Events, Verisoph

22 May 1455 to 16 June 1487 Wars of the Roses wikidata 0 cit. no story dynastic civil war in England from 1455 to 1487 ●●●●

8 January 1455 Romanus Pontifex sanctions colonial conquest 0 cit. Pope Nicholas V confirmed Portugal's claim to lands and trade along the African coast and the enslavement of their peoples. It gave Church backing to early European colonial expansion. economy / exploration / politics / religion ●●●

8 January 1455 Papal bull sanctions enslavement 0 cit. The bull Romanus Pontifex granted Portugal the right to seize lands and enslave non-Christians along the African coast. Church authority gave the emerging trade a legal and religious cover. politics / religion ●●●

11 September 1457 Battle of Albulena wikidata 0 cit. no story 1457 battle ●●

1460 Corpus Hermeticum reaches Medici Florence ai_extracted 1 cit. no story A Greek manuscript containing the Corpus Hermeticum was brought to Florence from Macedonia by one of Cosimo de' Medici's agents. ●●

c. 1462 Cosimo de' Medici founds the Platonic Academy 0 cit. The banker Cosimo de' Medici endows a Platonic Academy in Florence and sets Marsilio Ficino to translating the ancient philosophers. Medici gold turned the recovery of pagan antiquity into the beating heart of the Renaissance. culture / economy ●●●

1462 The monti di pieta and Christian pawnbroking 0 cit. Franciscan friars set up the first monte di pieta, a charitable Christian pawnshop offering low-cost loans to the poor, and the model spread across Catholic Europe. These institutions were partly meant to replace Jewish lenders, and they charged fees that amounted to interest of their own. Christian society built its own credit machinery, showing that the demand for loans, not any Jewish scheme, drove medieval lending. economy / religion ●

1463 Cosimo de' Medici orders Ficino to translate Hermes ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Cosimo de' Medici ordered Marsilio Ficino to translate Hermes Trismegistus before embarking on the works of Plato. ●●

1463 Ficino translates the Hermetica for the Medici 0 cit. Cosimo de' Medici has Marsilio Ficino set aside Plato to translate the newly rediscovered Corpus Hermeticum first, so precious was Hermes thought to be. The translation ignited the Renaissance revival of magic, astrology, and Hermetic philosophy that shaped Bruno, Dee, and the whole Western occult tradition. culture / religion ●●●●

c. 1464 Rise of the Songhai Empire 0 cit. Sunni Ali expanded Songhai into the largest empire in West African history. It absorbed the trading cities of Timbuktu and Djenné along the Niger River. economy / politics ●●●●

1464 Cosimo de' Medici dies and is named Father of the Fatherland 0 cit. Cosimo de' Medici died in 1464 and the city honoured him with the title Pater Patriae. His son Piero the Gouty succeeded to leadership of the family. politics ●●●

1464 Death of Cosimo de' Medici ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Cosimo de' Medici died while Ficino was completing his translation of Hermes. ●●

19 October 1466 Second Peace of Thorn 0 cit. Treaty ending the Thirteen Years' War between Poland and the Teutonic Knights. The Order ceded western Prussia including Danzig to Poland and became a Polish vassal. diplomacy / politics / war ●●

1467 to 1477 Onin War 0 cit. no story A succession dispute among Japan's great lords destroys Kyoto and shatters central authority. The war opens the century-long Sengoku era of warring states. politics / war ●●●

1469 Lorenzo the Magnificent takes power 0 cit. Lorenzo de' Medici, later called the Magnificent, took over leadership of the family and Florence in 1469 with his brother Giuliano. His rule became a high point of Renaissance culture and diplomacy. culture / politics ●●●●

1469 Ferdinand and Isabella marry, uniting Spain ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Elliott terms a "composite monarchy." From Reconquest to Habsburg Empire The marriage in 1469 of Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Aragon, king of Sicily and Sardinia, and claimant ... ●●

1469 Lorenzo the Magnificent presides over Florence's golden age 0 cit. Lorenzo de' Medici takes charge of Florence and becomes the greatest patron of the age, funding Botticelli, the young Michelangelo, and a circle of humanist scholars. His rule marked the high point of Florentine wealth, art, and learning. culture / politics ●●●

