Renaissance

Events

Henry the Navigator

1394 - 1460

Under his patronage, Portuguese crews founded the country's first colonies and visited regions previously unknown to Europeans. Henry is regarded as an originator of the Age of Discovery and the Atlantic slave trade.

Printing Press/ Gutenberg

1440

Invented in the Holy Roman Empire by the German Johannes Gutenberg around 1440, it introduced the era of mass communication, unrestricted circulation of information and ideas transcended borders, captured the masses in the Reformation and threatened the power of political and religious authorities.

Columbus

1451 - 1506

An Italian explorer, navigator, colonizer, and citizen of the Republic of Genoa. The voyages across the Atlantic and his efforts to establish permanent settlements on the island of Hispaniola initiated the European colonization of the New World.

Savanarola

1452 - 1498

Italian Dominican friar and preacher active in Renaissance Florence. He was known for his prophecies of civic glory, the destruction of secular art and culture, and his calls for Christian renewal

Da Gama

1460 - 1524

First European to sail directly to India, opening trading relations by sea with that area of the world.

Erasmus

1466 - 1536

A Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, social critic, teacher, and theologian. Using humanist techniques for working on texts, he prepared important new Latin and Greek editions of the New Testament, which raised questions that would be influential in the Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation.

Machiavelli

1469 - 1527

Most famous for writing "The Prince" which posseses the general theme of accepting that the aims of princes—such as glory and survival—can justify the use of immoral means to achieve those ends

Ferdinand and Isabella

1474 - 1516

A king and queen of Spain in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. They united their country and sponsored the exploration of the New World by Christopher Columbus

Thomas More

1478 - 1535

An English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was opposed to the Reformation and refused to take the Oath of Supremacy. Published Utopia, which was a text imagining the ideal nation.

Magellan

1480 - 1521

Credited with leading a fleet to circumnavigate the globe, although he never actully made it home to Spain.

Las Casas/ Black Legend

1484 - 1566

Las Casas- Arriving as one of the first European settlers in the Americas he opposed the atrocities committed against the Native Americans by the Spanish colonists. In 1515, he reformed his views, gave up his Indian slaves and encomienda, and advocated on behalf of rights for the natives.

Black Death- nonobjective historical writing or propaganda that demonizes Spain, its people and its culture in an intentional attempt to damage its reputation.

Aztecs/Cortes/Moctezuma

1485 - 1547

The first contact between indigenous civilizations of Mesoamerica and Europeans took place during Moctezuma's reign, and he was killed during the initial stages of the Spanish conquest of Mexico, when conquistador Hernán Cortés and his men fought to escape from the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan.

Pope Alexander VI/ Borgia

1492 - 1503

He is one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes, partly because he acknowledged fathering several children by his mistresses. Borgia became a byword for libertinism and nepotism, which are traditionally considered as characterizing his pontificate

Hacienda/ Encomienda

1503 - 1600

Hacienda- plantations, mines or factories that the Spanish made the natives work on
Encomienda- a system was created by the Spanish to control and regulate American Indian labor and behavior during the colonization of the Americas

Pope Julius II

1503 - 1513

His papacy was marked by an active foreign policy, ambitious building projects, and patronage for the arts— Sistine Chapel. In addition to an active military policy, he personally led troops into battle on at least two occasions. "Warrior Pope"

Henry VIII

1509 - 1547

He was the second Tudor monarch and was well-known for having six wives. His break with the papacy in Rome established the Church of England and began the Reformation

Incas/ Pizarro/ Atahualpa

1531 - 1533

After hearing of how a distant cousin of his, Hernan Cortes, had looted millions in gold from the Aztecs, Pizarro wanted to do the same. He went and conquered the Incas and their leader Atahualpa.

Act of Supremacy

1534

English act of Parliament that recognized Henry VIII as the “Supreme Head of the Church of England.”