Bible and world history: 1500 AD–1750 AD

Reformation in the Netherlands

Sixteenth-century Reformation and later renewal

Christian history

Reformed Christianity developed in the Netherlands over the sixteenth century. The poster’s 1520 is an early Reformation marker, not a demonstrated single foundation date of the Dutch Reformed Church.

Its additional 1600 “Second Reformation” label describes a later current of religious renewal, not a second creation of the same church.

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Popes in the Reformation and early-modern period

Selected pontificates, AD 1503–1724

Christian history

Selected pontificates include Julius II (1503–1513), Leo X (1513–1521), Clement VII (1523–1534), Paul III (1534–1549), Gregory XIII (1572–1585), Innocent XI (1676–1689) and Innocent XIII (1721–1724). These are accession and reign dates, not descriptions of everything each pope did.

The claim that Innocent XIII was the eighth pope in his family is not established by the papal chronology.

Unconfirmed detail: The family count remains unconfirmed.

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John Calvin is born

AD 1509

Christian history

John Calvin was born in France in 1509. His later writings and work in Geneva became influential in Reformed Christianity; this entry marks his birth, not the founding of a church.

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Luther’s challenge to indulgences

Ninety-five Theses, AD 1517

Christian history

Martin Luther’s challenge to indulgences became a major starting point of the Protestant Reformation. The Lutheran churches developed through later controversies and institutional changes; 1517 is not the date every Lutheran body was formally founded.

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Luther at the Diet of Worms

AD 1521

Christian history

Luther appeared before Emperor Charles V and the imperial assembly and refused to retract his writings without being convinced of error. The Edict of Worms condemned him and his works.

The event was a political and religious confrontation, not a modern parliamentary debate.

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England’s break with papal authority

A sequence of changes, including the Act of Supremacy in 1534

Christian history

The English break with Rome proceeded through political and ecclesiastical measures in the 1530s. The 1534 Act of Supremacy declared Henry VIII supreme head on earth of the Church of England.

The poster’s 1532 and 1534 mark stages of a process, not two unrelated church foundations.

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Trent and restrictions on Bible reading

Council of Trent, 1545–1563; Index rules, 1564

Christian history

Catholic authorities restricted access to some Biblical translations. Rule IV of the 1564 Index required written permission for reading Catholic vernacular translations; other rules prohibited particular editions.

This was a restrictive policy, but not a decree in 1545 forbidding every person from reading all Scripture in every language.

Dates: The date, kinds of translation and conditions of permission matter.

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Christian missions and persecution in Japan

Xavier’s arrival in 1549; later suppression · Historical estimate

Christian history and East Asia

Francis Xavier arrived in Japan in 1549. Christian communities grew, but later authorities restricted and suppressed the religion.

Different rulers and regions responded differently, and hidden communities continued to practice. The geographical heading “Japan” is not a separate dated event.

Context: Mission, conversion and persecution occurred over a longer sequence.

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The Peace of Augsburg

AD 1555

Christian history

The settlement recognized coexistence between Catholic and Lutheran imperial estates and gave rulers important religious powers over their territories. It did not grant equal religious freedom to everyone or include every Protestant confession.

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John Knox and the Scottish Reformation

Scottish Reformation settlement, AD 1560

Christian history

John Knox helped establish the Reformed Church of Scotland in 1560. Presbyterian institutions developed over time.

Knox’s birth year is uncertain; modern references often place it around 1513–1514 rather than the poster’s 1503.

Context: The Reformation milestone is firmer than the stated birth year.

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The Saint Bartholomew’s Day massacres

Beginning in Paris, August AD 1572

Christian history

The killing of Huguenot leaders in Paris was followed by wider violence against Protestants there and in other French towns. This episode belongs to the French Wars of Religion; a brief label should not reduce its causes or participants to every member of a Christian denomination.

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Early Baptist congregations

Helwys in England, 1612; Williams in Providence, conventionally 1638–1639 · Historical estimate

Christian history

Baptist beginnings involve different congregations rather than one worldwide founding date. Thomas Helwys established a congregation in England in 1612.

The poster instead highlights Roger Williams’s early congregation in Providence, usually dated 1638 or 1639. These are different places and milestones.

