16th century

The world map by Gerardus Mercator shows (besides the classical continents Europe, Africa, and Asia) the Americas as America sive India Nova, New Guinea, and other islands of Southeast Asia, as well as a hypothetical Arctic continent and a yet undetermined Terra Australis.

The 16th century begins with the Julian year 1501 (MDI) and ends with either the Julian or the Gregorian year 1600 (MDC) (depending on the reckoning used; the Gregorian calendar introduced a lapse of 10 days in October 1582).[1] The Habsburg Spanish Empire, Portuguese Empire, Ottoman Empire, Safavid Persia, Mughal India and Ming China were the most powerful and hegemonic states.

The Renaissance in Italy and Europe saw the emergence of important artists, authors and scientists, and led to the foundation of important subjects which include accounting and political science. Copernicus proposed the heliocentric universe, which was met with strong resistance, and Tycho Brahe refuted the theory of celestial spheres through observational measurement of the 1572 appearance of a Milky Way supernova. These events directly challenged the long-held notion of an immutable universe supported by Ptolemy and Aristotle, and led to major revolutions in astronomy and science. Galileo Galilei became a champion of the new sciences, invented the first thermometer and made substantial contributions in the fields of physics and astronomy, becoming a major figure in the Scientific Revolution in Europe.

Spain and Portugal colonized large parts of Central and South America, followed by France and England in Northern America and the Lesser Antilles. The Portuguese became the masters of trade between Brazil, the coasts of Africa, and their possessions in the Indies, whereas the Spanish came to dominate the Greater Antilles, Mexico, Peru, and opened trade across the Pacific Ocean, linking the Americas with the Indies. English and French privateers began to practice persistent theft of Spanish and Portuguese treasures. This era of colonialism established mercantilism as the leading school of economic thought, where the economic system was viewed as a zero-sum game in which any gain by one party required a loss by another. The mercantilist doctrine encouraged the many intra-European wars of the period and arguably fueled European expansion and imperialism throughout the world until the 19th century or early 20th century.

The Reformation in central and northern Europe gave a major blow to the authority of the papacy and the Catholic Church. In England, the British-Italian Alberico Gentili wrote the first book on public international law and divided secularism from canon law and Catholic theology. European politics became dominated by religious conflicts, with the groundwork for the epochal Thirty Years' War being laid towards the end of the century.

In the Middle East, the Ottoman Empire continued to expand, with the sultan taking the title of caliph, while dealing with a resurgent Persia. Iran and Iraq were caught by a major popularity of the Shia sect of Islam under the rule of the Safavid dynasty of warrior-mystics, providing grounds for a Persia independent of the majority-Sunni Muslim world.[2]

In the Indian subcontinent, following the defeat of the Delhi Sultanate and Vijayanagara Empire, new powers emerged, the Sur Empire founded by Sher Shah Suri, Deccan sultanates, Rajput states, and the Mughal Empire[3] by Emperor Babur, a direct descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan.[4] His successors Humayun and Akbar, enlarged the empire to include most of South Asia.

Japan suffered a severe civil war at this time, known as the Sengoku period, and emerged from it as a unified nation under Toyotomi Hideyoshi. China was ruled by the Ming dynasty, which was becoming increasingly isolationist, coming into conflict with Japan over the control of Korea as well as Japanese pirates.

In Africa, Christianity had begun to spread in Central Africa and Southern Africa. Until the Scramble for Africa in the late 19th century, most of Africa was left uncolonized.

Events

For timelines of earlier events, see 15th century and Timeline of the Middle Ages.

1501–1509

Main article: 1500s
Mona Lisa, by Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1503–1506, one of the world's best-known paintings

1510s

Main article: 1510s
Afonso de Albuquerque

1520s

Main article: 1520s
Ferdinand Magellan led the first expedition that circumnavigated the globe in 1519–1522.

1530s

Main article: 1530s
Spanish conquistadors with their Tlaxcallan allies fighting against the Otomies of Metztitlan in present-day Mexico, a 16th-century codex

1540s

Main article: 1540s
Nicolaus Copernicus

1550s

Main article: 1550s
The Islamic gunpowder empires: Mughal Army artillerymen during the reign of Jalaluddin Akbar

1560s

Main article: 1560s
The Mughal Emperor Akbar shoots the Rajput warrior Jaimal during the Siege of Chittorgarh in 1567

