Silver discovered at Potosí
Andean silver reshapes the world economy
Vast silver deposits were found in the Cerro Rico in the Andes. Potosí became one of the world's largest cities, and silver mined by indigenous forced labour (the mita) flowed to Europe and China, transforming the world economy.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 16th century
Did you know
Silver from Potosí (1545) made the Spanish peso the first truly global currency: from 1571, Manila galleons carried it across the Pacific to China.
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1534 Henry VIII breaks with Rome — 11 years earlier
- 1543 Copernicus publishes heliocentrism — 2 years earlier
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1526 Battle of Mohács — 19 years earlier
- 1547 Ivan IV crowned Tsar — 2 years later
- 1555–1561 Saint Basil's Cathedral — 10 years later
- 1569 Union of Lublin — 24 years later
Middle East
- 1520–1566 Reign of Suleiman the Magnificent — 25 years earlier
Africa
- 1529–1543 Ahmad Gragn invades Ethiopia — 16 years earlier
Asia
- 1526 First Battle of Panipat — 19 years earlier
- 1556 Shaanxi earthquake — 11 years later
- 1556 Akbar and the Second Battle of Panipat — 11 years later
Alive at the time
- Michelangelo (aged 70)
- Martin Luther (aged 62)
- Ivan the Terrible (aged 15)
- Elizabeth I (aged 12)
- Akbar the Great (aged 3)
- Tokugawa Ieyasu (aged 2)
- Bartolomé de las Casas (aged 61)
- Hernán Cortés (aged 60)
- Henry VIII (aged 54)
- Suleiman the Magnificent (aged 51)