Ivan III's law code (1497) appeared three years after Spain and Portugal divided the world between them at Tordesillas.
The events
- Treaty of Tordesillas1494 · Tordesillas, Spain. Spain and Portugal divided the lands of the world, discovered and yet to be discovered, along a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands. That is why Brazil became Portuguese while the rest of Latin America became Spanish.
- Ivan III's law code1497 · Moscow. The first law code for all of Muscovy set a single procedure for courts and fees. Its best-known article limited peasants' moves between landlords to a week either side of St George's Day in autumn, a first step towards serfdom.
More amazing facts
- 1480 · 1492 The Horde's rule over Rus' ended with the Great Stand on the Ugra in 1480 — only 12 years before Columbus reached the Americas.
- 1480 · 1492 Rus threw off the Horde in 1480 and Spain completed the Reconquista in 1492: two centuries-long struggles ended almost together.
- 1485 · 1508 The Kremlin's present walls were built by Italian masters (1485–1495).
- 1492 1492: Granada fell in January, Columbus reached the Americas in October, and in November the Ensisheim meteorite fell in Alsace — one of Europe's oldest witnessed falls.
- 1519 · 1521 While Magellan's expedition circled the globe, Cortés fought the Aztecs.
- 1521 · 1697 The last independent Maya kingdom fell only in 1697, 176 years after Tenochtitlan, when Peter the Great was already ruling Russia.