Units 3 & 4 Timeline

1405 CE

Zheng He begins first voyage to promote Ming tributary trade.

1453 CE

Sultān Mehmet II conquers Constantinople (Istanbul).

1478 CE

Ivan III defeats Novgorod and unifies Russian lands.

1492 CE

Christopher Columbus reaches the Americas (Bahamas).

1494 CE

Treaty of Tordesillas divides new lands between Spain and Portugal.

1498 CE

Vasco da Gama reaches India, opening a sea route for Portugal.

1501 CE

Safavid Dynasty founded by Ismail I using gunpowder and bureaucracy.

1505 CE

Portuguese establish a fort at Kilwa on the Swahili Coast.

1510 CE

Portuguese capture Goa, becoming a major Indian Ocean base.

1517 CE

Martin Luther publishes the Ninety-Five Theses for the Protestant Reformation.

1517 CE

Sultan Selim I conquers Egypt, Mecca, and Medina (Ottoman caliph claim).

1519 CE

Magellan leads expedition across the Pacific toward the East Indies.

1521 CE

Hernán Cortés conquers the Aztec Empire for Spain.

1526 CE

Babur founds the Mughal Empire in northern India.

1529 CE

Suleiman the Magnificent lays siege to Vienna but fails.

1543 CE

Portuguese mariners are the first Europeans to reach Japan.

1550s CE

Russia expands south under Ivan IV, conquering Kazan and Astrakhan.

1550s CE

Enslaved Africans are forced to work on Caribbean sugar plantations.

1556 CE

Akbar expands the Mughal Empire into Bengal and the Deccan.

1570 CE

The Ming Empire requires taxes to be paid in silver.

1571 CE

Spain establishes a colony in the Philippines for trans-Pacific trade in the Americas.

1588 CE

Britain defeats the ships of the Spanish Armada and gains Atlantic naval dominance.

1595 CE

Shah Abbas I builds a ghulam (slave) army from Christian slaves taken from Armenia and Georgia.

1600 CE

British East India Company established and sets up posts in India.

1600s CE

Russia's "Time of Troubles" leads to civil war and instability.

1608 CE

Samuel de Champlain founds Quebec City (start of French Canada).

1613 CE

Michael Romanov becomes czar and begins the Romanov dynasty.

1631 CE

Shahjahan begins construction of the Taj Mahal in memory of his wife

1644 CE

Peasant uprisings and the Manchu lead to the fall of Ming dynasty, and the Qing capture of Beijing.

1650s CE

Safavids and Mughals fight over eastern provinces and Afghanistan.

1652 CE

Dutch Calvinist settlers establish a Cape Colony at the Cape of Good Hope.

1657 CE

Aurangzeb enforces Sharia and reinstates the jizya tax that Hindu residents had to pay for protection.

1664 CE

English capture New Amsterdam from the Dutch and rename it New York.

1682 CE

La Salle claims the Mississippi River basin for France.

1721 CE

Peter the Great annexes Baltic territory after war with Sweden.

1722 CE

Yongzheng Emperor reforms financial administration of Qing Empire.

1722 CE

The last shah of the Safavid Dynasty is deposed by Afghan rebels.

1735 CE

Qianlong Emperor expands the Qing and eliminates Turk and Mongol threats to China.