| •1517 | Protestant Reformation begins |
| •1530s | England breaks with the Roman Catholic Church |
| •1545–1563 | Council of Trent |
| •1598 | Acoma pueblo uprising Edict of Nantes |
| •1607 | Jamestown founded |
| •1608 | French settle in Quebec |
| •1609 | Dutch settle on the Hudson River |
| •1612–1614 | Tobacco cultivation begins in Virginia |
| •1619 | First Africans arrive in Virginia |
| •1620 | Pilgrims found Plymouth settlement |
| •1624 | Dutch establish New Amsterdam |
| •1630 | Puritans found Massachusetts Bay colony |
| •1632 | Maryland founded |
| •1635 | Roger Williams moves to Rhode Island |
| •1636–1637 | Pequot War |
| •1637 | Anne Hutchinson banished from Massachusetts Bay colony |
| •1642–1649 | English civil war |
| •1660 | Monarchy restored in England |
| •1660–1664 | Virginia and Maryland establish lifelong, inherited slavery |
| •1664 | Dutch surrender New Amsterdam to the English |
| •1675–1676 | King Philip's War |
| •1676 | Bacon's Rebellion |