| 1480 | Portuguese ships reach Congo. |
| 1488 | Bartolomeu Dias rounds Cape of Good Hope. |
| 1492 | Christopher Columbus lands in the Caribbean. |
| 1493 | Columbus’s second voyage to New World. |
| 1494 | Treaty of Tordesillas. |
| 1497 | John Cabot searches for Northwest Passage. |
| 1498 | Vasco da Gama sails to India. |
| 1513 | Vasco Núñez de Balboa crosses Isthmus of Panama. |
| 1517 | Protestant Reformation begins in Germany. |
| 1519 | Hernán Cortés searches for wealth in Mexico. Ferdinand Magellan sets out to sail around the world. |
| 1520 | Mexica in Tenochtitlán revolt against Spaniards. |
| 1521 | Cortés conquers Mexica. |
| 1532 | Francisco Pizarro begins conquest of Peru. |
| 1535 | Jacques Cartier explores St. Lawrence River. |
| 1539 | Hernando de Soto explores southeastern North America. |
| 1540 | Francisco Vásquez de Coronado starts to explore Southwest and Great Plains. |
| 1542 | Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo explores California coast. |
| 1549 | Repartimiento reforms replace encomienda. |
| 1565 | St. Augustine, Florida, settled. |
| 1576 | Martin Frobisher explores northern Canadian waters. |
| 1587 | English settle Roanoke Island. |
| 1598 | Juan de Oñate explores New Mexico. |
| 1599 | Acoma pueblos revolt against Oñate. |