15th To 18th Century
- 1402: The Spanish empire begins with the invasion of the Canary Islands
- 1415: The Portuguese empire begins with the capture of Ceuta (Morocco)
- 1419: The Portuguese discover Madeira
- 1427: The Portuguese discover Azores
- 1441: The first consignment of slaves is brought to Lisbon (Portugal)
- 1452: Papal Bull Dum diversas allows enslavement of pagans
- 1455: Papal Bull Romanus Pontifex grants a trade monopoly for newly discovered countries in Africa and Asia to the Portuguese.
- 1474: João Vaz Corte-Real, a Portuguese navigator, claims to have discovered the New Land of the Codfish, an unidentified island of which there is some speculation that it might be Newfoundland, in present-day Canada.
- 1481: Papal Bull Aeterni regis
- 1482: The Portuguese build the Elmina Castle as the first trading point in Ghana
- 1488: Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope for the Portuguese king.
- 1492: "Discovery" of the "New World" and symbolic date of the European Age of Exploration; beginning of the colonization of the Americas and of the Columbian Exchange
- 1493: Papal Bull Inter caetera on May 4
- 1494: Treaty of Tordesillas dividing the world outside of Europe in an exclusive duopoly between the Spanish and the Portuguese empires along a north-south meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands (off the west coast of Africa), roughly 46° 36' W. (This boundary was known as the Line of Demarcation.) The lands to the east would belong to Portugal and the lands to the west to Spain.
- 1498: Vasco da Gama sets foot on Kozhikode, starting the Portuguese presence in India
- 1500: Pedro Álvares Cabral sails to Brazil for the Portuguese king
- 1511: The Portuguese capture Malacca, in present day Malaysia
- 1515: Spanish Leyes de Burgos on January 25
- 1519: The Portuguese capture Ormus, in the Strait of Hormuz, in the Persian Gulf
- 1542: Spanish Leyes Nuevas ("New Laws")
- 1542: Creation of the Viceroyalty of Peru
- 1550-1552: Valladolid Controversy and publication of A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies by Bishop of Chiapas Bartolomé de las Casas
- 1600: Queen Elizabeth I of England grants a Royal charter to the English East India Company
- 1602: Establishment of the Dutch East India Company
- 1607: The first permanent English settlement in North America at Jamestown, Virginia
- 1612-1615: The Portuguese captured Gamru Port and a few other places (like Hormuz Island ) in southern coast of Persia.
- 1615-1622: Abbas I, king of Persia, battled the Portuguese with the aid of the Royal Navy and the English East India Company and recaptured those lands.
- 1619: The first African slaves arrive in Jamestown, Virginia
- 1624: The English set foot in Surat
- 1625: Charles I of England receives Oldman, king of the Miskito Nation, who was taken to England by the Earl of Warwick.
- 1630: Puritans establish Massachusetts Bay Colony
- 1717: Creation of the Viceroyalty of New Granada
- 1775-1783: American War of Independence
- 1776: Creation of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata
- 1776: The thirteen original colonies of the United States declare independence from Britain
- 1784: Britain passes Pitt's India Act
- 1791-1804: Haitian Revolution and abolition of slavery by the French First Republic (reestablished by Napoleon in 1804)
- 1795: Britain invades the Cape region of present-day South Africa
- 1798: French Invasion of Egypt
Read more about this topic: Chronology Of Western Colonialism
Famous quotes containing the word century:
“Invite your friend to a feast, but leave your enemy alone; and especially invite the one who lives near you.”
—Hesiod (c. 8th century B.C.)