1500 to 1800 AD

Age of Exploration

· In the 1200s the compass and charting are first used.

· By the 1300s, ships have adopted the stern-post rudder, and by 1500 improvements in sails and rigging have made multiple-mast ships possible. These advances in ship design allow long-distance sailing.

· 1406 Ptolemy's geography is introduced in Europe.

· 1418–1460 Portugal's Prince Henry the Navigator sponsors exploration of Africa's coast. The Portuguese found valuable sources of pepper in West Africa. 1432 Portuguese discover the Azores, reach Cape Verde. 1445 Portuguese explore West Africa, reach Senegal, and reestablish slave trade. 1450 Henry establishes a Naval observatory for the teaching of navigation, astronomy, and cartography. 1455 A papal Bull recognizes the Portugese monopoly of African Exploration

· 1450 Invention of the printing press spurs wide distribution of navigation tables and ship plans.

· 1453 Turks overrun Constantinople, shutting off the overland trade route.

· 1455-1457 Cadamosto, Venetian sailor, explores West Africa including the Senegal and Gambia rivers, and discovers the Cape Verde Island

· 1470-84 Portuguese explorations discover Africa's Gold Coast and the Congo River.

· 1488 Portugese sailor Bartholomeu Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope.

· 1492 Christopher Columbus, a Genoese sailing for Ferdinand and Isabella of Castille & Aragorn, after sailing 69 days discovers America (the island of Dominica in the Bahamas, and Cuba), returns to Spain (1493). Second voyage to Dominica, Jamaica, Puerto Rico (1493–1496). Third voyage to Orinoco (1498). Fourth voyage to Honduras and Panama (1502–1504). Dies in poverty 1506.

· 1494 The Treaty of Tordesillas divides the world between Spain and Portugal for the alleged purpose of spreading Christianity.

· 1497-98 Vasco da Gama rounds the Cape of Good Hope and reaches India. Establishes Portuguese colony in India (1502). 1505 Portugese trading posts are established on the Malabar coast.

· 1497 Italian John Cabot discovers Newfoundland for England

· 1499 Amerigo Vespucci discovers South America. 1500 Pedro Cabral claims Brazil for Portugal. 1501-1502 Vespucci explores the coast of Brazil, proposes that the land is a new continent, which is named America by German mapmaker Martin Waldseemuller in 1507

· 1504 Venice proposes a Suez Canal to the Sultan of Turkey.

· 1505 Portugese claim Mozambique

· 1509 Portugal destroyed the Arab fleet at Diu (modern India) taking control of Arab trade routes in the Indian Ocean

· 1511 Portugal defeats the Arabs in the naval battle at the Straits of Sunda between Java and Borneo, controling the Spice Islands

· 1513 The Portugese reach Canton

· 1513 Balboa journeys through the isthmus of Panama to become the first European to encounter the Pacific Ocean. The region of Panama becomes the first settled area and first Spanish jurisdiction on the New World.

· 1515 The fur trade becomes a major economic force throughout North America.

· 1516 The Portugese sail directly to China for the first time and settle in Canton. They are expelled by 1522 however. They are turned out of Ningpo in 1542.

· 1519-1521 Hernando Cortes conquers Mexico for Spain. He arrived in Mexico from Spain, and burnt his boats to make return impossible and break relations with his superiors. He founded Vera Cruz, then marches inland and conquers the Aztecs.

· 1519-1522 Ferdinand Magellan begins his journey to circumnavigate the world with five ships and 270 men. 1520 Magellan reaches the Pacific, 1521 he is killed by Philippine natives. 1522 One of his ships under Sebastián del Cano reaches Spain with 17 men.

· 1524 Verrazano, sailing under the French flag, explores the New England coast and New York Bay.

· 1531-1533 Franciso Pizzaro conquers Peru with 200 Spanish mercenaries. Helped by guns and an Inca civil war, Pizarro captures the Inca emperor Atahualpa, holds him for ransom, then strangles him. Inca rebellions persist for 30 years.

· 1534 Jacques Cartier enters the St. Lawrence River. Land in Great Lakes claimed for France.

· 1535-1537 Spaniards explore Chile

· 1540 Francisco Vásquez de Coronado searches for the legendary wealth of the Seven Cities of Cibola—actually Zuni villages—but finds no treasure there or elsewhere in the Southwest.

· 1541 Hernando de Soto discovers the Mississippi River

· 1557 Portugese settle Macao in China, the first permanent European settlement. The first Christian missionaries arrive in 1575, and the Jesuits become influential in the court of the Ming emperors.

· 1567 Rio de Janeiro founded by Portugese in Brazil

· 1577-1580 Sir Francis Drake circumnavigates the globe.

· 1585 An English settlement is established on Roanoke Island, North Carolina. Colonist John White makes an important series of watercolor drawings of people and places.

· 1586 Expedition of Sir Francis Drake to the West Indies

· 1598 Spanish settlers under Juan de Oñate, searching for precious metals, occupy San Juan Pueblo in the Río Grande valley of New Mexico. Franciscan missionaries are active.

· 1600 English East India Company established. 1602 Dutch East India Company founded. 1604 French East India Company

· 1603 Samuel de Champlain explores the St Lawrence River. 1608 founds Quebec

· 1606 Dutch navigator William Jansz sights Australia

· 1607-9 Henry Hudson explores present-day New York and Hudson River and claims them for the Dutch. 1610 Discovers Hudson Bay.

· 1607 Colony of Virginia is founded at Jamestown by John Smith

· 1616 Dutch navigator William Schouten rounds Cape Horn

· 1621 Dutch West Indies Company founded.

· 1642 Abel Tasman discovers Tasmania

· 1669 William Dampier sails along the northwest coast of Australia

· 1681-1682 Sieur de la Salle explores the Mississippi River. 1685-1687 LaSalle sails along the Gulf Coast from the Mississippi to Matagorda Bay, where his ship is wrecked. He then marches by ground to the Trinity River where he is murdered by his own men.

· 1722 Dutch navigator Jacob Roggeveen discovers Samoa and Easter Island

· 1768 - 1779 James Cook begins 3 Pacific explorations, documents location of Australia, lands in New Zealand, lands at Botany Bay in Australia, explores Hawaiian Islands. He fails to locate Northwest Passage from Alaskan side. 1779 Cook killed in Hawaii.

· In the 1600s 250,000 English emigrated to the New World, and in the 1700s 1.5 million, along with 200,000 Germans by 1800, and 100,000 Spanish and Portugese to Central and South America.

Science & Technology

The Scientific Revolution

· Begins in the late 1500s and 1600s with establishment of the Scientific method – that natural laws could be derived from experiment and observation, with practical results. Begins in astronomy and physics.

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