Battle of Tondibi and fall of Songhai
Moroccan muskets topple West Africa's largest empire
A Moroccan army under Judar Pasha crossed the Sahara with firearms and defeated Askia Ishaq II. The Songhai Empire, West Africa's largest state, collapsed, and Gao and Timbuktu lost their former importance.
Wikipedia (English) · 16th century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1572 St Bartholomew's Day Massacre — 19 years earlier
- 1582 Gregorian calendar — 9 years earlier
- 1588 Defeat of the Spanish Armada — 3 years earlier
- 1598 Edict of Nantes — 7 years later
- 1600 East India Company founded — 9 years later
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1569 Union of Lublin — 22 years earlier
- 1582 Yermak's conquest of Sibir — 9 years earlier
- 1598–1613 Time of Troubles — 7 years later
- 1612 Minin and Pozharsky liberate Moscow — 21 years later
- 1613 Election of Michael Romanov as Tsar — 22 years later
Asia
- 1592–1598 Imjin War — 1 year later
- 1600 Battle of Sekigahara — 9 years later
Americas
- 1600 Eruption of Huaynaputina — 9 years later
- c. 1605–1694 Quilombo of Palmares — 14 years later
- 1607 Founding of Jamestown — 16 years later
- 1609 Jesuit reductions among the Guaraní — 18 years later
Alive at the time
- Elizabeth I (aged 58)
- Akbar the Great (aged 49)
- Tokugawa Ieyasu (aged 48)
- Miguel de Cervantes (aged 44)
- William Shakespeare (aged 27)
- Galileo Galilei (aged 27)
- Philip II of Spain (aged 64)
- Toyotomi Hideyoshi (aged 54)
- Ashikaga Yoshiaki (aged 54)
- Yi Sun-sin (aged 46)