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Tabacco arrives in europe
With tobacco, English settlers finally found a New World commodity that worked well in the mercantile system. Spanish explorers already had great success with gold and silver finds and the French created a vibrant market for furs in Europe. -
1492
The Protestant Reformation
The unity of Christendom began to crack in 1517, however, when Martin Luther, a German theologian, and monk, posted his ninety-five theses in protest against the abuse in the church. Lutherism spread rapidly among the people and their rulers, some of them with an eye to seizing church property in Rome. luther argued that the salvation neither by good nor through the mediation of the church but only by faith in the redemptive power of Christ and through a direct relationship with God. -
1492
The Columbian Exchange
The Columbian Exchange refers to the flow of goods between the Americas, Europe, and Africa that followed Columbus’s widely advertised “discovery” of the New World. People, animals, plants, and disease passed from continent to continent affecting virtually all aspects of the environment in all three. -
1493
The Doctorine discovery
The Doctrine of Discovery, stated that any land not inhabited by Christians was available to be “discovered,” claimed, and exploited by Christian rulers and declared that “the Catholic faith and the Christian religion be exalted and be everywhere increased and spread, that the health of souls be cared for and that barbarous nations be overthrown and brought to the faith itself.” -
1512
The Ecomienda system
Under the encomienda system, conquistadors and other leaders received grants of a number of Indians, from whom they could exact “tribute” in the form of gold or labor. The encomenderos were supposed to protect and Christianize the Indians granted to them, but they most often used the system to effectively enslave the Indians and take their lands. -
1517
Religious battles in the New World
When Ferdinand and Isabella completed the Reconquista of Spain, they turned their attention to the winning souls in the new world. After Martin Luther, a German monk sparked the Protestant reformations in 1517, the newly Protestant kingdoms of Northern Europe were equally committed to combat the expansion of Catholicism. -
1525
the Atlantic Slave trade
The first record of a slave trade voyage direct from Africa to the Americas is for a ship that landed in Santo Domingo, on the island Española (Hispaniola). The combined effects of permanent warfare, plundering, and natural disasters generated frequent shortages of food which resulted in severe famine and epidemics.
