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