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Mar 4, 1394
Prince Henry the Navigator
Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460) was a Portuguese prince who sponsored explorations of the west African coast during the 1400s. He was very important because these explorations helped advance the study of geography and made Portugal the leader in navigation among European nations. -
Period: Jan 1, 1400 to
Age of Exploration Timeline
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Jan 1, 1451
Christopher Columbous
Christopher Columbous was an important explorer because he was the first to discover the New World - America! He crossed the Atlantic Ocean in search of new lands, which was a brave and daring expedition. Also, he helped gained economic growth of Spain by travelling to distant lands to trade goods. -
Oct 3, 1453
Afonso de Albuqueque
Afonso de Albuqueque was an exceedingly energetic commander of Portuguese India, who greatly expanded Western influence in the area. Although his predecessor Almeida had done much to establish Portuguese posts and forts on land, and had bravely fought Arab fleets at sea, he had merely disrupted, and not destroyed Arab influence in the region. Albuquerque, on the other hand, sought to destroy all Arab trading in the region, and put all commerce in the hands of Christian governments. Having spent -
Jan 1, 1460
Vasco da Gama
The Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama led an expedition at the end of the 15th century that opened the sea route to India by way of the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa. He established a route around Africa's Cape of Good Hope, up the coast of East Africa and finally to Calicut in India. -
Oct 3, 1488
Bartholomeu Dias
Bartholomeu Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope -
Oct 3, 1492
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus reaches the Americas -
Oct 3, 1492
Columbus persuaded Queen Isabell
Columbus persuaded Queen Isabella of Spain to finance an exploratory expedition. In October 1492, he reached the Americas, where he explored the coastline of Cuba and the island of Hispaniola. -
Oct 3, 1494
The Treaty of Tordesillas
The Treaty of Tordesillas divides the Americas -
Jan 1, 1496
John Cabot
John Cabot was famous as the famous explorer of the coastline of Canada and its subsequent colonization. Cabot was the second European to find North America (after Christopher Columbus). His son, Sebastian Cabot, accompanied his father on many voyages. -
Oct 3, 1497
John Cabot and AmerigoVespucci
John Cabot and AmerigoVespucci explore the Americas -
Oct 3, 1498
Vasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama went around the cape and cut across the Indian Ocean to the coast of India. In May of 1498, he arrived off the port of Cali- cut, where he took on a cargo of spices. He returned to Portugal and made a profit of several thousand percent. -
May 29, 1500
Bartholomeu Dias
That he is the first European known to sail around the southern tip of Africa and that he witnessed the discovery of the future Brazil
Specifically, Bartolomeu participated in an expedition of 1487-1488. The expedition's purpose was finding a sea route to India and setting up direct trade arrangements with Indians. The overland trade route was controlled by the Muslim middlemen of the Middle East. Dias also was one of the first Europeans known to have discovered the Land of the True Cross. -
Oct 3, 1500
Pedro Cabral
Pedro Cabral lands in South America -
Oct 3, 1500
europeans hained map knowledge
1500, cartography—the art and science of mapmaking—had reached the point where Europeans had fairly accurate maps of the areas they had explored. -
Jan 1, 1502
Amerigo Vespuci
He realized that North America wasn't China
and he named America, On the first of his voyages, he was aboard the ship that discovered that South America extended much further south than previously thought. The expeditions became widely known in Europe after two accounts attributed to Vespucci were published between 1502 and 1504. -
Oct 3, 1515
King Francis I
Francis I is considered to be France's first Renaissance monarch. His reign saw France make immense cultural advances. He was a contemporary of Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire, with whom he was allied in a Franco-Ottoman alliance, as well as of Henry VIII of England and of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, his great rivals. -
Oct 3, 1515
Portuguese seized Melaka
the Portuguese seized Melaka and soon occupied the Moluccas. Known to Europeans as the Spice Islands, the Moluccas were the chief source of the spices that had originally attracted the Por- tuguese to the Indian Ocean. -
Oct 3, 1518
Slaves
First boatload of slaves brought directly from Africa to the Americas -
Oct 3, 1519
Spanish
Spanishbegin conquest of Mexico -
Oct 3, 1520
Magellan
Magellan sails into Pacific Ocean -
Jan 1, 1521
The Conquest of the Aztecs
The Spanish conquest of the Aztecs in 1521, led by Hernando Cortes, was a landmark victory for the European settlers. Following the Spanish arrival in Mexico, a huge battle erupted between the army of Cortes and the Aztec people under the rule of Montezuma. The events that occurred were crucial to the development of the American lands and have been the subject of much historical debate in present years. -
Oct 3, 1526
King Affonso I,
King Affonso I, the venerated king of Congo, is one of the most influential and groundbreaking characters in the history of Africa. Once he converted to Christianity and became king, Affonso realized the abhorrence of slavery withing his state, for it was completely destroying his country through depopulation. Consequently, he sent a letter to King John of Portugal in 1526, outlining his hopes to eradicate Portugese influence upon his country. Ultimately, King Affonso I of Congo proves to be one -
Jan 1, 1534
Jacques Cartier
He gave Canada its name. Before that it used to be Kanata, meaning village or settlement. He discovered and named the St. Lawrence River.Jacques Cartier discovered Prince Edward Island in 1534. -
Oct 3, 1550
spanish gain control
Spanish gain control of northern Mexico -
Matteo Ricci
He opened a residence in Nanking for himself, his fellow Jesuits and his scientific instruments. Later he became the court mathematician in Peking. His books Geometrica Practica and Trigonometrica were translations of Christopher Clavius' works into Chinese. He made Western developments in mathematics available to the Chinese and in 1584 and 1600 he published the first maps of China ever available to the West. For the first time the Chinese had an idea of the distribution of oceans and land mas -
First Dutch
First Dutch fleet arrives in India -
Spanish Adventurers and the Inca
Spain's monarchy took seriously its power in the Americas, and they were concerned about competition from the monarchies of England and France. In 1526 another Spaniard, Lucas Vásques de Ayllón, tried to establish a colony in what today is South Carolina, a colony that failed. Another expansion took place in 1529 when Spanish soldiers, looking for fame and wealth, pushed from Mexico City northwest to what they called Nueva Galacia. They pillaged, burned villages and enslaved people who got in t -
Bartolome de Las Casas
Bartolomé de las Casas born November 1484 – died July 1566, was a 16th-century Spanish Dominican priest, writer and the first resident Bishop of Chiapas. As a settler in the New World he witnessed, and was driven to oppose, the torture and genocide of the Native Americans by the Spanish colonists and advocated before King Charles V on behalf of rights for the natives.
He was sometimes known as the Father of anti-imperialism and anti-racism. -
Samuel de Chanplain
Samuel de Chanplain founed Quebec the first permanet French settlement in America -
Engsli found Massachusetts
English found Massachusetts Bay Colony -
Ocean trading areas
Dutch occupy Portuguese forts in Indian Ocean trading areas -
Englsih establish colonial empire
English establish colonial empire in North America -
The Boers
The Boers were people who settled in the Transvaal region of South Africa in the 17th century. The term "Boer" is used to describe individuals who are descended from these original early settlers, along with people who are associated with Boer culture. The role of the Boers in African history has often been tumultuous, and sometimes a subject of controversy; the Boers, for example, are credited with the institutionalized racism which came to be known as apartheid in South Africa. -
Thai capital
Burmese sack Thai capital -
Lord George Macartney
was an Irish-born British statesman, colonial administrator and diplomat. He is often remembered for his observation following Britain's success in the Seven Years War and subsequent territorial expansion at the Treaty of Paris that Britain now controlled "a vast Empire, on which the sun never sets".
