Early Modern
Vicente Yáñez Pinzón Reaches the Amazon Mouth (1500)
Pinzón became the first European known to reach the Amazon, but Spain did not follow up because the coast lay in Portugal's zone.
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
Corte-Real Brothers' Voyages to Newfoundland (1500–1502)
The voyages gave Portugal a claim to Newfoundland and its fisheries, but both brothers were lost at sea.
Early Modern
Pedro Álvares Cabral Reaches Brazil (1500): Portugal's Claim
Cabral claimed the land for Portugal, beginning the Portuguese colonisation of what became Brazil.
Early Modern
Benin Bronze Plaques: Brass Art of the Oba's Palace, 1500-1650
Several hundred cast brass plaques recorded the court, rituals and foreign contacts of the Benin Kingdom; most were taken by British forces in 1897 and are now in museums abroad.
Early Modern
Shah Ismail I and the Founding of the Safavid Empire (1501)
Ismail became shah at Tabriz, founded the Safavid dynasty and made Twelver Shi'ism the official religion of Iran.
Early Modern
Aldine Press and Italic Type (1501): Aldus Manutius in Venice
The Aldine Press introduced italic type and small-format editions of the classics, setting models for European book design that lasted for centuries.
Early Modern
Cantino Planisphere (1502): A Smuggled Portuguese World Map
The earliest surviving Portuguese world chart to record the discoveries in both the Americas and the Indian Ocean.
Early Modern
Columbus's Fourth Voyage (1502–1504): Shipwrecked on Jamaica
Columbus explored the Central American coast but lost all four ships and spent a year stranded on Jamaica before returning to Spain.
Early Modern
Casa de Contratación (1503): Spain's House of Trade in Seville
Seville became the sole legal port for trade with the Spanish Americas, regulated by a royal agency that lasted until 1790.
Early Modern
Encomienda System (1503): Forced Labour in the Spanish Americas
The encomienda became the main early system for exploiting Indigenous labour in Spanish America; royal reforms limited it from 1542 and it slowly declined until its formal abolition in the 18th century.
Early Modern
Funj Sultanate of Sennar (1504-1821): Kingdom on the Blue Nile
A Muslim kingdom dominated the middle Nile for three centuries before falling to the Ottoman-Egyptian army of Muhammad Ali in 1821.
Early Modern
Waldseemüller Map (1507): The First Map to Name America
The name America entered print and spread across Europe; the only surviving copy was bought by the Library of Congress in 2003.