1470 Dormition Cathedral rebuilt in the Moscow Kremlin ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Cathedral of the Dormition rebuilt in Moscow Kremlin by Italian architect under Ivan III's orders. ●●

1471 Ficino's Pimander printed for the first time ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Ficino's Pimander was printed for the first time and went through sixteen editions by the end of the sixteenth century. ●●

1472 Founding of Monte dei Paschi di Siena 0 cit. Siena founds a monte di pieta, a charitable lender meant to offer credit to the poor as an alternative to moneylenders. Reorganized in 1624, it survives as Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the world's oldest bank still in operation. economy / society ●●●●

1473 Death of Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa ai_extracted 2 cit. no story Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa, learned ecclesiastic and predecessor to Copernican ideas, died in 1473 after escaping persecution through entering orders ●●

c. 1478 Ivan III Annexes Novgorod 0 cit. Ivan III absorbed the wealthy Novgorod Republic into the Grand Duchy of Moscow, a major step in gathering the Rus lands under Moscow. His reign also promoted the idea of Moscow as heir to Byzantium. politics ●●●

26 April 1478 Pazzi conspiracy 0 cit. On 26 April 1478 members of the Pazzi family and allies attacked Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici during Mass in Florence Cathedral. Giuliano was killed and Lorenzo wounded but survived, and the plotters were brutally punished. politics / religion ●●●●

1 November 1478 Spanish Inquisition established 0 cit. Pope Sixtus IV authorized the Catholic Monarchs to appoint inquisitors in Castile. The Spanish Inquisition became a powerful instrument of the crown and Church, targeting converts suspected of secret Judaism or Islam and lasting into the nineteenth century. politics / religion / society ●●●●

1478 Ivan III annexes Novgorod ai_extracted 1 cit. Grand Prince Ivan III annexes city-state of Novgorod, eliminating merchant republic model from Russian society. ●●

1478 The Spanish Inquisition is established 0 cit. At the request of Ferdinand and Isabella, Pope Sixtus IV authorized a Spanish Inquisition under royal control. Its first target was not Jews but conversos suspected of secretly practicing Judaism. Tomás de Torquemada became the first Grand Inquisitor and made the tribunal a feared instrument of religious policing. politics / religion / society ●●●

4 September 1479 Treaty of Alcacovas 0 cit. Treaty between Castile and Portugal ending the War of the Castilian Succession and dividing Atlantic spheres, with Portugal keeping the African coast and most island groups. It was the first European treaty partitioning overseas zones of expansion. diplomacy / exploration / politics ●●●

c. 1479 Unification of Spain 0 cit. no story The crowns of Castile and Aragon unite under Ferdinand and Isabella, creating the dynastic union from which modern Spain formed; the Reconquista ended in 1492. politics ●●●●

c. 1480 Great Stand on the Ugra River 0 cit. A standoff between the forces of Ivan III of Moscow and the Great Horde ended without a major battle and is traditionally seen as the end of Mongol overlordship over the Rus. Moscow was now an independent power. politics / war ●●●●

c. 1480 Lorenzo the Magnificent patronises Renaissance artists 0 cit. Through the 1480s Lorenzo supported artists and scholars including Botticelli and the young Michelangelo. His court helped make Florence a centre of Renaissance art and learning. culture ●●●●

c. 1480 to c. 1834 The autos-da-fe and the toll of the Spanish Inquisition 0 cit. For over three centuries the Spanish Inquisition tried tens of thousands, staging public autos-da-fe where the condemned were paraded and some burned. Modern historians estimate that it executed roughly three to five thousand people over its whole history, far fewer than the tens of thousands of popular legend, but its use of torture, secret denunciations and mass expulsions spread real and lasting terror. politics / religion / society ●●●

c. 1481 Why the conversos were hunted: baptism, blood, and confiscation 0 cit. The relentless hunting of conversos had a grim internal logic. As forced converts they were now baptized Christians, so, unlike practising Jews, they fell under the Inquisition's jurisdiction and could be tried for heresy; conversion made them more vulnerable, not less. The tribunals feared 'Judaizers' secretly keeping the old faith, the 'purity of blood' statutes made the suspicion hereditary regardless of sincerity, and the confiscation of the accused's property helped fund the Inquisition itself. Faith was the pretext; blood, social control, and money were the drivers. economy / politics / religion / society ●●●

