Early Modern
Tobacco Comes to Europe (1560s): Jean Nicot and Early Use
Tobacco became established in Europe first as a medicine and then as a popular habit, and grew into a major colonial cash crop.
Region
Europe
Early Modern
Scottish Reformation (1560): John Knox and the Kirk
The Scottish Parliament rejected papal authority, banned the Mass and adopted a Reformed Confession of Faith, founding the Protestant Church of Scotland.
Early Modern
Battle of Djerba (1560): Piyale Pasha Routs a Spanish Fleet
Decisive Ottoman victory; roughly half the Christian fleet was lost, the Djerba garrison was captured, and Ottoman naval power in the Mediterranean reached its peak.
Early Modern
French Wars of Religion (1562–1598): Catholics vs Huguenots
Henry IV converted to Catholicism, reunited France and granted the Huguenots limited toleration in the Edict of Nantes of 1598.
Early Modern
John Hawkins's Slave Voyages (1562-1568): England Joins the Trade
Hawkins made large profits on his first two voyages, but the third ended with the loss of most of his fleet at San Juan de Ulua in 1568, and organised English slave trading did not resume for decades.
Early Modern
Triangular Trade: How Europe, Africa and the Americas Were Linked
A system of Atlantic commerce forcibly transported millions of Africans to American plantations and helped enrich European ports and merchants.
Early Modern
Sokollu Mehmed Pasha: Grand Vizier of Three Ottoman Sultans
He guided Ottoman policy for 14 years, keeping the empire stable through two successions, until his assassination in 1579.
Early Modern
Great Siege of Malta (1565): The Knights Against Suleiman
The Knights Hospitaller and Maltese defenders held out until a Spanish relief force arrived, and the Ottoman expedition withdrew.
Early Modern
Founding of St. Augustine (1565): Oldest City in the US
Spain established a permanent settlement in Florida, destroyed the French Huguenot colony at Fort Caroline and held St. Augustine as the capital of Spanish Florida for most of the next 256 years.
Early Modern
Beeldenstorm (1566): The Iconoclastic Fury in the Netherlands
Churches across the Netherlands were stripped of images, and Philip II responded by sending the Duke of Alba with an army, a step towards the Dutch Revolt.
Early Modern
Siege of Szigetvár (1566): Zrínyi's Last Stand and Suleiman
The Ottomans took Szigetvár after Zrinski's garrison died in a final sortie, but Suleiman died during the siege and the campaign ended without further gains.
Early Modern
Murder of Lord Darnley (1567): The Kirk o' Field Explosion
Darnley was killed; suspicion fell on Bothwell, whose marriage to Mary three months later led to her overthrow and abdication.