Must Know Dates: Era 2

1453

1453

Ottomans capture Constantinople

• Allowed for Ottoman expansion into Europe

• Muslim expansion into Europe

1450s

Printing Press in Europe (Gutenberg)

• Helped to spread knowledge and ideas across Europe during the Renaissance

• Paper production for plays and literature

c.1480s

Height of Aztec Empire

• 5 to 6 million people

• Successful agricultural methods, technological advances, controlled lots of land

1488

Dias rounds Cape of Good Hope

• First European to round the southern tip of Africa

• New sea route from Europe to Asia

1492

Columbus/Reconquista of Spain

• Spain expelled Muslims from the Iberian Peninsula

• Columbus helped to expand Spain's power to the Americas

1502

1st African slaves to Americas

• Beginning of hundreds of years of slavery in Americas

• Large migration

1517

Martin Luther/ Protestant Reformation

• Resulted in the creation of the Christian branch of Protestantism

• Martin Luther: created Protestantism

1519-1521

Cortez conqeured the Aztecs

• End of Aztec empire, beginning of Spanish rule

• Increased trade, wipeouts of Aztecs, spread of diseases, migration

1521-1523

Magellan circumnavigates the Earth

• Expanded knowledge about the world

• Opened up the rest of the world to Europe

• Expanded Portuguese power

1529

1st unsuccessful Ottoman siege of Vienna (Suleiman the Magnificient)

• Beginning of the end of Ottoman rule in Europe

1533

Pizarro topples the Inca

• End of the Inca empire, beginning of Spanish colonization

1545

Discovery of silver at Potosi

• Potosi silver mine became source of silver for 60% of world's supply

• center of Spanish Empire wealth

1571

Battle of Lepanto (Ottoman naval defeat)

• Christian naval force beats the Muslim Ottomans

• Beginning of religious warfare in the Mediterranean

1571

1st Manila Galleon (global trade of silver)

• Luxury goods and spices traded in the Americas for New World Silver

1588

Spanish Armada

• Defining moment in Elizabeth I's rule

• Secured Protestant rule in England

1600

Battle of Sekigahara (beginning of Tokugawa Shogunate)

• Largest battle in Japanese feudal history

• Started Tokugawa Shogunate

1607

Foundation of Jamestown

• First permanent English settlement in the Americas

1618-1648

30 Years War (continential Europe fought over Catholicism trying to be imposed on Protestant peoples)

• Divided Germany into several different states, and strengthened France as a power

1644-1911

Qing Dynasty

• Final imperial dynasty of China

• Large prosperity and increased trade and exploration for the Chinese

1652

Cape Town Colony founded by Dutch

• Supplied ships on the journey to China

• Began Dutch expansion into Africa (apartheid too)

1683

2nd unsuccessful Ottoman siege of Vienna (Mehmet IV)

• End of Turkish expansion into Europe

1689

Glorious Revolution/English Bill of Rights (was a basis for later American Bill of Rights)

• Permanently establish the Parliament as the ruling power of England

• Bill of Rights: framework for Americans, created free speech and elections