Early Modern
Assassination of Francisco Pizarro (1541) in Lima
Pizarro was killed; Almagro's son briefly seized power until royal forces defeated him at Chupas in September 1542.
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
Francisco de Orellana's Voyage down the Amazon (1541-1542)
Orellana's party became the first Europeans to travel the length of the Amazon, reaching the Atlantic in August 1542.
Early Modern
John Calvin's Geneva (1541): The Reformed Church Takes Shape
Geneva became the model Reformed church and a training centre for Protestant ministers across Europe.
Early Modern
Ottoman Capture of Buda (1541): Central Hungary Annexed
Buda became the seat of the Ottoman province of Budin, and Hungary was divided into three parts until the city was retaken in 1686.
Early Modern
Cabrillo's Expedition to California (1542-1543)
The first European survey of the coast of present-day California; Cabrillo died during the voyage and the ships returned to Mexico in April 1543.
Early Modern
New Laws of 1542: Las Casas and Indigenous Rights in the Indies
Indigenous slavery was banned and new encomiendas forbidden, but colonial resistance and a revolt in Peru forced the Crown to withdraw key clauses in 1545.
Early Modern
Battle of Wayna Daga (1543): Ethiopia and Portugal Defeat Adal
Decisive Ethiopian-Portuguese victory; Imam Ahmad was killed, his army scattered and the Adal occupation of the Ethiopian highlands collapsed.
Early Modern
Vesalius and the Fabrica (1543): The Birth of Modern Anatomy
The Fabrica established direct human dissection as the basis of anatomy, exposed errors in Galen and set a new standard for scientific illustration.
Early Modern
Copernicus and De Revolutionibus (1543): The Sun at the Centre
De revolutionibus presented a mathematical model of a Sun-centred universe that, refined by Kepler and Galileo, overturned the Earth-centred cosmos.
Early Modern
Tanegashima (1543): How the First Guns Arrived in Japan
Japanese smiths copied the Portuguese matchlock within about a year, and firearms spread across Japan to become a decisive weapon of the Sengoku wars.
Early Modern
Cocoliztli Epidemic (1545–1548): Catastrophe in New Spain
A large share of the Indigenous population of central Mexico died, deepening the demographic collapse that followed the Spanish conquest.
Early Modern
Sinking of the Mary Rose (1545): Henry VIII's Lost Warship
The Mary Rose capsized and sank with the loss of most of her crew; her hull was raised in 1982 and is displayed in Portsmouth.