Sixtus IV establishes the Inquisition in Castile |
|
1479 |
Treaty of Alcáçovas ends war between Castile and Portugal |
|
1480 |
Ferdinand Magellan born |
|
1481 |
King Afonso V of Portugal dies; his son João becomes king |
|
— |
Pope Sixtus IV issues Aeterni Regis, sanctioning the terms of the Treaty of Alcáçovas and affirming Portuguese claims south and east in the Atlantic Ocean |
|
1484 |
Columbus first proposes his “Enterprise of the Indies” to João II |
|
1486 |
Rebuffed in Portugal, Columbus travels to Castile to persuade Isabella and Ferdinand |
|
1488 |
Bartolomeu Dias rounds the southern tip of Africa for Portugal |
|
1492 |
Rodrigo Borgia becomes pope |
|
— |
Fall of the Kingdom of Granada |
|
— |
Christopher Columbus sails across the Atlantic Ocean for Isabella and Ferdinand |
|
— |
Beginning of the expulsion of the Jews from Castile |
|
1493 |
Pope Alexander vi issues the bull Inter Caetera and other bulls, dividing the world between Spain and Portugal |
|
1494 |
The Treaty of Tordesillas is signed between Portugal and Spain |
|
1497 |
English King Henry vii funds the voyage of John Cabot |
|
1504 |
Queen Isabella dies |
|
1506 |
Columbus dies |
|
1513 |
Vasco Nuñez de Balboa crosses the Isthmus of Panama and beholds the Pacific Ocean |
|
1517 |
Martin Luther nails his Ninety-Five Theses to the church door in Wittenberg |
|
1519 |
Ferdinand Magellan sets off to circumnavigate he world for Charles i of Spain |
|
— |
Hernán Cortés launches expedition to conquer Mexico |
|
1521 |
Martin Luther excommunicated |
|
1523 |
Pedro de Alvarado subjugates the Mayans in the Yucatán |
|
1524 |
Badajoz Conference to determine the Tordesillas Line in the Pacific |
|
1529 |
Treaty of Zaragoza; Spain cedes the Spice Islands to Portugal |
|
1533 |
Francisco Pizarro conquers the Inca Empire |
|
1537 |
Pope John ii rescinds the papacy's support of slavery |
|
1558 |
Elizabeth becomes queen of England |
|
1562 |
Sir John Hawkins and the first English privateering voyage to the Caribbean |
|
1565 |
Andrés de Urdaneta pioneers the Pacific route from Manila to Acapulco |
|
1568 |
Inquisition declares the three million people of the United Provinces, who have strongly embraced Calvinism, to be heretics and condemned to death |
|
1571 |
Battle of Lepanto; destruction of Ottoman naval power in the Mediterranean |
|
1570s—1580s |
English privateers inspired by the famous voyages of Sir Francis Drake |
|
1581 |
Philip II of Spain becomes king of Portugal, uniting the countries and creating a near-monopoly on oceanic trade from Europe |
|
1583 |
Hugo Grotius, “the Father of International Law,” born in Delft |
|
1588 |
Spanish Armada fails to conquer England |
|
1600 |
English East India Company founded |
|
1602 |
Dutch East India Company founded; Amsterdam stock exchange founded to deal in the company's stocks and bonds |
|
— |
The Portuguese ship Santa Catarina captured by a Dutch privateer |
|
1609 |
Henry Hudson sails up the Hudson River for the Dutch East India Company |
|
— |
Hugo Grotius anonymously publishes Mare Liberum, “The Free Sea” |
|
1610 |
Vatican places Mare Liberum on its Index of prohibited and banned books |
|
1613 |
Scottish challenge to Mare Liberum by William Welwood: Abridgement of All Sea-Lawes |
|
1618 |
John Selden writes Mare Clausum |
|
1618—1648 |
Thirty Years War devastates central Europe |
|
1620 |
Mayflower pilgrims arrive at Cape Cod and Plymouth Rock |
|
1623 |
Dutch East India Company employees kill English East India Company employees during the Massacre of Amboyna |
|
1625 |
Seraphim de Freitas publishes Imperio Lusitanorum Asiatico to challenge Grotius |
|
1655 |
English forces capture Jamaica and turn it into a buccaneer haven |
|
1670 |
In the American Treaty, Spain recognizes the legitimacy of the British colonies in North America |
|
1702 |
Cornelius Bynkershoek publishes De Domino Maris, establishing the concept of territorial waters and the cannon shot rule |
|
1750 |
Treaty of Madrid between Spain and Portugal recognizes Portuguese sovereignty over Brazil and effectively annuls the Treaty of Tordesillas |
|
1757 |
The Battle of Plassey; English East India Company rule in India begins |
|
1768—1761 |
Lieutenant James Cook leads his first voyage of discovery in the Pacific |
|
1775—1783 |
The American War of Independence |
|
1776 |
Adam Smith publishes The Wealth of Nations |
|
1994 |
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea |