“All the world’s a stage, and all
the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts . . .
” †
If so, then our ancestors played their parts against the backdrop
of history, and it was the major historical events that directed them through time.
Time is conveniently divided into time
periods ‡
which of course are fictional divisions used by historians to keep their filing cabinets orderly.
They put titles on the time periods as playwrights
number their acts. Some might say that our selected
time period comes near the end of the Renaissance and runs into the Early
Modern period. From our view, 1450 to 1715 was simply a period of significant changes in Europe
and great upheaval in the Americas.
The discovery of the Americas, along with the plundering of some of the First American
Nations (Aztec, Inca, &c.) brought considerable wealth to Catholic Spain. This wealth
allowed Spain to continue its dreaded Inquisition and even more importantly, the use of
the stolen gold to maintain armies and oppose the struggling Protestant Reformation. The
Inquisition existed long before it was adopted by Catholic Spain, however it was the Spanish
Inquisition that became the pinnacle of terror.
The Protestant Reformation grew
and so great wars accompanied by religious persecution spread across northern Europe,
(England, Scotland, Netherlands, France, Western Germany, Bohemia, Hungary, parts of
Poland and even Spain). Torture and executions became the rule rather than the exception.
This bloodletting compelled many common Protestant folk to flee to England
often directly from the Dutch lowlands. In England and Ireland, the Catholics were in
opposition to the Protestant Crown and so they too were persecuted. In the late 1500s,
most folk
from the European mainland first settled in London and that city
was well known for its extreme filthy conditions.
Over population and poverty were commonplace. There soon followed an
exodus from England to British America. Starting with a few souls, that
exodus soon became an avalanche.
The overwhelming migration to
America had a profound negative
impact on Native Americans and of course, on the Black Africans (and others) who were
imported as slave labor. While our list shows the big picture, every person who
migrated to America was part of that picture, as were America’s
First People and those who were enslaved there. Many were bit players,
while some were leading actors -- yet all were players.
1453 ---------- Constantinople (Constantinopolis), capital of Byzantium, the
successor to the legendary Roman Empire, falls to the Ottoman
Turks. This great fortress fell to overwhelming numbers led
by Sultan Mehmed II.
1454/1455 ----- Gutenberg Bible printed in Mainz Germany. Johann
Gutenberg made obsolete the handwritten books of his
age with his movable type, the printing press, and
special ink. The Bible was printed in Gothic (black
letter) type.
1456 ---------- Ottoman Turks capture Athens but are defeated in Hungary.
1457 ---------- Moravian Church forms, part of the Protestant Reformation.
1455-1487 ----- Wars of the Roses. English civil wars fought in England
between the House of Lancaster and the House of York.
1461-1483 ----- Louis XI rules France.
1463 ---------- Ottoman Turks conquer Bosnia.
1469-1492 ----- Lorenzo de Medici, the Magnificent, rules Florence.
1469 ---------- Possibly the first Roman style typeface is used in Venice
by brothers John and Wendelin of Speier.
1470 ---------- Nicolas Jenson, a Frenchman, and printer in Venice, develops
a printers type which came to be known as Venetian Oldstyle.
This beautiful classic Roman style type was much imitated.
1476 ---------- William Caxton sets up printing press at Westminster
England.
1478 ---------- Spanish Inquisition starts when King Ferdinand and Queen
Isabella chose Catholicism to unite Spain and asked
permission of the Catholic Pope to begin to purify their
people. Spain then persecutes (Sephardic) Jews, Moslems,
and "heretics." The Spanish Inquisition's reign of terror
was finally suppressed in 1834.
1480 ---------- Lodovico Sforza seizes power in Milan.
1483 ---------- Martin Luther born.
1484 ---------- Papal Bull condemns withcraft. Inquisitors sent to Germany.
1485 ---------- Battle of Bosworth Field.
1487 ---------- Bartholomew Diaz sails around Cape of Good Hope.
1492 ---------- King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain expels all the
Jews, Moslems, and "heretics" from Spain.
1492 ---------- Christopher Columbus reaches the West Indies.
1493 ---------- By decree, Pope Alexander VI divides the world between
Portugal and Spain. All others, keep out! Especially
England.
1494 ---------- Treaty of Tordesilla. This Treaty was signed by Portugal
and Spain on June 7, 1494, with the Pope's mediation.
The Treaty established that all lands west of an imaginary
line of demarcation 370 leagues west of the cape Verde
Islands, in Africa, belonged to Portugal, while lands
to the east of this line belonged to Spain.
1494 ---------- At the invitation of Sforza, Charles VIII of France invades
Italy.
1495 ---------- The French capture Naples.
1496 ---------- Spain founds Santo Domingo in the Caribbean.
1496 ---------- King Manuel I of Portugal issues a decree that encourages
Jews to convert to Catholicism and so become "New-Christians"
(also known as "Marranos" or "pigs"). Those Jews who did not
acquiesce or leave the country fell into the Inquisition.
1497 ---------- John Cabot discovers Newfoundland.
1498 ---------- Vasco da Gama reaches India.
1499 ---------- Louis XII of France seizes Milan.
1507 ---------- A 1507 Waldseemüller (German) map was the first to use the
name "America," applying it to the southern continent, - so
named for famous Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci.
1513 ---------- Spaniard Ponce de Leon discovers Florida. He claims the
land for Spain and names it La Florida, meaning "Land of
Flowers." Between 1513 and 1563 the government of Spain
launched six expeditions to settle Florida, but all failed.
1517 ---------- Martin Luther posts his 95 Theses in Wittenberg.
1517 ---------- This is our tentative date for the start of the Protestant
Reformation. Usually this time frame for the Reformation
is given as: early 1500s to mid 1600s. Great Christian but
non-Catholic religions grew from the various Reformation
religious movements; Lutheran, Dutch Reformed, German
Reformed, Swiss Reformed, Presbyterian, Protestant (Calvinist),
Puritan.
1519 ---------- Charles of Spain becomes Emperor Charles V.
1519-1521 ----- Magellan's ship first to sail around the world.
1519-1521 ----- Hernano Cortes conquers the Aztecs. So starts the flood of
New World riches to Spain.
1521 ---------- Diet of Worms. Martin Luther refuses to back down.
1521 ---------- The Ottomam Turk, Suleiman II, the Magnificent, takes Belgrade.
1522 ---------- French pirates prey on Spanish merchant ships.
1527 ---------- Imperial troops of Charles V, under Duke of Bourbon, sack Rome.
1529 ---------- The Turks besiege Vienna, plunder and waste the countryside,
burn the suburbs of the city, but fail to breach its defenses.
1532 ---------- Spaniard Francisco Pizarro conquers Incas of Peru,
executes (murders by garroting) Inca Emperor Atahualpa,
and assumes control.
1534 ---------- Henry VIII of England breaks with Roman Catholic Church and
declares himself to be the head of the new Church of England.
1535 ---------- Jacques Cartier sails up the St. Lawrence River.
1536-1539 ----- Dissolution of the English Monasteries by Henry III.
1540 ---------- St. Ignatius Loyola founds the Society of Jesus (Jesuits).
1540-1541 ----- Hernando de Soto discovers the Mississippi River after
leading a murderous expedition across the American
southeast. He dies after a trip to Arkansas. His body is
dumped and sunk into "his" River, the Mississippi.
1553-1554 ----- English expedition of the "Mystery, Company and Fellowship
of Merchant Adventures for the Discovery of Unknown Lands"
sails for the East Indies via the Arctic Circle in search
of the spices. The expedition fails in early 1554. The men
froze to death.
1555 ---------- Peace of Ausgburg.
1556 ---------- Charles V of Spain abdicates.
1556 ---------- Phillip II, son of Charles V, rules Spain; brother,
Ferdinand I, is Emperor. In that year, Spain controled
one half of Europe.
1558 ---------- Elizabeth, daughter of King Henry VIII, becomes Queen of
England.
1559 ---------- Peace of Cateau-Cambresis ends Franco-Spanish war.
1561 ---------- Francis Bacon born.
1562-1578 ----- French religious wars between Catholics and Protestants
1562 ---------- French Huguenots claim Florida land though they proceeded
further north to settle in Carolina.
1564 ---------- William Shakespeare born.
1564 ---------- French establish a fort and colony on the St. Johns River.
1565 ---------- Spanish Admiral, Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles, establishes
St. Augustine in Florida.
1565 ---------- Menendez destroys the French garrison on the St. Johns River
and with the help of a hurricane, defeats the French fleet.
1568 ---------- In the Netherlands, seven states declare themselves free
from Spain.
1569 ---------- Revolution erupts in the North of England. The Catholic
northern lords of Northumberland and Westmorland lead the
rebellion, and are supported by Spain. This came to be a
religious war. However, Elizabeth's the superior numbers of
her men at arms intimidate the Catholics.
1570 ---------- Pope Pius V issues a papal bull of excommunication, in
effect, a declaration of religious war against
Elizabeth I.
1572 ---------- Massacre of St. Bartholomew; 8,000 Protestants die in
Paris, France.
1572 ---------- Dutch Protestants seize the city of Brill in their revolt
against Spain.
1572 ---------- John Day introduces Roman typefaces in England.
1577-1580 ----- Francis Drake sails around the world.
1582 ---------- Douay Bible: The first English translation of the Latin
Vulgate Bible authorized by the Roman Catholic Church. The
New Testament was published in 1582, printed in Rheims, France.
The Old Testament was published in 1609-10 in Douay, Flanders.
Also called Douay Version.
The Douay Bible was the work of a group of Catholic scholars
driven out of England by the religious persecution of Elizabeth I.
1584 ---------- Sir Walter Raleigh founds first English colony, Roanoke, in
North America (now North Carolina).
1585 ---------- Second Roanoke Expedition, troops garrisoned on Roanoke
Island.
1586 ---------- Ralph Lane, commander of Fort Roanoke, massacres many
Indians.
1586 ---------- Roanoke abandoned.
1587 ---------- Mary, Queen of Scots, (a Catholic) is executed. (Feb)
1587 ---------- One hundred seventeen settlers land on Roanoke Island. (Jul)
1587 ---------- John White, Governor of Roanoke, sails to England to obtain
help for the new settlement.
1588 ---------- Spanish Armada defeated by England and mother nature.
1590 ---------- John White returns to Roanoke in 1590. He finds all the
settlers had disappeared - gone for ever.
1592 ---------- Robert Greene writes of Shakespeare in "Greens Groatsworth
of Wit"
"an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers, that
with his tiger's heart wrapped in a player's hide
supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank
verse as the best of you; and being an absolute
Johannes Factotum, is in his own conceit the only
Shake-scene in a country."
1598 ---------- Henry VI, first Bourbon king of France, grants toleration
to Protestants.
1598 ---------- John de Onate establishes first Spanish colony in New
Mexico.
1598-1599 ----- Natives of Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico attack Spanish
troops; a retaliatory force under John de Onate kill
as many as 800 Acomans.
1600 --------- "East India Company" founded by Royal Charter during the
reign of Queen Elizabeth I.
1601 --------- Francis Bacon prosecutes Essex. Bacon was instrumental
in securing for the Queen a guilty verdict.
1603 ---------- Queen Elizabeth of England dies.
1603 ---------- Francis Bacon is Knighted.
1603 ---------- King James VI of Scotland (James Charles Stuart) becomes
King James I of England.
1604 ---------- King James I commissioned the translation of the Bible.
1606 ---------- King James I grants Charter to establish the Virginia Colony,
aptly named "Treasurer and Company of Adventurers of the
City of London for the First Colony of Virginia."
1607 ---------- John Smith founds Virginia Colony and James Fort (Jamestown).
1607 ---------- Popham Colony, so named for George Popham, was attempted by
the newly formed Plymouth Company. It was established at
Kennebec River at Sabino Point (now Maine). This colony was
soon abandoned.
1608-1609 ----- "Ulster Plantation" (now known as North Ireland). The first
lasting effort on the part of the English to redistribute
Irish land to English and Scottish settlers, former English
soldiers who had served the Crown in Ireland, and certain
Irishmen. The majority of the settlers of the Ulster
Plantation were the Scots. Some decades later, a considerable
number of these Scots (or their descendants) migrated to
America, where they came to be known as the Scots-Irish.
The Ulster Plantation accounted for confiscation of three
million acres or about 30% of the island.
1608 ---------- Samuel de Champlain founds Quebec, first permanent
French settlement in the New World
1609 ---------- Twelve Year Truce. Spain acknowledges Holland's independence.
1609 ---------- Henry Hudson sails 150 miles up Hudson River (later New York)
in his Dutch ship.
1609-1610 ----- Henry Hudson claims land in North America for the Dutch.
Hudson was hired by the Dutch East India Company.
1610 ---------- Santa Fe (La Villa Real de Santa Fe de San Francisco de Assis)
was founded by the Spanish conquistador Don Pedro de Peralta
as a provincial Spanish capital city. (Now Santa Fe, New
Mexico.)
1611 ---------- Authorized King James Version of the Bible published.
1612 ---------- John Rolfe plants a tobacco crop in order to save a
struggling James Town.
1613 ---------- The Globe Theatre burns.
1614 ---------- John Rolfe ships his tobacco crop to England.
1616 ---------- William Shakespeare dies and is buried at the Holy Trinity
Church in Stratford England.
His epitaph :
Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbeare
To digg the dust enclosed here!
Blest be ye man that spares thes stones
And curst be he that moues my bones.
1616 ---------- English ship "Swan" reaches the island of Run in the East
Indies in search of nutmeg.
1618 ---------- Sir Walter Raleigh (wrongly) executed for treason.
1618-1648 ----- Thirty Years' War begins in Germany.
1620 ---------- Pilgrims sail from England in the Mayflower, establish
Plymouth Colony (now Massachusetts).
1621 ---------- Dutch West India Company established to build colonies in
the New World New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island, mouth of
the Hudson River.
1622 ---------- Massacre of English settlers at Martin's Hundred (near
James Town Virginia)
1625 ---------- Dutch found New Amsterdam (later Manhattan, New York).
1626 ---------- Sir Francis Bacon dies.
Quote:
"I do not believe that any man fears to be dead,
but only the stroke of death."
1629 ---------- Seige of Bois-le-Duc, (Thirty Years' War). Dutch City of
Bois-le-Duc (s'Hertogenbosch, or Hertzogenbusch - Sylva
Ducis) falls to Prince Frederick Henry, 14 Sep 1629. The
sixth Catholic "bishop, Michael Ophorius, was obliged to
abandon his see, and surrounded by his clergy, and bearing
with him a famous miraculous statue of the Blessed Virgin
which he placed in safety at Brussels."
(Quote: The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume II, Robert
Appleton Company, 1907)
1629-1633 ----- Spanish found Catholic missions for Acoma, Hopi, and Zuni
pueblos.
1632 ---------- George Calvert granted patent for land north of Virginia.
1632 ---------- Mexico City mint opens in Spanish Mexico.
1638 ---------- Sweden lays claim to land around Delaware Bay, maintaining
trade outpost until 1655.
1634 ---------- Maryland Colony and City of St. Mary's founded.
(Maryland is named for Catholic French Princess Henrietta
Maria, wife of England's Charles I.)
1642-1649 ----- English Civil War.
1644 ---------- Second Powhatan Confederacy uprising against Jamestown;
its leader, Opechancanough, dies in captivity.
1648 ---------- Peace of Westphalia ends the Thirty Years' War.
1649 ---------- England's King Charles I executed.
1649 ---------- Charles II made King of England.
1651 ---------- Oliver Cromwell defeats the Scots at Dunbar and Worcester.
1651-1660 ----- Scotland and England united in Cromwell's Commonwealth.
1652 ---------- Act of Settlement gives most Irish landownership to the
Protestants.
1653 ---------- "Cromwellian Plantation": "Scheme for a Last and Permanent
Conquest of Ireland, through a Society of Adventurers."
Because of the 1641 Irish Rebellion, 2,500,000 acres of
Irish lands were forfeited. Under penalty of death by
hanging, no Irish man, woman or child was to be found
east of the River Shannon, after 1 May 1654. Native Irish
were forced west into Connaught.
1652-1654 ----- "Dutch War" (caused by English Navigation Act of 1651)
1655 ---------- French plunder and burn the city of Havana, Cuba.
1655-1658 ----- War between England and Spain over trade rights.
1658 ---------- Oliver Cromwell dies to be succeeded by his son Richard
Cromwell.
1660 ---------- Restoration of the English Crown. Charles Stuart, the son
of the executed King Charles I becomes King Charles II.
Charles II bestowed the term of "Old Dominion" on Virginia
Colony because the Colony had keep independent of Cromwell's
government and remained loyal to the crown during and after
the English Civil War.
1664 ---------- Dutchman Peter Stuyvesant surrenders New Amsterdam
(Manhatten) to the English. In 1667, the peace
commissioners proposed that Dutch keep the island of Run
in the East Indies - along with its nutmeg - and the
English keep Manhatten.
1665 ---------- A Royal Charter is granted for the creation of the
Proprietorship of Carolina in the British American Colonies.
1666 ---------- The Great Fire of London destroys much of the city.
1667 ---------- Louis XIV of France had attacks the Spanish Netherlands in
an his attempt to claim his wife, Marie-Therese's (of
Spain) inheritance to the Spanish throne.
1668 ---------- Holland, England and Sweden form the Triple Alliance
forcing Louis to sign the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle and
end the War of Devolution against Spain.
1669 ---------- Last diet of the Hanseatic League is held. The Hansa was a
mercantile league of medieval German towns. In medieval times,
the Hansa or guild of merchants joined together to promote
and protect trading privileges. The league was militarily
active until 1441 when it was defeated by the Dutch. The
league was never formally dissolved. Today, German cities
of Lübeck, Hamburg, and Bremen are known as Hanseatic cities.
1670 ---------- Hudson's Bay Company chartered in London by King Charles II.
1673 ---------- James Needham and Gabriel Arthur entered Cherokee country as
far as Chota, on the Little Tennessee River. Arthur traveled
with the Cherokee through the Cumberland Gap, north following
the western branch of the Warrior's path, into Ohio and back
again.
1689 ---------- In England, a Bill of Rights was adopted that would redefine
the relationship between the monarchy and subjects. This Bill
of Rights defined the authority of Parliament.
1693 ---------- Williamite Plantation. The Plantations of Ireland, the
Ulster, Cromwellian, and Williamite, had lasted almost a
century. In 1603, about 95% of land in Ireland was owned by
Catholics. It is said that by the close of the 1600s, "more
than 81% of the productive land was confiscated from the
predominantly Catholic native Irish, and handed over to
Protestant settlers from primarily Scotland and England."
1696 ---------- Spain establishes Pensacola Flordia.
1698 ---------- The "Company of Scotland" (Scottish East India Company)
establish the soon to fail (1699) colony at Darien region,
Panama.
1698 ---------- Jamestown Virginia destroyed by fire, the seat of
government moves to "Middle Plantation" and Williamsburg
comes into being there.
1700 ---------- One hundred and twenty French Huguenots (Protestants) settle
on the western Virginia frontier. Their settlement was known
as Manakin Town.
1701-1714 ----- War of the Spanish Succession, last of the general European
wars caused by the efforts of King Louis XIV to extend
French power.
1702-1713------ Queen Anne's War corresponds to the War of the Spanish
Succession. The American frontier was the scene of many
bloody battles; the French and Native American 1704 raid
on Deerfield, Massachusetts was especially notable. The
French and Indians burned much of the town, killed numerous
people, and took the captives back to Canada.
1711-1713 ----- Tuscarora War on North Carolina frontier fought between British
settlers and Tuscarora Indians. Remnants of this Iroquoian
tribe migrate north.
1712 ---------- Englishman Thomas Newcomen, inventor of the first commercial
steam engine, uses his engine to pump water from a coal
mine.
1714 ---------- A Cherokee-Chickasaw alliance force the Shawnee from
Tennessee and Cumberland River basins northward beyond the
Ohio River.
1714 ---------- Forty-two Germans from the town of Siegen and Muesen in the
principality of Nassau-Siegen settle at what would be called
Fort Germanna, Virginia.
1715 ---------- The Yamasee War in Carolina begins, involving the Apalachee,
Creek, Sarraw, Savannah, and Yamasee against the white
traders and settlers. In June, Carolina forces under Governor
Craven defeated the Yamasee at Salkiehatchen and driven back
into Florida, where they allied themselves with the Spaniards.
The Yamasee captives of the English colonists were shipped
to the slave markets in the West Indies. Escaping Yamasee
fled south into Spanish Florida. There the Yamasee and Lower
Creek continued the struggle along the border. In Carolina,
the Upper Creek also continued their attack, almost taking
Charles Town.
The Cherokee, a traditional enemy of the Creek, had been at
the periphery of this war. When asked by the Creek to help
them, the Cherokee instead sided with the British, thus
weakening the Creek position.
In 1717, a peace treaty was reached.
Ancient, includes the Egyptian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Hebrew, Minoan, and
Early Greek civilizations, among others.
Classical, includes the Later Greek and Roman Empires, and the later Byzantium
Empire (395). The Classic Period concludes in 476 AD with the fall of the
Western Roman Empire.
Early Medieval Period, Middle Ages, or Dark Ages (starts 476 AD) includes the
Early Gothic Period. (1000-1350).
Later Medieval, Romanesque, Late Gothic (1350-1500).
Italian Renaissance (1420-1520)
Later Renaissance (1520-1650)
Early Modern (1500-1600)
Age of Enlightenment (1650-1750)
Middle Ages and Renaissance (400-1700)
Some of Will Durant's time period divisions:
The Reformation (1300-1564)
The Renaissance (1304-1576)
Age of Reason (1558-1648)
Age of Louis XIV (1648-1715)
Age of Voltaire (1715-1756)
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