1570s

Main article: 1570s
The Battle of Lepanto
  • 1570: Ivan the Terrible, tsar of Russia, orders the massacre of inhabitants of Novgorod.
  • 1570: Pope Pius V issues Regnans in Excelsis, a papal bull excommunicating all who obeyed Elizabeth I and calling on all Catholics to rebel against her.
  • 1570: Sultan Hairun of Ternate (in present-day Indonesia) is killed by the Portuguese.[12] Babullah becomes the next Sultan.
  • 1570: 20,000 inhabitants of Nicosia in Cyprus were massacred and every church, public building, and palace was looted. Cyprus fell to the Ottoman Turks the following year.
  • 1571: Pope Pius V completes the Holy League as a united front against the Ottoman Turks, responding to the fall of Cyprus to the Ottomans.
  • 1571: The Spanish-led Holy League navy destroys the Ottoman navy at the Battle of Lepanto.
  • 1571: Crimean Tatars attack and sack Moscow, burning everything but the Kremlin.
  • 1571: American Indians kill Spanish missionaries in what would later be Jamestown, Virginia.
  • 1571: Spanish conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi establishes Manila, Philippines as the capital of the Spanish East Indies.
  • 1572: Brielle is taken from Habsburg Spain by Protestant Watergeuzen in the Capture of Brielle, in the Eighty Years' War.
  • 1572: Spanish conquistadores apprehend the last Inca leader Tupak Amaru at Vilcabamba, Peru, and execute him in Cuzco.
  • 1572: Jeanne d'Albret dies aged 43 and is succeeded by Henry of Navarre.
  • 1572: Catherine de' Medici instigates the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, which takes the lives of Protestant leader Gaspard de Coligny and thousands of Huguenots. The violence spreads from Paris to other cities and the countryside.
  • 1572: First edition of the epic The Lusiads of Luís Vaz de Camões, three years after the author returned from the East.[14]
  • 1572: The 9 years old Taizi, Zhu Yijun ascended the throne of Ming dynasty, known as Wanli Emperor.
  • 1573: After heavy losses on both sides the siege of Haarlem ends in a Spanish victory.
    St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of French Protestants
  • 1574: in the Eighty Years' War the capital of Zeeland, Middelburg declares for the Protestants.
  • 1574: After a siege of 4 months the siege of Leiden ends in a comprehensive Dutch rebel victory.
  • 1575: Oda Nobunaga finally captures Nagashima fortress.
  • 1575: Following a five-year war, the Ternateans under Sultan Babullah defeated the Portuguese.
  • 1576: Tahmasp I, Safavid shah, dies.
  • 1576: The Battle of Haldighati is fought between the ruler of Mewar, Maharana Pratap and the Mughal Empire's forces under Emperor Akbar led by Raja Man Singh.
  • 1576: Sack of Antwerp by badly paid Spanish soldiers.
  • 1577–1580: Francis Drake circles the world.
  • 1577: Ki Ageng Pemanahan built his palace in Pasargede or Kotagede.
  • 1578: King Sebastian of Portugal is killed at the Battle of Alcazarquivir.
  • 1578: The Portuguese establish a fort on Tidore but the main centre for Portuguese activities in Maluku becomes Ambon.[12]
  • 1578: Sonam Gyatso is conferred the title of Dalai Lama by Tumed Mongol ruler, Altan Khan. Recognised as the reincarnation of two previous Lamas, Sonam Gyatso becomes the third Dalai Lama in the lineage.[15]
  • 1578: Governor-General Francisco de Sande officially declared war against Brunei in 1578, starting the Castilian War of 1578.
  • 1579: The Union of Utrecht unifies the northern Netherlands, a foundation for the later Dutch Republic.
  • 1579: The Union of Arras unifies the southern Netherlands, a foundation for the later states of the Spanish Netherlands, the Austrian Netherlands and Belgium.
    The Irish Gaelic chieftain's feast, from The Image of Ireland
  • 1579: The British navigator Sir Francis Drake passes through Maluku and transit in Ternate on his circumnavigation of the world. The Portuguese establish a fort on Tidore but the main centre for Portuguese activities in Maluku becomes Ambon.[16]