1482 Elmina Castle built on the Gold Coast 0 cit. The Portuguese built Sao Jorge da Mina, the first permanent European trading fort in sub-Saharan Africa. It later became a major holding point for enslaved people awaiting shipment across the Atlantic. economy / exploration ●●●●

1483 Diogo Cão reaches the mouth of the Congo River 0 cit. Portuguese navigator Diogo Cão sailed to the estuary of the Congo River and made first contact with the Kingdom of Kongo. He left a stone marker, or padrão, claiming the discovery for Portugal and exchanged envoys with the manikongo. This opened decades of diplomatic and commercial ties between the two kingdoms. diplomacy / politics ●●

1483 Torquemada drives the Spanish Inquisition and expulsion 0 cit. The Dominican friar Tomas de Torquemada, confessor to Queen Isabella, was named Grand Inquisitor in 1483 and shaped the early Spanish Inquisition's pursuit of conversos suspected of secretly keeping Judaism. He is widely credited with pressing Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic Monarchs, toward the 1492 decree expelling the Jews, arguing that unconverted Jews corrupted the converts. His name became a byword for inquisitorial zeal. politics / religion / society ●●●

c. 1485 Botticelli brings the pagan gods back to art 0 cit. Botticelli paints the Birth of Venus, a nude pagan goddess rising from the sea, for a Medici patron. After a thousand years of Christian art, the old gods returned openly to the canvas, a rebirth of antiquity in the most literal sense. culture / religion ●●●

1485 Yeomen of the Guard founded 0 cit. King Henry VII created the Yeomen of the Guard as the English monarch's personal bodyguard shortly after his victory at Bosworth Field. It is the oldest surviving royal bodyguard in the world and the oldest military corps still in existence in Britain. Members still wear Tudor-style ceremonial uniforms at state occasions. culture / politics ●

1486 Pico della Mirandola presents Kabbalist theses 0 cit. In his 900 theses, the Italian humanist Giovanni Pico della Mirandola argued that Kabbalah confirmed Christian doctrine. He is generally credited with founding Christian Kabbalah, adapting Jewish sources to a Christian frame. culture / religion ●●●●●

1486 Pico della Mirandola publishes 900 theses in Rome ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Blavatsky records Pico della Mirandola's publication of nine hundred Kabalistic theses in Rome, which he offered to defend in public—an act she presents as evidence of Christian scholars discovering esoteric Kabalistic doctrine. ●●

1486 Pico della Mirandola exalts the dignity of man 0 cit. The young scholar Pico della Mirandola writes his Oration on the Dignity of Man, arguing that human beings can shape their own nature and rise toward the divine. It became a manifesto of Renaissance humanism and its new confidence in human potential. culture / religion ●●

1487 Pico della Mirandola publishes his Apology ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Pico della Mirandola published his Apology defending his condemned propositions against accusations of heresy. ●●

1487 Pico retracts and is absolved by the Pope ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Pico made a formal submission and retraction to the commission; the Pope subsequently absolved him but forbade further publication. ●●

February 1488 Portuguese navigators round the Cape 0 cit. Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias became the first recorded European to sail around the southern tip of Africa, naming it the Cape of Storms; the Portuguese crown later renamed it the Cape of Good Hope. This voyage opened a sea route around Africa toward the Indian Ocean and Asia. Portuguese ships subsequently stopped at the Cape for water and trade with local Khoikhoi but did not settle there. diplomacy / technology ●●

1488 Bartolomeu Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope 0 cit. Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias sailed around the southern tip of Africa, proving a sea route from Europe to the Indian Ocean was possible. This opened the way for direct European trade with Asia by sea rather than overland. Vasco da Gama would complete the route to India a decade later. science ●●

c. 1490 Leonardo da Vinci, the universal man 0 cit. Leonardo da Vinci unites painting, anatomy, engineering, and natural science in a single restless mind, the model of the Renaissance universal man. His notebooks fused art and science in a way the modern world still idealizes. culture / science ●●●●

c. 1490 The Joka-Jok, the first Luo wave into the lake basin 5 cit. The earliest Luo group to reach the Kenyan side of Lake Victoria is remembered as the Joka-Jok, the people of Jok, who moved down through the Acholi and Uganda country and settled around Got Ramogi. Oral tradition and linguistic reconstruction place this first wave in roughly the fifteenth to sixteenth centuries. From this bridgehead the Luo spread out across the Nyanza lakeshore. society ●●●

