1394
Birth of Prince Henry of Portugal, known as 'Henry the Navigator' for his sponsorship of a number of voyages.
1400
The carrack (a multi-masted and high sided sailing vessel) is developed by the Portuguese. The vessel is ideal for sailing in rough seas, making long distance voyages possible.
1402
Bethencowt establishes a European settlement in the Canary Islands.
1415
A Portuguese force captures Ceuta.
1420
Zaro and Teixeira reach Madeira, and claim it for Portugal.
1420
Portuguese planters introduce sugar to Madeira.
1424 - 1434
Henry the Navigator sends 15 expeditions to explore West Africa. None reach any further than Cape Bojador, just south of the Canaries.
1427
The colonisation of the Azores begins.
1429
The Aztec Empire forges an alliance with nearby city states in Texcoco and Tlacopan.
1432
Cabral claims the Azores for Portugal.
1433
Further Chinese Voyages of Discovery are banned by imperial decree.
1435
Eanes explores the West African coast, almost to the Tropic of Cancer.
1439
Johannes Gutenberg invents a printing press.
1441
Antao Goncalves sails to Cape Bronco in West Africa, and takes two slaves.
1444
Eanes sails to Lagos, and captures 200 African slaves.
1445
Dinis Dias rounds Cape Verde (the western tip of Africa), and opens up trade routes to Timbuktu.
1450
The alphabetic movable type printing press is invented by Johann Gutenberg.
1452 - 1456
Three Papal decrees officially sanction the slave trade.
1453
Gutenberg prints the 42-line Bible in Mainz, marking the beginning of printing in Europe.
1469 - 1474
Fernão Gomes obtains a lease which guarantees him a monopoly of the Guinea trade to Portugal, and explores and exploits the Guinea coast.
1469
Queen Isabella of Castile marries King Ferdinand of Aragon uniting Spain's two main kingdoms.
1470
The Inca Empire engulfs the nearby Chimu people, extending their influence to Quito in contemporary Ecuador.
1472
Fernão do Pó explores islands in the Gulf of Guinea.
1481
The Portuguese establish a fort on the Gold Coast.
1482
Cão reaches the mouth of the Congo River.
1486 - 1490
De Paira journeys through Ethiopia in search of Prester John.
1487 - 1489
Pedro da Covilha is sent by John II of Portugal to explore trade in spices with India. He journeys overland via Alexandria, Cairo and Ormuz. He then completes a second mission to Ethiopia via Mecca and Medina.
1488
Bartholomew Dias rounds Cape of Good Hope.
1492
Martin Behaim constructs the first documented terrestrial globe.
1492 - 1493
Christopher Columbus leads his first voyage to the Indies, intending to reach Japan by a Western route, reaching the Caribbean.
1493 - 1496
Columbus' second voyage reaches Leeward Islands, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and Hispaniola.
1493
Columbus brings sugar cane to the Americas, where it grows easily. This marks the foundation of the sugar industries in Jamaica, Haiti and Cuba.
1494
Columbus encounters allspice and chili peppers (capsicums) in the Caribbean.
1497
John and Sabastian Cabot reach Newfoundland in an attempt to find a North-West Passage.
1497
Amerigo Vespucci’s first voyage to New World reaches contemporary Guiana.
1497 - 1499
Vasco da Gama sails to India, via the Cape of Good Hope and East Africa.
1498 - 1500
Columbus' third voyage reaches contemporary Trinidad, Tobago, Venezuela and Hispaniola.
1499 - 1501
Alonso de Ojeda and Amerigo Vespucci sail to South America and explore its northern and eastern Coasts, naming Venezuela after Venice and establishing that South America is a continent.
1500
Pinzón sails along the coast of Guiana and Brazil, encountering the Amazon.
1500
The Second Portuguese India Armada sails under Pedro Alvares Cabral, reaching Porto Seguro, Brazil.
1500
A Portuguese force challenges Arab influence in Mozambique.
1500 - 1502
Gaspar and Miguel Corte Real sail to Labrador, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.
1501
João da Nova leads the third Portuguese expedition to India.
1501
Amerigo Vespucci’s third voyage explores the coastline of South America.