1580s

Main article: 1580s
The fall of Spanish Armada
  • 1580: Drake's royal reception after his attacks on Spanish possessions influences Philip II of Spain to build up the Spanish Armada. English ships in Spanish harbours are impounded.
  • 1580: Spain unifies with Portugal under Philip II. The struggle for the throne of Portugal ends the Portuguese Empire. The Spanish and Portuguese crowns are united for 60 years, i.e. until 1640.
  • 1580–1587: Nagasaki comes under control of the Jesuits.
  • 1581: Dutch Act of Abjuration, declaring abjuring allegiance to Philip II of Spain.
  • 1581: Bayinnaung dies at the age of 65.
  • 1582: Oda Nobunaga commits seppuku during the Honnō-ji Incident coup by his general, Akechi Mitsuhide.
  • 1582: Pope Gregory XIII issues the Gregorian calendar. The last day of the Julian calendar was Thursday, 4 October 1582 and this was followed by the first day of the Gregorian calendar, Friday, 15 October 1582
  • 1582: Yermak Timofeyevich conquers the Siberia Khanate on behalf of the Stroganovs.
  • 1583: Denmark builds the world's first theme park, Bakken.
  • 1583: Death of Sultan Babullah of Ternate.
  • 1584–1585: After the siege of Antwerp, many of its merchants flee to Amsterdam. According to Luc-Normand Tellier, "At its peak, between 1510 and 1557, Antwerp concentrated about 40% of the world trade...It is estimated that the port of Antwerp was earning the Spanish crown seven times more revenues than the Americas."[17]
  • 1584: Ki Ageng Pemanahan died. Sultan Pajang raised Sutawijaya, son of Ki Ageng Pemanahan as the new ruler in Mataram, titled "Loring Ngabehi Market" (because of his home in the north of the market).
  • 1585: Akbar annexes Kashmir and adds it to the Kabul Subah
    Portuguese fusta in India from a book by Jan Huygen van Linschoten
  • 1585: Colony at Roanoke founded in North America.
  • 1585–1604: The Anglo-Spanish War is fought on both sides of the Atlantic.
  • 1587: Mary, Queen of Scots is executed by Elizabeth I.
  • 1587: The reign of Abbas I marks the zenith of the Safavid dynasty.
  • 1587: Troops that would invade Pajang Mataram Sultanate storm ravaged the eruption of Mount Merapi. Sutawijaya and his men survived.
  • 1588: Mataram into the kingdom with Sutawijaya as Sultan, titled "Senapati Ingalaga Sayidin Panatagama" means the warlord and cleric Manager Religious Life.
  • 1588: England repulses the Spanish Armada.
  • 1589: Spain repulses the English Armada.
  • 1589: Catherine de' Medici dies at aged 69.

1590–1600

Main articles: 1590s and 1600s
Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak presenting Akbarnama to Mughal Azam Akbar, Mughal miniature
  • 1590: Siege of Odawara: the Go-Hojo clan surrender to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Japan is unified.
  • 1591: Gazi Giray leads a huge Tatar expedition against Moscow.
  • 1591: In Mali, Moroccan forces of the Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur led by Judar Pasha defeat the Songhai Empire at the Battle of Tondibi.
  • 1592–1593: John Stow reports 10,675 plague deaths in London, a city of approximately 200,000 people.
  • 1592–1598: Korea, with the help of Ming dynasty China, repels two Japanese invasions.
  • 1593–1606: The Long War between the Habsburg monarchy and the Ottoman Turks.
  • 1594: St. Paul's College, Macau, founded by Alessandro Valignano.
  • 1595: First Dutch expedition to Indonesia sets sail for the East Indies with two hundred and forty-nine men and sixty-four cannons led by Cornelis de Houtman.[18]
  • 1596: Birth of René Descartes.
  • 1596: June, de Houtman's expedition reaches Banten the main pepper port of West Java where they clash with both the Portuguese and Indonesians. It then sails east along the north coast of Java losing twelve crew to a Javanese attack at Sidayu and killing a local ruler in Madura.[18]
  • 1597: Romeo and Juliet is published.
  • 1597: Cornelis de Houtman's expedition returns to the Netherlands with enough spices to make a considerable profit.[18]
  • 1598: The Edict of Nantes ends the French Wars of Religion.
  • 1598: Abbas I moves Safavids capital from Qazvin to Isfahan in 1598.
  • 1598–1613: Russia descends into anarchy during the Time of Troubles.
  • 1598: The Portuguese require an armada of 90 ships to put down a Solorese uprising.[12] (to 1599)
  • 1598: More Dutch fleets leave for Indonesia and most are profitable.[18]
    Edo period screen depicting the Battle of Sekigahara
  • 1598: The province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México is established in Northern New Spain. The region would later become a territory of Mexico, the New Mexico Territory in the United States, and the US State of New Mexico.
  • 1598: Death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, known as the unifier of Japan.
  • 1599: The Mali Empire is defeated at the Battle of Jenné.
  • 1599: The van Neck expedition returns to Europe. The expedition makes a 400 per cent profit.[18] (to 1600)
  • 1599: March, Leaving Europe the previous year, a fleet of eight ships under Jacob van Neck was the first Dutch fleet to reach the ‘Spice Islands’ of Maluku.[18]
  • 1600: Giordano Bruno is burned at the stake for heresy in Rome.
    Siege of Fiľakovo castle during the Long Turkish War
  • 1600: Battle of Sekigahara in Japan. End of the Warring States period and beginning of the Edo period.
  • 1600: The Portuguese win a major naval battle in the bay of Ambon.[19] Later in the year, the Dutch join forces with the local Hituese in an anti-Portuguese alliance, in return for which the Dutch would have the sole right to purchase spices from Hitu.[19]
  • 1600: Elizabeth I grants a charter to the British East India Company beginning the English advance in Asia.
  • 1600: Michael the Brave unifies the three principalities: Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania after the Battle of Șelimbăr from 1599.

