1453 - Ottomans took Constantinople dismantling the Byzantine Empire.
1478 - Ferdinand and Isabella established the Spanish Inquisition to ensure the orthodoxy of recent converts to Catholicism.
1485 - Columbus' first proposal of a voyage west, while meeting with John II king of Portugal.
1486 - Columbus proposes a voyage west to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain.
1488 - Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope. The Portuguese are now closer to finding a sea route to the indies.
1492 - The Alhambra Decree, issued by Ferdinand and Isabella, expelled all Jews from Spain who did not convert to Catholicism, concluding the Reconquista.
1492 - Columbus embarks on his voyage which will lead him to the Americas.
1497 - Amerigo Vespuci proves other Columbus had in fact encountered a new continent, a larger lndmass than anyone had expected.
1507 - A German mapmaker prints the first map showing the Western Hemisphere as separate from Asia and Names the new continent America.