1502 - 1504
Columbus' fourth voyage reaches contemporary Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, Cuba, Nicaragua, Cost Rica and Panama.
1505
Francisco de Almeida is sent on an expedition to build forts, subdue Indian resistance and to displace Arab trade with the Spice Islands and India. Almeida is killed during the expedition.
1507
Martin Waldseemuller publishes a world map, utilising the name 'America' in honour of Amerigo Vespucci, whose (supposed) letters have been circulated in Europe to great acclaim.
1507
Afonso de Albuquerque raids Muscat and captures the fort of Ormuz, which controls traffic into the Persian Gulf.
1508
Amerigo Vespucci is appointed Chief Navigator, charged with organising Spanish voyages to the Indies.
1508
Vicente Pinzon searches for a passage to the East Indies, instead encountering Honduras and Yucatan.
1509
Afonso de Albuquerque replaces Almeida as Governor of the Portuguese Indies, and establishes a Portuguese trading centre at Goa.
1510
Ojeda and Niaiesa found a Spanish settlement in Darien.
1511
Afonso de Albuquerque conquers Malacca on the Malay peninsula, and ascertains the location of the Spice Islands.
1511
Spanish settlers establish coffee, sugar and tobacco plantations on Cuba.
1512
Copernicus publishes his Commentariolus, a heliocentric cosmology.
1512
Pedro Mascarenhas reaches the islands of Diego Garcia and Mauritius.
1512
Antonio de Abreu and Francisco Serrao sail from Malacca to the Spice Islands, trade for nutmeg at the Banda Islands, and establish a fort at Ternate.
1513
Juan Ponce de Leon sails from Puerto Rico, reaches and discovers the Gulf Stream.
1513
Vasco Nunez de Balboa leads a party across the Panama isthmus, and becomes the first European to see the Pacific Ocean.
1513
Jorge Alvarez and Rafael Perestrello sail from Malacca to Canton, China, becoming the first known Europeans to trade there.
1515
Diaz de Solis reaches the mouth of the River Plate.
1517
Captain Fernão Pires de Andrade embarks upon an expedition to China.
1517
A Portuguese factory is founded in Colombo, Ceylon.
1518
Alonso Alvarez de Pineda explores Florida, and reaches the Mississippi River.
1519
Pineda sails from Florida to the border of contemporary Mexico, becoming the first European to visit what is now Texas.
1519 - 1521
Hernan Cortes travels from Cuba to Mexico, eventually defeating the Aztec civilisation with the assistance of local allies.
1519 - 1522
The first circumnavigation of the world is completed, initially led by Ferdinand Magellan, and thereafter by Juan Sebastian del Cano after Magellan's death in Mactan.
1520
Cristóvão de Mendonça is thought to have sailed from Portugal to the Pacific, and reached Malacca.
1520
Lope de Siqueira circumnavigates Africa.
1522
Portuguese merchants establish a trading post at Madras.
1522
Francisco de Montejo initiates a 20 year conquest of the remaining independent Mayan cities of the Yucatan.
1522
Pascal de Andagoya carries out a coastal survey of South America, reporting the riches of the Inca civilisation.
1524 - 1526
Alvarado conquers contemporary Guatemala and El Salvador.
1524
Francisco Pizarro first encounters the Inca Empire.
1524
Petrus Aptanus of Ingolstadt's Cosmographiais published.
1524
The Council of the Indies is established to run Spain's American colonies.
1524
Giovanni da Verrazano leads a French-sponsored expedition to North America, and explores the coastlines of contemporary North Carolina, Maryland and New York.
1525 - 1527
Garcia Jofre de Loaísa leads an expedition across the Pacific with the intention of colonising the Spice Islands. Only one of seven ships reaches the Spice Islands; the survivors are captured by the Portuguese, and are returned to Spain in 1536.
1527
Pánfilo de Narvaez embarks upon an expedition to explore the interior of Florida.
1527
Cabot sails up the River Plate and other major South American rivers, searching for a route to the Pacific
1527
King Henry VIII of England sponsors the first attempt to reach the North Pole and Northwest Passage under John Rut, who explores contemporary Newfoundland, Maryland and Florida.
1529
Spain concedes its rights in the Spice Islands to Portugal, in return for a cash payment.