Early Modern
Columbus's First Voyage (1492): Crossing the Atlantic
Columbus reached the Caribbean and returned to Spain, opening lasting contact between Europe and the Americas.
Era · c. 1500 – 1800
Early Modern
Voyages of exploration, the Reformation and the age of revolutions that reshaped Europe and the wider world.
Early Modern
Behaim Globe (1492): The Oldest Surviving Terrestrial Globe
Completed in 1492, the globe survives in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg as the oldest known terrestrial globe.
Early Modern
Columbian Exchange: Crops, Animals and Diseases after 1492
Plants, animals, microbes and people were redistributed across the globe, transforming diets, economies and populations on every inhabited continent.
Early Modern
Inter Caetera (1493): The Papal Bull Dividing the Atlantic
Castile received papal sanction for lands west of a line 100 leagues beyond the Azores and Cape Verde Islands, prompting Portugal to negotiate the Treaty of Tordesillas.
Early Modern
Columbus's Second Voyage (1493–1496): La Isabela and Colonisation
Spain founded its first planned town in the Americas at La Isabela, imposed tribute on the Taíno of Hispaniola and began permanent colonisation.
Early Modern
Treaty of Tordesillas (1494): Spain and Portugal Divide the World
Castile and Portugal agreed a dividing meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands, giving Portugal Africa, the route to Asia and later Brazil, and Castile most of the Americas.
Early Modern
John Cabot's 1497 Voyage to North America on the Matthew
Cabot reached and briefly landed on the North American coast, the first recorded European landing there since the Norse, giving England a basis for later claims.
Early Modern
Vasco da Gama's Voyage to India (1497–1499): Sea Route Opened
Da Gama reached Calicut in May 1498 and returned to Lisbon in 1499, opening a direct sea route between Europe and India at the cost of more than half his men.
Early Modern
Columbus's Third Voyage (1498–1500): Reaching South America
Columbus became the first European known to reach the South American mainland, but lost his governorship and was sent to Spain in chains in 1500.
Early Modern
Alonso de Ojeda's Voyage (1499): How Venezuela Got Its Name
The expedition charted much of the northern coast of South America and gave the name Venezuela to the Gulf and later to the country.
Early Modern
Amerigo Vespucci's Voyages (1499–1502) and the Name America
Vespucci's widely printed letters argued that the lands to the west were a new continent, and his name was given to the Americas in 1507.
Early Modern
Juan de la Cosa Map (1500): The Oldest Map Showing America
The earliest surviving map to depict the New World, combining Spanish, Portuguese and English discoveries up to 1500.