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Age of Exploration

1450 CE – 1600 CE

The early-modern world as sea routes first linked every continent — Constantinople falls, Granada is taken, Columbus and Zheng He set sail, and empires reach across oceans.

2212 events · 2195 people · 10 eras

Key events

1. Fall of Constantinople1453 CE
   The Fall of Constantinople, also known as the Conquest of Constantinople, was the capture of Constantinople, the capital city of the Byzantine Empire, by the Ottoman Empire. The city was captured on 29 May 1453 as part of the culmination of a 53-day siege which had begun on 6 April.
2. Ōnin War1467 CE
   The Ōnin War , also known as the Upheaval of Ōnin and Ōnin-Bunmei war, was a civil war that lasted from 1467 to 1477, during the Muromachi period in Japan. Ōnin refers to the Japanese era during which the war started; the war ended during the Bunmei era. A dispute between a high official, Hosokawa Katsumoto, and a regional lord, Yamana Sōzen, escalated into a nationwide civil war involving the Ashikaga shogunate and a number of daimyō in many regions of Japan.
3. Battle of Bosworth Field1485 CE
   The Battle of Bosworth or Bosworth Field was the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses, the civil war between the houses of Lancaster and York that extended across England and Wales in the latter half of the 15th century. Fought on 22 August 1485, the battle was won by an alliance of Lancastrians and disaffected Yorkists. Their leader Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, became the first Welsh monarch of England from the Tudor dynasty by his victory and subsequent marriage to the de facto Yorkist heiress, Elizabeth of York. His opponent Richard III, the last king of the House of York, was killed during the battle, the last English monarch to fall in battle. Historians consider Bosworth Field to mark the end of the Plantagenet dynasty, making it one of the defining moments of English history.
4. Treaty of Tordesillas1494 CE
   The Treaty of Tordesillas, signed in Tordesillas, Spain, on 7 June 1494, and ratified in Setúbal, Portugal, divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between the Kingdom of Portugal and the Crown of Castile, along a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands, off the west coast of Africa. That line of demarcation was about halfway between Cape Verde and the islands visited by Christopher Columbus on his first voyage, thought then to be Cipangu and Antillia, but in fact Cuba and Hispaniola; the treaty itself does not mention Cipangu or Antillia.
5. Wars of the Roses1500 CE
   The Wars of the Roses, known at the time and in following centuries as the Civil Wars, and also the Cousins' War, were a series of armed confrontations, machinations, battles and campaigns fought for control of the English throne from 1455 to 1487. The conflict was fought between supporters of the House of Lancaster and House of York, two rival cadet branches of the royal House of Plantagenet. The conflict resulted in the end of Lancaster's male line in 1471, leaving the Tudor family to inherit, through the female line, the Lancaster claim to the throne. Conflict was largely brought to an end upon the union of the two houses through marriage, creating the Tudor dynasty that would subsequently rule England.
6. Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire1519 CE
   The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was a pivotal event in the history of the Americas, marked by the collision of the Aztec Triple Alliance and the Spanish Empire with its Indigenous allies. Between 1519 and 1521, Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés and his small army of European soldiers and numerous Indigenous allies, overthrew the most powerful empire in Mesoamerica.
7. Stockholm Bloodbath1520 CE
   The Stockholm Bloodbath was a trial that led to a series of executions in Stockholm between 7 and 9 November 1520. The event is also known as the Stockholm massacre. The events occurred after the coronation of Christian II as the new king of Sweden, when guests in the crowning party were invited to a meeting at Tre Kronor castle. Archbishop Gustav Trolle, demanding economic compensation for things such as the demolition of Almarestäket's fortress, questioned whether the former Swedish regent Sten Sture the Younger and his supporters had been guilty of heresy.
8. Swedish War of Liberation1521 CE
   The Swedish War of Liberation, also known as Gustav Vasa's Rebellion and the Swedish War of Secession, was a significant historical event in Sweden. Gustav Vasa, a nobleman, led a rebellion and civil war against King Christian II. The war resulted in the deposition of King Christian II from the throne of Sweden, effectively ending the Kalmar Union that had united Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.
9. Battle of Pavia1525 CE
   The Battle of Pavia, fought on the morning of 24 February 1525, was the decisive engagement of the Italian War of 1521–1526 between the Kingdom of France and the Habsburg Empire of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor as well as ruler of Spain, Austria, the Low Countries, and the Two Sicilies.
10. Battle of Mohács1526 CE
    The Battle of Mohács took place on 29 August 1526 near Mohács, in the Kingdom of Hungary. It was fought between the forces of Hungary, led by King Louis II, and the invading Ottoman Empire, commanded by Suleiman the Magnificent and his grand vizier, Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha. The Ottomans achieved a decisive victory through superior planning, firepower, and a well-executed encirclement that overwhelmed the Hungarian forces.
11. Sack of Rome, 15271527 CE
    The Sack of Rome, then part of the Papal States, followed the capture of Rome on 6 May 1527 by the mutinous troops of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, during the War of the League of Cognac. Charles V only intended to threaten military action to make Pope Clement VII come to his terms. However, the Imperial army were largely unpaid and mutinied. Despite being ordered not to storm Rome, they broke into the scarcely defended city and began looting, killing, and holding citizens for ransom without any restraint. Clement VII took refuge in Castel Sant'Angelo after the Swiss Guard were annihilated in a delaying rear guard action; he remained there until a ransom was paid to the pillagers.
12. First Turkish Siege of Vienna1529 CE
    The 1529 siege of Vienna was the first attempt by the Ottoman Empire to capture the city of Vienna in the Archduchy of Austria, part of the Holy Roman Empire. Suleiman the Magnificent, sultan of the Ottomans, attacked the city with over 100,000 men, while the defenders, led by Niklas Graf Salm, numbered no more than 21,000. Nevertheless, Vienna was able to survive the siege. The siege ultimately lasted just over two weeks, from 27 September to 15 October 1529.

Notable people

• Jesus Christ7 BCE – 30 CE
• Miguel de Cervantes1547 CE – 1616 CE
• Christopher Columbus1450 CE – 1506 CE
• Nicolaus Copernicus1473 CE – 1543 CE
• Ferdinand Magellan1480 CE – 1521 CE
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky1840 CE – 1893 CE
• Elizabeth I of England1533 CE – 1603 CE
• Vasco da Gama1469 CE – 1524 CE
• Peter Paul Rubens1577 CE – 1640 CE
• Hernán Cortés1485 CE – 1547 CE
• Akbar1542 CE – 1605 CE
• Suleiman the Magnificent1494 CE – 1566 CE

Cultural works

Eras spanning this view

Related atlas views

• The Americas
• Renaissance Italy
• Ottoman Empire

Explore more of the atlas

• China
• Tang Dynasty China
• Three Kingdoms
• Japan
• Heian Japan
• East Asia

Want the background? Read the guides on what was happening at the same moment in history.

Events from Wikipedia/Wikidata (CC-BY-SA); base map © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL); era boundaries are a hand-curated set in v1. Spotted a mistake? Email [email protected].