Undated

  • Polybius' The Histories translated into Italian, English, German and French.[20]
  • Mississippian culture disappears.
  • Medallion rug, variant Star Ushak style, Anatolia (modern Turkey), is made. It is now kept at the Saint Louis Art Museum.

Inventions, discoveries, introductions

Related article: List of 16th century inventions.

See also

  • Entertainment in the 16th century

References

  1. ^ Modern reference works on the period tend to follow the introduction of the Gregorian calendar for the sake of clarity; thus NASA's lunar eclipse catalogue states "The Gregorian calendar is used for all dates from 1582 Oct 15 onwards. Before that date, the Julian calendar is used." For dates after 15 October 1582, care must be taken to avoid confusion of the two styles.
  2. ^ de Vries, Jan (14 September 2009). "The limits of globalization in the early modern world". The Economic History Review. 63 (3): 710–733. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.186.2862. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0289.2009.00497.x. JSTOR 40929823. S2CID 219969360. SSRN 1635517.
  3. ^ Singh, Sarina; Lindsay Brown; Paul Clammer; Rodney Cocks; John Mock (2008). Pakistan & the Karakoram Highway. Vol. 7, illustrated. Lonely Planet. p. 137. ISBN 978-1-74104-542-0. Retrieved 23 August 2010.
  4. ^ Babur (2006). Babur Nama. Penguin Books. p. vii. ISBN 978-0-14-400149-1.
  5. ^ "16th Century Timeline (1501 to 1600)". fsmitha.com. Archived from the original on February 3, 2009.
  6. ^ "History of Smallpox – Smallpox Through the Ages" Archived 2019-09-24 at the Wayback Machine. Texas Department of State Health Services.
  7. ^ Ricklefs (1991), p.23
  8. ^ "A LIST OF NATIONAL EPIDEMICS OF PLAGUE IN ENGLAND 1348–1665". Archived from the original on 2009-05-08. Retrieved 2009-04-25.
  9. ^ a b Ricklefs (1991), page 24
  10. ^ The Sweating Sickness. Story of London.. Accessed 2009-04-25. Archived 2009-05-03.
  11. ^ Sandra Arlinghaus. "Life Span of Suleiman the Magnificent 1494–1566". Personal.umich.edu. Retrieved 2013-05-05.
  12. ^ a b c d e Ricklefs (1991), page 25
  13. ^ "La Terra De Hochelaga – Jaques Cartier a Hochelaga". jacquescarter.org. Archived from the original on December 23, 2008.
  14. ^ "The Lusiads". World Digital Library. 1800–1882. Retrieved 2013-08-31.
  15. ^ Schwieger, Peter (2014). The Dalai Lama and the Emperor of China: a political history of the Tibetan institution of reincarnation. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231538602. OCLC 905914446.
  16. ^ Miller, George, ed. (1996). To The Spice Islands and Beyond: Travels in Eastern Indonesia. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. xv. ISBN 967-65-3099-9.
  17. ^ Luc-Normand Tellier (2009). "Urban world history: an economic and geographical perspective". PUQ. p.308. ISBN 2-7605-1588-5
  18. ^ a b c d e f Ricklefs (1991), page 27
  19. ^ a b Ricklefs (1991), page 28
  20. ^ Polybius: The Rise Of The Roman Empire, Page 36, Penguin, 1979.

Further reading

  • Langer, William. An Encyclopedia of World History (5th ed. 1973); highly detailed outline of events online free
  • Media related to 16th century at Wikimedia Commons
  • Timelines of 16th century events, science, culture and persons
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