Timeline

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