1491 Conversion of the manikongo and baptism as João I 0 cit. The Kongo ruler Nzinga a Nkuwu accepted Catholic baptism and took the name João I, encouraged by Portuguese missionaries and his own interest in the alliance. Christianity became the court religion, and Kongo adopted Portuguese titles, dress, and literacy alongside its own traditions. The kingdom dealt with Portugal for a time as a nominal equal rather than a subject. diplomacy / religion ●●

1491 Portuguese missionaries baptize the king of Kongo 0 cit. Portuguese missionaries baptized the Kongo ruler Nzinga a Nkuwa, who took the name Joao. His son Afonso made Catholicism the court religion and exchanged envoys with Lisbon and Rome. The Kongo mission is an early case of Christianity spreading through an African kingdom, entangled from the start with Portuguese trade and the growing Atlantic slave trade. diplomacy / economy / religion ●●

1491 Contact with the Kingdom of Kongo and its Christianization 0 cit. After the Portuguese reach the Kongo coast, its ruler is baptized and the kingdom adopts Catholicism, opening close ties with Lisbon. What began as an alliance between two Christian crowns turned corrosive as the demand for slaves grew, and the trade would later hollow the kingdom out from within. diplomacy / religion / society ●●

12 October 1492 Columbus reaches the Americas 0 cit. Christopher Columbus, sailing for Spain, lands in the Bahamas while seeking a westward route to Asia. Sustained contact between the hemispheres begins, bringing European empires, the Columbian exchange, and demographic catastrophe for indigenous peoples. exploration ●●●●●

31 March 1492 Expulsion of the Jews from Spain 0 cit. Ferdinand and Isabella issue the Alhambra Decree ordering Jews to convert or leave Spain within months. The expulsion ends centuries of Iberian Jewish life and scatters Sephardic communities across the Mediterranean world. politics / religion / society ●●●●

2 January 1492 Fall of Granada 0 cit. On 2 January 1492 the Nasrid ruler Boabdil surrendered Granada to the Catholic Monarchs of Spain. The fall of the last Muslim state in Iberia completed the Reconquista. politics / religion / war ●●●●

31 March 1492 The Alhambra Decree 0 cit. The Catholic Monarchs of Spain ordered the expulsion of Jews who would not convert to Christianity in 1492. Tens of thousands left, spreading the Sephardic diaspora across the Mediterranean. politics / religion ●●●●

1492 Rise of the Spanish Empire 0 cit. The union of Castile and Aragon and the voyage of Columbus launched Spain's overseas empire. It grew into one of the first global empires spanning the Americas and the Pacific. exploration / politics ●●●●●

2 January 1492 Fall of Granada and completion of the Reconquista 0 cit. The Emirate of Granada surrendered to the Catholic Monarchs Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon, ending nearly eight centuries of Muslim rule in Iberia. The victory freed Castilian resources and ambition for overseas expansion. politics / religion / war ●●●●

31 March 1492 Alhambra Decree expels the Jews from Spain 0 cit. The Catholic Monarchs ordered the expulsion of Jews who would not convert to Christianity, forcing tens of thousands to leave Castile and Aragon. The decree tied religious uniformity to the emerging Spanish state. politics / religion / society ●●●

c. 1492 The Columbian Exchange reshapes two worlds 0 cit. Sustained contact set off a two way transfer of crops, animals, people, and diseases between the Americas, Europe, and Africa. Old World epidemics killed most of the Indigenous population, while American crops reshaped diets worldwide. environment / science / society ●●●●

8 April 1492 Lorenzo the Magnificent dies 0 cit. Lorenzo de' Medici died in April 1492, leaving his less able son Piero in charge. His death is often taken as the end of the golden age of Medici Florence. culture / politics ●●●

c. 1492 The Columbian Exchange 0 cit. The contact between the Old and New Worlds set off a vast transfer of crops, animals, people and diseases across the Atlantic. Old World epidemics killed a large share of indigenous Americans, while new crops reshaped diets worldwide. environment / society ●●●●●

1492 Final ejection of the Arabs from Spain ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Quigley notes that from the Arab invasion of 711 to their final ejection in 1492, Spanish life was dominated by the struggle against the foreign intruder, one root of Spain's later fanatical intolerance. ●●

