Atlantic slave trade
The largest forced migration in history
The first slave ship known to sail directly from Africa to the Americas left around 1526; the last reached Cuba in 1867. In between, European and American traders embarked some 12.5 million Africans, of whom about 10.7 million survived the crossing. Most were taken to Brazil and the Caribbean, about 400,000 to North America.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 16th century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1508–1512 Sistine Chapel ceiling — 18 years earlier
- 1517 Luther's Ninety-five Theses — 9 years earlier
- 1534 Henry VIII breaks with Rome — 8 years later
- 1543 Copernicus publishes heliocentrism — 17 years later
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1526 Battle of Mohács — same year
- 1547 Ivan IV crowned Tsar — 21 years later
Middle East
- 1501 Founding of Safavid Iran — 25 years earlier
- 1520–1566 Reign of Suleiman the Magnificent — 6 years earlier
Africa
- 1529–1543 Ahmad Gragn invades Ethiopia — 3 years later
Asia
- 1511 Portuguese capture of Malacca — 15 years earlier
- 1526 First Battle of Panipat — same year
Americas
- 1519–1522 Magellan's circumnavigation — 7 years earlier
- 1521 Fall of Tenochtitlan — 5 years earlier
- 1532 Capture of Atahualpa at Cajamarca — 6 years later
- 1542 Orellana sails down the Amazon — 16 years later
- 1545–1548 Cocoliztli epidemic — 19 years later
Alive at the time
- Nicolaus Copernicus (aged 53)
- Michelangelo (aged 51)
- Martin Luther (aged 43)
- Guru Nanak (aged 57)
- Vasily III (aged 47)
- Babur (aged 43)
- Bartolomé de las Casas (aged 42)
- Hernán Cortés (aged 41)
- Henry VIII (aged 35)
- Suleiman the Magnificent (aged 32)