TIMELINE OF EVENTS
| 13,000–11,000 B.C.E. | First northeast Asians migrate to the Americas |
| 1000 B.C.E. | Agriculture develops in some parts of the Americas |
| 900 B.C.E.–300 C.E. | Maya settle Yucatán peninsula |
| 500 C.E. | Mogollon and Hohokam communities established in present-day Arizona and New Mexico |
| 500–1400 | Mississippian people establish complex societies centered on towns and massive earthworks |
| 800 | Mayan civilization begins to decline |
| 1000 | Norse establish small settlement in North America |
| 1292 | Marco Polo publishes his Travels |
| 1325 | Aztecs build Tenochtitlán |
| 1340s | Bubonic plague arrives in Europe from Asia |
| 1400–1500 | Inca empire reaches the height of its power |
| 1440s | Portuguese begin to trade along the coast of West Africa |
| 1452–1455 | Johannes Gutenberg uses movable type to produce 180 copies of the Bible |
| 1469 | Marriage of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon leads to unification of Spain |
| 1482 | Portugal builds Elmina Castle on the Gold Coast of West Africa |
| 1487 | Bartolomeu Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope |
| 1492 | Isabella and Ferdinand expel last Muslim conquerors from the Iberian peninsula |
| Columbus launches Enterprise of the Indies | |
| 1497 | Vasco da Gama reaches India by sailing around Africa |
| 1507 | Martin Waldseemüller and Mathias Ringmann publish Universalis Cosmographia |
| 1519 | Malintzin captured by Spaniards |
| 1519–1521 | Spanish and Indian army led by Cortés conquers the Aztecs |
| 1519–1522 | Fleet led by Ferdinand Magellan circumnavigates the globe sailing west |
| 1524 | Francisco Pizarro conquers the Incas |
| 1587 | English colony of Roanoke established in North America |