1492 Columbus sails west seeking the Great Khan ai_extracted 1 cit. no story After studying Marco Polo's account of his transcontinental travels two centuries earlier, in 1492 Christopher Columbus began his voyage to the land of the Great Khan. The Mongol E... ●●

1492 Alexander VI succeeds Innocent VIII as pope ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Pope Innocent VIII was succeeded by Alexander VI, the Borgia pope, who had greater sympathy for magic and astrology. ●●

1492 Expulsion of Jews from Spain ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Jews were expelled from Spain, dispersing many to the Ottoman Empire and eventually establishing significant presence in Venice as merchants and lenders. ●●

1492 Columbus sails on Ptolemy's small Earth 0 cit. Christopher Columbus, relying on a tradition that underestimated the size of the globe, part of it traceable to Ptolemy, judged Asia reachable by sailing west. He was wrong about the distance and found the Americas instead, an error with world-changing consequences. exploration / science ●●●

1492 Ferdinand of Aragon attacks Granada ai_extracted 1 cit. no story King Ferdinand began his reign by attacking Granada, an enterprise that laid the foundation of his growing dominions and fame. ●●

1492 Expulsion from Spain scatters the Kabbalists ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Spanish Inquisition expulsion forces Jewish Kabbalists to migrate to Ottoman lands, especially Safed, Palestine ●●

c. 1492 Columbian Exchange transforms global agriculture 0 cit. Following Columbus's voyages, plants, animals, and diseases moved between the Old and New Worlds on a scale never seen before. Crops like potatoes, maize, and tomatoes reached Europe, Africa, and Asia, while horses, cattle, and wheat reached the Americas, alongside diseases that devastated Indigenous peoples. The exchange reshaped diets and populations worldwide and became one of colonization's most lasting legacies. economy / science ●●

31 March 1492 The Alhambra Decree expels the Jews of Spain 0 cit. Ferdinand and Isabella signed the Alhambra Decree, giving the Jews of Spain until the end of July to convert or leave. Estimates of those expelled range widely, from tens of thousands to over a hundred thousand. Many fled to Portugal, North Africa, and the Ottoman lands, scattering Sephardic Jews across the Mediterranean and beyond. politics / religion / society ●●●

3 August 1492 Columbus sails the day after the expulsion deadline 0 cit. Columbus's first voyage left the port of Palos on 3 August 1492, just after the final deadline for Jews to leave Spain. The two events fell in the same summer, and the harbor was crowded with departing refugees. The overlap is a documented coincidence of timing, not evidence that the voyage was arranged as part of the expulsion. politics / religion / technology ●●●

1492 Luis de Santangel helps fund the first voyage 0 cit. Luis de Santangel, keeper of King Ferdinand's privy purse and a member of a prominent converso family, helped arrange the money for Columbus's voyage after the crown first hesitated. He advanced and organized funds drawn largely from royal and treasury sources. This is documented court finance, not a private Jewish scheme, since Santangel was a Catholic official of the Aragonese crown. economy / politics / technology ●●

c. 1492 Gabriel Sanchez and converso officials at court 0 cit. Gabriel Sanchez, the treasurer general of Aragon and also of converso descent, was among the royal officials involved in backing the expedition. Columbus later addressed a famous letter announcing his findings to Sanchez. Several New Christians held senior posts at court, which reflects their real place in Spanish administration rather than any hidden control of it. economy / politics ●

1492 Luis de Torres, the interpreter, crosses the Atlantic 0 cit. Luis de Torres, a converso who knew Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic, was baptized shortly before sailing and joined the voyage as an interpreter. Columbus expected to reach Asia and thought these languages might help in talks with its rulers. Torres was among the first Europeans to land in the Americas and is often described as the first person of Jewish origin to do so. culture / religion / technology ●●

c. 1492 Sultan Bayezid II welcomes the exiles to the Ottoman Empire 0 cit. Sultan Bayezid II opened the Ottoman lands to Jews fleeing Spain, reportedly mocking Ferdinand for impoverishing his own kingdom to enrich the sultan's. Thousands settled in Salonica, Istanbul, and other cities, where Sephardic communities and their Ladino language flourished for centuries. The Ottoman refuge became the largest single destination of the 1492 exile. diplomacy / religion / society ●●●

c. 1492 Sephardic refuge in North Africa 0 cit. Many exiles crossed to Fez, Tlemcen, and other cities of the Maghreb, where established Jewish communities absorbed them, not always easily. The newcomers, called megorashim, kept their Spanish customs distinct from the local Jews for generations. These communities became another anchor of the Sephardic world after 1492. culture / religion / society ●

