1520
Austrian scientist Paracelsus invents laudanum, a solution of opium alkaloids in alcohol. It was used to suppress pain and remained popular in Europe for over 400 years.
1520 - 1521
Smallpox wipes out a large portion of the Aztec people.
1520 - 1566
Suleiman the Magnificent reigns as Ottoman Emperor.
1521
Hernando Cortes lays siege to and then destroys Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire. The Spanish capture enormous quantities of gold.
1522 - 1591
Sen no Rikyu formalises and spreads the Japanese tea ceremony.
1522
Francisco de Montejo starts a 20 year conquest of the main surving Mayan cities in the Yucatan.
1522
Spain colonises Venezuela.
1522
Pascual de Andagoya leads a failed expedition to conquer the Incas in Peru and to capture their sources of silver and gold.
1522
Portuguese merchants establish a trading post at Madras (now Chennai).
1523 - 1527
Giovanni da Verrazzano is commissioned by Francis I of France to explore the American coast from Florida to Newfoundland. He discovers abundant grape vines in North Carolina and explores New York bay.
1524 - 1580
Luis de Camoes.
1524 - 1526
Francisco Pizarro discovers the Inca Empire and much gold and silver.
1524
The Council of the Indies is established to run Spain's American colonies.
1524
Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano leads a French expedition to North America and explores the coastline of what is now North Carolina, Maryland and New York.
1525 - 1569
Pieter Breughel, the Elder.
1525
Cortez orders the planting of vineyards in Mexico.
1525
Suleiman the Magnificent captures Rhodes.
1526 - 1764
The Mughal Empire expands to cover Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Pakistan, India and Nepal.
1526
Babur (a Turko-Mongol Muslim descendant of Tamerlane and Ghenghis Khan) founds the Moghul Empire with a decisive victory at Panipat over the last remnants of the Delhi Sultanate. Delhi and Agra are taken.
1526
Suleiman the Magnificent defeats the army of Louis II of Hungary.
1527
Henry VIII commissions John Rut to find the North-West Passage. He explores Newfoundland, Maryland and Florida.
1529
Spain gives up its rights in the Spice Islands to Portugal for cash.
1529 - 1532
Civil war rages within the Inca Empire.
1529
Suleiman the Magnificent lays siege to Vienna, but is turned away. This marks the zenith of the Ottoman Empire.
153
Coffee houses are popular in Damascus and Cairo.
1530 - 1556
Charles V is Holy Roman Emperor (Charles I of Spain, 1516-1556).
1530
Babur takes over the majority of Northern India.
1531
The Spanish cultivate tobacco in San Domingo.
1531
Benedictine monks at Carcassonne create a sparkling wine like Champagne.
1531 - 1534
Francisco Pizarro leads a third expedition against the Inca Empire capturing Coxamaraca and more gold and silver.
1532
The Prince is published by Niccolo Machiavelli.
1533 - 1593
Montaigne.
1533 - 1572
Collapse of the Inca Civilisation.
1534
Jacques Cartier explores Newfoundland, Labrador and Arcadia.
1534
The Sultans of Gujerat cede Bombay and other territories to Portugal.
1534
Portuguese merchants begin to trade with Japan.
1535
Jacques Cartier observes First Nation people smoking tobacco near Montreal.
1535
The fur trade is established in Canada.
1535 - 1536
Jacques Cartier explores Newfoundland and the Gulf of St Lawrence.
1538
The Ottoman Navy is victorious against a combined Venetian, Genoan and Papal force at the Battle of Preveza and gains dominance in the Mediterranean. The Ottomans claim Venetian possessions in the Aegean and Dalmatian regions.
1539 - 1542
Hernando de Soto explores North America travelling through what is now Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas. They encounter Native Indians, introduce pigs and horses and spread smallpox. They don't find gold.
1541 - 1614
El Greco.
1541
Spanish forces conquer Chile.
1541 - 1542
Jacques Cartier sets off to colonise Canada and establishes a settlement in Quebec.
1541
Henry VIII forces Irish Parliament to declare him ‘King of Ireland’. New laws were introduced to empower the English.
1542
Spain establishes the Vice-Royalty of Peru, covering Argentina, Peru and all of its South American colonies.
1543
Copernicus publishes his theory that the planets move round the sun.
1544
Frothing chocolate drink is introduced to the Spanish Court by a delegation from the New World.
1544
Tomatoes were introduced to Europe from the New World by explorers in the 16th Century.
1545
Silver ore is discovered in Potosi, Bolivia, funding the development of the Spanish Empire.
1546 - 1558
Smallpox wipes out a large portion of the Inca people.
1547 - 1616
Miguel de Cervantes.
1547
Oviedo's La hystoria general delas Indias is the first work to give a full account of tobacco smoking and to describe the reed cigarette.
1547
Grand Duke Ivan of Muscovy is crowned the first tsar of Russia.
1547
Archduke Ferdinand II of Tyrol begins a porcelain collection – a collection of curiosities rather than for its artistic merit.
1548
The Portuguese cultivate tobacco in Brazil.
1548
Pietro de Crescenzi writes De Omnibus Agriculturae Partibus documenting viticulture.
1550
Antonio Palladio creates a series of Palladian Villas in the Veneto.
1550
The eight reales coin (origin of the term 'pieces of eight') comes into common circulation in the Spanish Empire and is often clipped.
1550 - 1850
The Little Ice Age causes rivers and lakes to freeze over on a regular basis, crops to fail, and fish stocks to move into different areas.
1550
Major fish stocks move into British and Dutch waters, prompting greater prosperity.
1550
Porcelain known to have arrived in Britain. It is documented in Henry VIII’s jewel house.
