Age of Discovery and the New World
From Dias’s voyage around Africa and Columbus’s expedition to the first circumnavigation of the globe, the fall of the Aztec and Inca empires, expeditions into the interior of North America and the arrival of the Portuguese in Japan.
21 events · 7 regions · Latin America, Africa, Western and Central Europe, North America, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Oceania, East Asia
The thread begins with the Inca and Aztec empires at their height, still knowing nothing of Europe. In the same decades the Portuguese advanced step by step along the coast of Africa in search of a sea route to the spices of India, and in 1488 Bartolomeu Dias rounded its southern tip. Castile backed the western route proposed by Columbus, and in 1492 his ships reached the islands of the Caribbean. The Treaty of Tordesillas divided the still undiscovered world between the two Iberian powers, and the English and the French followed them into the Atlantic: Cabot and Cartier sought a northern route to Asia.
Vasco da Gama’s voyage opened direct seaborne trade with India to Europeans, and the Magellan–Elcano expedition proved that the world’s oceans form a single whole. For the peoples of the Americas the encounter with Europeans was a catastrophe: within a decade and a half the Aztec and Inca empires fell, and introduced diseases killed a large part of the Indigenous population.
In little more than half a century — from Dias to the first Portuguese in Japan — the first truly global network of sea routes took shape, linking Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas.
Events
- Construction of Machu Picchubetween 1420 and 1450 · Latin America
- Reign of Pachacuti — birth of the Inca Empire1438–1471 · Latin America
- Dedication of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan1487 · Latin America
- Voyage of Bartolomeu Dias around the southern tip of Africabetween July and August 1487 – December 1488 · Africa
- Columbus’s landfall on San Salvador12 October 1492 · Latin America
- First voyage of Christopher Columbus3 August 1492 – 15 March 1493 · Western and Central Europe
- Treaty of Tordesillas7 June 1494 · Western and Central Europe
- John Cabot’s voyage to North AmericaMay 1497 – 6 August 1497 · North America
- Vasco da Gama arrives at Calicut20 May 1498 · South Asia
- Vasco da Gama’s first voyage to India8 July 1497 – between August and September 1499 · Western and Central Europe
- Discovery of Brazil by Cabral’s expedition22 April 1500 · Latin America
- Waldseemüller mapApril 1507 · Western and Central Europe
- Balboa reaches the Pacific Ocean25–29 September 1513 · Latin America
- Spanish conquest of the Aztec EmpireFebruary 1519 – 13 August 1521 · Latin America
- First circumnavigation of the globe10 August 1519 – 8 September 1522 · Western and Central Europe
- Battle of Mactan27 April 1521 · Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Fall of Tenochtitlan13 August 1521 · Latin America
- Battle of Cajamarca16 November 1532 · Latin America
- Jacques Cartier’s second voyage — up the Saint Lawrence River19 May 1535 – 16 July 1536 · North America
- Hernando de Soto’s expedition into the interior of North America30 May 1539 – September 1543 · North America
- Portuguese on Tanegashima — the first Europeans in Japan1543 · East Asia
Key participants
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Age of Discovery
- Wikipedia (English): Spanish colonization of the Americas
- Wikipedia (English): Portuguese Empire
- Wikipedia (Russian): Великие географические открытия
- Wikipedia (Russian): Испанская колонизация Америки
- Wikipedia (Russian): Колонии Португалии
- Магидович И. П., Магидович В. И. Очерки по истории географических открытий: В 5 т. — 3-е изд. — М.: Просвещение, 1982–1986.
- Parry J. H. The Age of Reconnaissance. — London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1963.
- Boxer C. R. The Portuguese Seaborne Empire, 1415–1825. — London: Hutchinson, 1969.
- Morison S. E. The European Discovery of America: The Northern Voyages, A.D. 500–1600. — New York: Oxford University Press, 1971.
Other threads
- Eastern Europe and Rus’ before the Baptism (1st–10th c.) 200 BC – AD 1015 · 46 events
- Europe in the Roman age (1st–5th c.) 9–508 · 38 events
- Early medieval Europe (500–1000) 529–1001 · 45 events
- Asia, Africa and the Americas in the 13th century 1181–1299 · 12 events
- Europe and the Mediterranean in the 13th century 1204–1295 · 16 events
- Mongol conquests 1206–1294 · 21 events
- Rus’ in the 13th century 1216–1283 · 17 events
- History of Portugal since the Battle of Aljubarrota 1385–1999 · 41 events
- Asia and Africa in the 15th and 16th centuries 1449–1550 · 20 events
- Europe and the Ottoman Empire: the end of the Middle Ages 1453–1543 · 19 events
- Muscovy 1462–1556 · 16 events
- Russia at the turn of the 19th century 1783–1815 · 28 events
- The world in the Age of Revolution 1783–1816 · 32 events
- French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars 1789–1821 · 37 events