January 1492 The fall of Granada completes the Reconquista 0 cit. In January 1492 Ferdinand and Isabella took Granada, the last Muslim kingdom in Iberia, ending centuries of Christian reconquest. With the peninsula unified under Catholic rule, the monarchs turned to enforcing a single faith. The expulsion decree for the Jews came only weeks later. Historians tie the timing to a drive to complete a one-faith realm, with the unresolved converso question at its center. politics / religion / war ●●●

17 April 1492 Capitulations of Santa Fe grant Columbus his terms 0 cit. After years of lobbying, Columbus won a contract from Ferdinand and Isabella agreeing to fund his westward voyage to reach Asia. The Capitulations of Santa Fe promised him the titles Admiral of the Ocean Sea and viceroy of any lands he found, plus a tenth of the wealth from them. These generous hereditary terms later became the source of long legal disputes between his heirs and the crown. economy / politics ●●

c. 1492 Columbus's apocalyptic faith and mission to retake Jerusalem 0 cit. Columbus held an intense Catholic faith with a strong apocalyptic and millenarian streak, well documented in his own letters and writings. He believed his voyages were divinely ordained to carry Christianity across the world and that the gold he found would fund a new crusade to recapture Jerusalem before the end of the world. He signed documents with a cryptic religious device and read his first name, Christopher, as Christoferens, the Christ-bearer chosen for this task. religion ●●

25 December 1492 La Navidad, the first European settlement in the Americas 0 cit. After his flagship the Santa Maria ran aground off Hispaniola on Christmas, Columbus used its timbers to build a small fort and left about 39 men behind, naming the outpost La Navidad. It was the first European settlement in the Americas since the Norse. When Columbus returned the following year, he found the fort burned and all its men dead, after they had abused the local Taino. politics / society ●

1492 Ottomans welcome Jews expelled from Spain 0 cit. After Spain expels its Jewish population, Sultan Bayezid II invites the refugees to settle in Ottoman lands and reportedly mocks the Spanish king for impoverishing his own realm. Sephardic Jews build large communities in Istanbul, Salonica, and Izmir, contributing to trade, printing, medicine, and finance. The welcome stands in sharp contrast to their treatment in Christian Europe. economy / religion / society ●●●

1492 Sultan Bayezid II welcomes the exiles 0 cit. The Ottoman sultan Bayezid II invited the expelled Sephardim into his empire, where they settled in Istanbul, Salonica, Izmir, and the Balkans. A story often repeated has him marveling that Spain called Ferdinand wise while he impoverished his own kingdom and enriched the Ottomans. Whatever his exact words, the Ottoman lands became the largest Sephardic home. diplomacy / politics / society ●●●

4 May 1493 Inter Caetera divides the New World 0 cit. Pope Alexander VI drew a line dividing newly reached lands between Spain and Portugal and granted them rights to convert and rule the peoples there. The bull is a central document of the Doctrine of Discovery. exploration / politics / religion ●●●●

1493 Alexander VI absolves Pico of all heresy charges ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Pope Alexander VI promulgated bulls absolving Pico and his works from all heresy charges on June 18, 1493. ●●

25 September 1493 Columbus's second voyage and the colonization of Hispaniola 0 cit. Columbus returned across the Atlantic with a large fleet of some 17 ships and over 1,000 settlers, soldiers, and priests, this time to establish a permanent colony. He found La Navidad, the fort he had left the year before, destroyed and its garrison dead, and founded a new settlement called La Isabela. The voyage began sustained Spanish occupation of the Caribbean and the imposition of colonial rule on the Taino. politics / religion ●●

c. 1493 Sao Tome becomes a sugar and slave colony 0 cit. Portugal turns the uninhabited island of Sao Tome, off the coast of central Africa, into a sugar colony worked by enslaved Africans. It became both a plantation and a holding depot for the slave trade feeding out of the Kongo and Angola coasts, and it sharpened the plantation model later taken to Brazil. economy / society ●●