1551
The Company of Merchant Adventurers to New Lands is founded to promote profitable exploration.
1552
Suleiman captures Muscat from the Portuguese.
1555
Andrea Amati creates the first violin.
1555 - 1563
John Hawkins sails to Sierra Leone, picks up slaves, then trades them in the Caribbean. He also raids Portuguese ships.
1555
Franciscan Friar Andre Thevet investigates tobacco whilst in Brazil. He learns to cultivate it and enjoys consuming it.
1555
The Muscovy Company is formed to promote British trade with Russia.
1556
Publication of Relatione di Alcune Cose della Nuova Spagne, e della gran citta di Temestitan Messico by The Anonymous Conqueror, giving the first account of how the Aztecs made and used chocolate.
1556
Spanish settlers grow cotton in Florida.
1556
Publication of De re Metallica by Agricola describing the assaying process.
1556
The Habsburg lands are split and Philip II is appointed King of Spain and the Netherlands.
1556 - 1605
Akbar the Great becomes the third Mughal Emperor and his reign witnesses a cultural renaissance.
1556
Agricola writes in his book De Re Metallica that Italian states passed laws against mining of metals because of the effect on woodlands, fields, vineyards and olive groves.
Land in Ireland is seized and formed into Protestant plantations. Two areas were named King’s County (now Offaly) and Queen’s County (now Laois).
1556
Camillo Torello invents the first European seed drill in Venice.
1557
Portugal leases a trading outpost in Macau on the coast of China, trading silver for silk, porcelain and tea.
1558
Calais is retaken by Francis, Duke of Guise.
1558 - 1603
Reign of Queen Elizabeth I.
1559
French diplomat, Jean Nicot, returns from the Portuguese court with tobacco; snuff becomes popular amongst the French elite.
1559
Francisco Hernandez de Toledo introduces tobacco in Spain.
1560
Jasper de Cruz, a Jesuit Father from Portugal, becomes the first Westerner to taste and then write about tea.
1560
The Ottoman Navy is victorious against a combined Spanish, Venetian, Genoan and Papal force at the Battle of Djerba and gains dominance in the Mediterranean.
1560 - 1600
Industrialisation in UK leads to deforestation as wood is used instead of coal.
1561
Catherine de Medici is given snuff by Nicot and uses it to treat Francis II's headaches.
1562
The French Wars of Religion are ushered in by the Massacre of Vessey, as the Duke of Guise and his Catholic followers attempt to exterminate or expel all Huguenots from France.
1564 - 1616
William Shakespeare.
1564
John Hawkins introduces tobacco to England.
1564 - 1565
John Hawkins sails to Venezuela, Colombia and Florida, buying and selling slaves and raiding Spanish and Portuguse shipping.
1564
John Hawkins imports potatoes into Britain for the first time.
1565
Sometime before 1565, graphite is discovered in solid form in Cumbria and is used to make pencils.
1565
The first Manila Galleon sails from Mexico to the Philippines to trade silver for spices, porcelain, silk and other valued commodities. They continue until 1815, despite raids by Dutch and English pirates.
1565
English adventurer John Hawkins describes the making of wine in Florida.
1565
Suleiman's Mediterranean expansion is ended with an unsuccessful siege in Malta.
1565
Spain colonises the Philippines and it becomes a major Asian trading post.
1565
The Royal Exchange is founded by Sir Thomas Gresham as a centre of commerce for London.
1567 - 1643
Claudio Monteverdi.
1567 - 1569
Hawkins sails to Mexico raiding Portuguese slave ships and Spanish bullion vessels.
1567
Suleiman captures Aceh from the Portuguese.
1568
Thevet's The New found worlde is the first published English account of pipe and cigar smoking.
1568
Spanish settlers plant a vineyard in South Carolina.
1568
Spanish settlers start the first Californian vineyards.
1568
Dutch Revolt against the Spanish Empire.
1570
Francisco Hernandez, physician to Philip II of Spain, advocates the medicinal uses of chocolate.
1571
Nicolas Monardes writes the first book on tobacco suggesting it can cure many things.
1571
The Spanish fleet, with support from Venice, Genoa, the Pope and others, defeats the Turks at Lepanto ending its dominance in the Mediterranean.
1572 - 1573
Francis Drake's first major voyage, raising Spanish concerns in Panama.
1572
Akbar conquers Gujerat and gains access to the sea for trade, enabling him to compete with Portuguese traders.
1572
The Saint Bartholomew's day massacre in Paris sees the deaths of thousands of French Protestants.
1573
Francis Drake brings tobacco back to England.
1575
The Bols family open a distillery in Amsterdam known as 'het Lootsje' (the little shed).
1575
Portugal establishes a colony at Luanda, in modern day Angola.
1575
The Portuguese are ousted by the locals from their base in Ternate and move to Ambon.
1575 - 1583
The first European attempts to replicate porcelain, known as Medici porcelain, in Florence, Italy.
1577 - 1640
Peter Paul Rubens.
1577 - 1580
Francis Drake circumnavigates the world on the 'Golden Hind'. He travels west through the Straits of Magellan, plunders Spanish treasure ships, loads up with Chilean wine, claims California as New Britain, stops in the Moluccas to pick up sugar and spices and returns via the Cape of Good Hope.
1579
Akbar establishes friendly relations with the Portuguese and allows Jesuit misionaries to visit Delhi.
1579
Francis Drake captures a Spanish treasure ship carrying 26 tons of silver and 80 lbs of gold.
1580 - 1666
Frans Hals.
1580 - 1645
Francisco de Quevedo.
1580
Cotton is established as a major crop in the Yangtze region of China.
1580 - 1589
Beaver fur is the preferred source for felt hat makers in France.
1580
Spain annexes Portugal.