Bartolomé de las Casas
1484 – 1566 · 82 years · Hispaniola · Americas
A former colonist turned friar who spent his life denouncing the brutality of the conquest; his Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies was read across Europe.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 16th century
Portrait: Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Michelangelo — sculptor, painter and architect, 9 years older
- Martin Luther — church reformer, 1 year older
- Nicolaus Copernicus — astronomer, 11 years older
- Leonardo da Vinci — painter, scientist and inventor, 32 years older
- Elizabeth I — Queen of England, 49 years younger
- Miguel de Cervantes — Spanish novelist, 63 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Ivan the Terrible — first Tsar of Russia, 46 years younger
- Vasily III — grand prince who completed the unification of the Russian lands, 5 years older
- Yermak Timofeyevich — Cossack conqueror of Siberia, 48 years younger
- Ivan III — Grand Prince of Moscow, 44 years older
- Sophia Palaiologina — Grand Princess of Moscow, 29 years older
- Boris Godunov — Tsar of Russia, 68 years younger
Middle East
- Suleiman the Magnificent — Ottoman sultan, 10 years younger
- Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana) — wife of Sultan Suleiman I, 21 years younger
- Selim II — sultan who took Cyprus and lost at Lepanto, 40 years younger
- Selim I the Grim — sultan who took Cairo and Mecca, 14 years older
- Taqi ad-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf — Ottoman astronomer and engineer, 42 years younger
- Bayezid II — sultan who took in the Jews expelled from Spain, 37 years older
Africa
- Askia Muhammad I — Emperor of Songhai, 41 years older
- Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi — Adal imam and general, 22 years younger
- Ahmad al-Mansur — Sultan of Morocco, 65 years younger
- Ahmed Baba — Timbuktu scholar, 72 years younger
Asia
- Akbar the Great — Mughal emperor, 58 years younger
- Tokugawa Ieyasu — first Tokugawa shogun, 59 years younger
- Guru Nanak — founder of Sikhism, 15 years older
- Babur — founder of the Mughal Empire, 1 year older
- Vasco da Gama — navigator, 15 years older
- Oda Nobunaga — Japanese warlord, 50 years younger
Americas
- Christopher Columbus — navigator, 33 years older
- Hernán Cortés — conquistador, 1 year younger
- Ferdinand Magellan — navigator, 4 years older
- Moctezuma II — Aztec emperor, 18 years older
- Atahualpa — last Inca emperor, 18 years younger
- Huayna Capac — Sapa Inca, 20 years older
The world in their lifetime
- 1488 Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope — aged 4, Africa
- 1492 Columbus reaches the Americas — aged 8, Americas
- 1492 Fall of Granada — aged 8, Europe
- 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas — aged 10, Europe
- 1498 Vasco da Gama reaches India — aged 14, Asia
- 1501 Founding of Safavid Iran — aged 17, Middle East
- 1508–1512 Sistine Chapel ceiling — aged 24, Europe
- 1511 Portuguese capture of Malacca — aged 27, Asia
- 1517 Luther's Ninety-five Theses — aged 33, Europe
- 1519–1522 Magellan's circumnavigation — aged 35, Americas
- 1520–1566 Reign of Suleiman the Magnificent — aged 36, Middle East
- 1521 Fall of Tenochtitlan — aged 37, Americas
- 1526 First Battle of Panipat — aged 42, Asia
- 1526 Battle of Mohács — aged 42, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1529–1543 Ahmad Gragn invades Ethiopia — aged 45, Africa
- 1532 Capture of Atahualpa at Cajamarca — aged 48, Americas
- 1534 Henry VIII breaks with Rome — aged 50, Europe
- 1542 Orellana sails down the Amazon — aged 58, Americas
- 1543 Copernicus publishes heliocentrism — aged 59, Europe
- 1545–1548 Cocoliztli epidemic — aged 61, Americas
- 1547 Ivan IV crowned Tsar — aged 63, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1555–1561 Saint Basil's Cathedral — aged 71, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1556 Shaanxi earthquake — aged 72, Asia
- 1556 Akbar and the Second Battle of Panipat — aged 72, Asia