THE WORLD ATLAS

Chapter · Age of Discovery

Sea Roads Open

The world in 1500

By 1500 the oceans had become highways. Vasco da Gama had reached India in 1498, opening a direct Portuguese sea route to the spice markets, and in April 1500 Pedro Alvares Cabral, bound for India, touched the coast of Brazil and claimed it for Portugal.

Spain was settling Hispaniola, where Taino communities were already collapsing under forced labour and disease. Yet the great empires of the age were still elsewhere: Ming China, the Ottoman Empire, the Inca and Aztec empires at their peak, and a ring of Islamic states from Morocco to Bengal. In Iran a teenage Sufi leader, Ismail, was gathering followers and would soon found the Safavid dynasty; in Central Asia, Muhammad Shaybani's Uzbeks were driving out the last Timurids, including a young prince named Babur. Printing presses had spread across Europe, carrying news of the new lands. For most people, life still revolved around harvests, faith and local lords.

Open the map in 1500

The great powers

Region by region

Southern Africa

The Kingdom of Kongo, ruled by Joao I (Nzinga a Nkuwu), was the leading power of west-central Africa and in close contact with Portugal. The Mutapa state controlled the gold-bearing Zimbabwe plateau, and Swahili city-states such as Kilwa and Mombasa dominated the east coast, though Portuguese fleets had begun to bully them. Most of the interior was home to Bantu-speaking chiefdoms, with Khoisan peoples in the south-west and several kingdoms on Madagascar.

Northern Africa

Songhai, under Askia Muhammad I since 1493, was the largest state in West Africa, ruling the Niger bend from Gao and controlling Timbuktu. Egypt and Syria remained under the Mamluks, unsettled by a quick succession of sultans after Qaitbay's death in 1496. The Wattasids ruled Morocco while Portugal seized footholds on its coast; the Zayyanids and Hafsids held Algeria and Tunisia. Ethiopia was ruled by Emperor Na'od, and Kanem-Bornu, Benin and Oyo were strong regional kingdoms.

Europe

Isabella and Ferdinand ruled a united Spain, and Manuel I's Portugal was growing rich on African gold and Asian spices. Louis XII of France had just seized Milan, renewing the Italian Wars begun in 1494. Henry VII ruled England, Maximilian I ruled the Holy Roman Empire as King of the Romans (emperor-elect from 1508), and Vladislaus II was king of both Bohemia and Hungary. Ivan III of Moscow was at war with Lithuania, the Kalmar Union under King Hans tied Denmark, Norway and Sweden together uneasily, and the Ottomans were fighting Venice at sea.

Middle East & South Asia

Bayezid II's Ottoman Empire was taking Venetian ports in Greece, while the Mamluks held the Levant and western Arabia. The Aq Qoyunlu state in Iran had split between rival princes, giving the young Ismail of Ardabil his chance; he would take Tabriz in 1501. Herat remained the Timurid cultural capital under Husayn Bayqara. In India, Sikandar Lodi ruled the Delhi Sultanate, Alauddin Husain Shah ruled Bengal, Mahmud Begada ruled Gujarat, the Deccan was splitting into the five sultanates that succeeded the Bahmanis, and Vijayanagara dominated the south; Portuguese ships had begun visiting Calicut.

Northern & Central Asia

Muhammad Shaybani's Uzbeks captured Samarkand from the Timurids in 1500, beginning the Shaybanid khanate in Transoxiana. The Kazakh Khanate under Burunduk Khan held the steppe to the north. The Crimean Khanate, an Ottoman vassal under Mengli I Giray, was about to destroy the Great Horde (1502), while the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates and Sibir held the Volga and western Siberia.

East Asia

The Hongzhi Emperor ruled a peaceful and well-governed Ming China from Beijing. Korea was under King Yeonsangun, whose tyrannical reign would end in a coup in 1506. Japan's Sengoku era was under way, with warlords fighting across the islands while the Ashikaga shogun Yoshizumi held little power. Dayan Khan had largely reunited the Mongols north of the Great Wall.

Southeast Asia

Malacca, under Sultan Mahmud Shah, remained the hub of Asian sea trade and a magnet for Portuguese ambitions. Ayutthaya under Ramathibodi II and Dai Viet under the Le dynasty were the strongest mainland kingdoms, Cambodia and Lan Xang held the Mekong lands, and Burma remained divided. On Java, Muslim coastal sultanates led by Demak were replacing Majapahit, and Islam was spreading through Sumatra and the Moluccas.

Northern North America

John Cabot had sailed for England to Newfoundland in 1497, and in 1500 and 1501 the Portuguese Gaspar Corte-Real explored Greenland and Newfoundland or Labrador. Otherwise the north belonged entirely to Indigenous nations: Inuit across the Arctic, Dene and Cree in the boreal forests, and Innu, Mi'kmaq and Haudenosaunee peoples in the east.

Southern North America

The Aztec Empire under Ahuitzotl was at its greatest extent, reaching the Guatemalan border. Maya city-states held Yucatan, and the Purepecha ruled western Mexico. Spain's only real colony was Hispaniola, where Columbus was arrested in 1500 for misrule and shipped home in chains. North of Mexico, Pueblo, Mississippian and many other peoples lived independently.

Northern South America

Huayna Capac ruled the Inca Empire at its peak, pushing its northern frontier into what is now Ecuador and southern Colombia. Spanish explorers were charting the Caribbean coast of Venezuela, and in April 1500 Cabral landed in Brazil and claimed it for Portugal under the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494). Inland, the Amazon was home to many Indigenous peoples.

Southern Cone

The Inca held northern and central Chile and north-western Argentina, with the independent Mapuche to the south. The pampas, Patagonia and the Uruguay river lands belonged to hunter-gatherers such as the Tehuelche and Charrua, while Guarani farmers lived in Paraguay and southern Brazil. No Europeans had yet arrived.

Australasia & Oceania

Aboriginal nations occupied all of Australia, Papuan farming societies the New Guinea highlands, and Maori iwi New Zealand. Tonga's Tu'i Tonga line remained the leading Polynesian chiefdom, while Hawaii and Tahiti were ruled by competing chiefs. No outsiders had yet reached these islands.

Events

  1. Treaty of Tordesillas divides the newly found lands between Spain and Portugal
  2. Charles VIII of France invades Italy, starting the Italian Wars
  3. John Cabot reaches Newfoundland for England
  4. Vasco da Gama reaches Calicut in India by sea
  5. Muhammad Shaybani's Uzbeks take Samarkand from the Timurids
  6. Pedro Alvares Cabral lands in Brazil and claims it for Portugal

Moments of this period

Wars of this period

More chapters

Sources