| •25,000–13,000 B.C.E. | First northeast Asians migrate to the Americas |
| •900 B.C.E.–300 C.E. | Maya settle Yucatán peninsula |
| •500 C.E. | Mogollon and Hohokam settle in southwestern North America |
| •500–1400 | Mississippian peoples establish complex cultures |
| •800 | Mayan civilization begins to decline |
| •1000 | Norse settle in North America |
| •1325 | Aztecs build Tenochtitlán |
| •1340s | Bubonic plague in Europe |
| •1400–1500 | Inca empire reaches its height |
| •1440s | Portuguese begin to trade along the coast of West Africa |
| •1452–1455 | Johannes Gutenberg prints Bibles using movable type |
| •1469 | Unification of Spain |
| •1487 | Bartolomeu Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope |
| •1492 | Spain expels Muslim conquerors and Jews |
| Christopher Columbus launches Enterprise of the Indies |
| •1497 | Vasco da Gama sails to India |
| •1507 | Martin Waldseemüller and Mathias Ringmann publish Universalis Cosmographia |
| •1519 | Malintzin captured by Spaniards |
| •1519–1521 | Hernán Cortés conquers the Aztecs |
| •1519–1522 | Ferdinand Magellan's fleet circumnavigates the globe |
| •1524 | Francisco Pizarro conquers the Incas |
| •1587 | English settle Roanoke Island |