Early Modern
Potato Arrives in Europe (c. 1570): From the Andes to Spain
The potato reached Europe via the Canary Islands and Spain by the 1560s-1570s, remained a curiosity for decades, and became a staple across much of Europe in the 18th century.
Region
Americas
Early Modern
Fall of Vilcabamba (1572): Execution of Túpac Amaru
Spanish forces occupied the abandoned Inca capital of Vilcabamba, captured the last Sapa Inca Túpac Amaru and beheaded him in Cusco, ending the independent Neo-Inca State.
Early Modern
Martin Frobisher's Arctic Voyages (1576-1578) and Fool's Gold
Frobisher failed to find a Northwest Passage or gold; the ore he brought home proved worthless, the Company of Cathay collapsed, and several Inuit taken to England died there.
Early Modern
Roanoke Colony (1587): The Mystery of the Lost Colony
The roughly 115 colonists left on Roanoke Island in 1587 disappeared before John White's return in 1590; their fate remains unknown.
Early Modern
Quilombo dos Palmares (c. 1605–1694): Zumbi's Free Settlement
Palmares resisted Dutch and Portuguese attacks for most of the 17th century before its main settlement fell to Portuguese colonial forces in February 1694; Zumbi was killed in November 1695.
Early Modern
Jamestown Settlement (1607): First Permanent English Colony
Despite famine, disease and war with the Powhatan, Jamestown survived to become the first permanent English settlement in North America and the capital of Virginia until 1699.
Early Modern
Founding of Quebec City (1608): Champlain and New France
Quebec became the first permanent French settlement in the St. Lawrence valley and the capital of New France until the British conquest of 1759-1763.
Early Modern
Henry Hudson's Half Moon Voyage (1609) up the Hudson River
No passage to Asia was found, but Hudson's reports of a rich fur country led to Dutch trade on the river and the colony of New Netherland.
Early Modern
Jesuit Reductions of Paraguay (1609): Missions of the Guaraní
Some thirty Guaraní mission towns flourished for over 150 years until the Spanish crown expelled the Jesuits in 1767, after which the towns declined.
Early Modern
Henry Hudson's Last Voyage and Mutiny in Hudson Bay (1610-1611)
Hudson, his son and seven men were cast adrift in June 1611 and never seen again; eight survivors brought the Discovery back to England.
Early Modern
Pocahontas (1613–1617): Captivity, Marriage and Death in England
Her capture and marriage brought a truce between the Powhatan and the English colonists; she died at Gravesend in March 1617, aged about 21.
Early Modern
Le Maire and Schouten Round Cape Horn (1616): A New Route
The expedition found a sea route into the Pacific south of Tierra del Fuego, outside the Dutch East India Company's monopoly, though the VOC seized its ship at Java.