16 June 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas wikidata 0 cit. treaty dividing territory between Portugal and Spain ●●●

1494 to 1559 Italian Wars 0 cit. no story France and Habsburg Spain fight a series of wars for dominance in Italy over six decades. Spain emerges as the leading power in Italy and Europe. politics / war ●●●●

1494 Collapse of the Medici Bank 0 cit. Weakened by bad loans, poor management, and branch failures, the Medici Bank is dissolved when the Medici are expelled from Florence during the French invasion of Italy. The century-long dominance of Florence's greatest bank ends. economy / politics ●●●

1494 Reuchlin publishes De Verbo Mirifico 0 cit. Johann Reuchlin, a leading Christian Hebraist, presented Kabbalistic ideas about the power of divine names in De Verbo Mirifico. His studies helped establish Kabbalah as a subject of Christian scholarship. culture / religion ●●●●

7 June 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas divides the world 0 cit. Spain and Portugal agreed to split newly encountered lands along a meridian in the Atlantic, giving most of the Americas to Spain and Brazil and Africa's route to Portugal. It set an early precedent for European powers partitioning distant territories by treaty. exploration / politics ●●●●

1494 Medici expelled and the bank collapses 0 cit. In 1494 the people of Florence drove out Piero de' Medici as a French army approached, and the family's bank was wound down. The Medici would not return to power for nearly two decades. economy / politics ●●●

1494 Death of Pico della Mirandola ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Pico della Mirandola died on the day the French king's armies entered Florence. ●●

1494 Lefevre d'Etaples publishes edition of Ficino's Pimander ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Lefevre d'Etaples' edition of Ficino's Pimander was published by the University of Paris. ●●

1494 Medici expelled from Florence, bank records burned ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Amid French invasion chaos, the Medici were expelled from Florence and their property confiscated; a mob burned most of the bank's records. ●●

1494 Treaty of Tordesillas grants Portugal claim to Brazil ai_extracted 1 cit. no story When the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494 gave Portugal possession of what would become Brazil, this system of labor would prove to be exportable. ●●

1494 Pacioli codifies double-entry in print 0 cit. The friar and mathematician Luca Pacioli published Summa de arithmetica, a math textbook that included a section describing the Venetian method of double-entry bookkeeping in clear steps. Printed on the new press, it spread the technique across Europe and earned Pacioli the title father of accounting. Historians stress he did not invent double-entry but was the first to write it down systematically for a wide audience. culture / economy / science ●●●

c. 1495 Aldus Manutius prints the Greek classics in Venice 0 cit. The printer Aldus Manutius founds the Aldine Press and issues affordable pocket editions of Aristotle, Plato, and the Greek and Latin authors. His work put the recovered classics into the hands of scholars across Europe and helped standardize the printed book. culture / technology ●●

c. 1495 Gold quotas and forced labor imposed on the Taino 0 cit. As governor, Columbus imposed a tribute system requiring Taino adults on Hispaniola to deliver set quantities of gold or cotton at regular intervals. The Spanish also forced Taino into labor in mines and fields under the emerging encomienda and repartimiento arrangements. According to Bartolome de las Casas, those who failed to meet the gold quota were mutilated or killed, and the demands helped drive a collapse in the Taino population. economy / society ●●

1495 Maximilian I's Imperial Reform 0 cit. A reforming diet under Maximilian I tried to give the sprawling empire working institutions. It set up a supreme court, the Imperial Chamber Court, declared a perpetual public peace to curb private wars, and organized the lands into regional circles. The reforms held the patchwork together without turning it into a unified state. politics / society ●●

c. 1496 Collapse of the Taino population of Hispaniola 0 cit. Within a generation of Columbus's arrival the Taino of Hispaniola were nearly wiped out by a combination of Old World disease, forced labor, violence, famine, and social breakdown. Estimates of the pre-contact population range widely from the hundreds of thousands into the millions, but by the 1510s and 1520s only a few thousand remained. It was one of the earliest and most complete demographic catastrophes of European colonization in the Americas. society ●●●

24 June 1497 John Cabot Reaches Newfoundland 0 cit. Sailing under a patent from Henry VII, the Italian navigator John Cabot made landfall in North America. The voyage gave England its earliest claim to the New World. exploration ●●●