Context: The American congregation is not the beginning of the entire Baptist tradition.

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George Fox and the Society of Friends

Fox’s experience in 1647; movement growth in the following years · Historical estimate

Christian history

George Fox’s spiritual experience in 1647 was important to his later ministry. The Society of Friends, or Quakers, emerged through preaching and gathered communities in the years that followed.

The poster’s date marks a formative experience rather than a single charter founding every Friends meeting.

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Pascal’s night of religious conviction

November 23, AD 1654

Christian history

Blaise Pascal recorded a profound religious experience that he understood as an encounter with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and of Jesus Christ. His note, often called the Memorial, belongs to his personal Christian testimony rather than a publicly verifiable supernatural event.

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The Massachusett-language Bible

New Testament in 1661; complete Bible in 1663

Christian history and Americas

The translation associated with John Eliot appeared as a New Testament in 1661 and a complete Bible in 1663. Indigenous translators and the Nipmuc printer Wowaus, known as James Printer, were essential to the work.

Massachusett is an Algonquian language; “Indian tongue” should not imply one language spoken by all Indigenous peoples.

Dates: The two publication dates identify different editions.

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The Edict of Nantes is revoked

Edict of Fontainebleau, AD 1685

Christian history

Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685, intensifying restrictions on French Protestants and contributing to flight and clandestine worship. The poster prints 1675; the revocation belongs ten years later.

Dates: The revocation date is 1685, not 1675.

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Venetian losses in the Morea

Ottoman gains around AD 1500

Mediterranean

The Ottoman capture of Venetian strongholds in the Morea, the Peloponnese, weakened Venice’s position around 1500. The label compresses changes at particular ports; it does not mean Venice never again held territory there.

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Enslavement and the Atlantic colonies

A system expanding over centuries

Atlantic world

European colonial economies in the Americas increasingly depended on the forced labor of enslaved Africans and their descendants. Atlantic trafficking began before the poster’s 1517 marker and expanded unevenly by colony and period.

A single date cannot identify the beginning of all slavery in either the Caribbean or the Americas.

Names and identities: The poster’s historical terminology is preserved in the notes; the explanation identifies people subjected to enslavement.

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China’s overseas trade and Jesuit contacts

Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century encounters

East Asia

Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch traders participated in different Asian maritime networks, while Jesuits established new Christian missions and scholarly exchanges in China. These were not one coordinated “opening,” and Christianity had reached China in earlier periods.

Contact and access remained subject to Chinese political decisions and changing restrictions.

Context: Trade and mission histories are related but distinct.

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Ponce de León reaches Florida

Spanish expedition, AD 1513

Americas

Ponce de León’s expedition reached Florida in 1513. The date marks Spanish exploration of an already inhabited region, not its first human discovery or the establishment of a lasting colony.

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Balboa reaches the Pacific from Panama

AD 1513

Americas

Balboa’s expedition crossed the Isthmus of Panama and reached the Pacific in 1513. His claim for the Spanish Crown was an assertion of European sovereignty, not the discovery of an ocean unknown to its Indigenous coastal peoples.

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Suleiman the Magnificent

Reign of AD 1520–1566

Ottoman Empire

Suleiman the Magnificent ruled during a major period of Ottoman military power, administration and artistic patronage. He is conventionally numbered Suleiman I today.

The poster’s “Solyman II” should not be confused with the later seventeenth-century sultan of that number.

Dates: The reign identifies Suleiman I in current numbering.

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Tyndale’s English New Testament

Incomplete Cologne printing in 1525; Worms edition in 1526

Bible translation

Tyndale translated the New Testament into English from Greek. A 1525 printing attempt survives in an incomplete fragment; the complete printed edition appeared in 1526.

Both dates belong to the publication story, but do not identify the same edition.

Context: The printing attempt and complete edition are distinguished.

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Coverdale and the Great Bible

Coverdale Bible in 1535; Great Bible in 1539

Bible translation

Myles Coverdale’s 1535 publication was a complete printed English Bible, not only an Old Testament. The Great Bible followed in 1539 for use in English churches.

They belong to a sequence of translations and revisions rather than one unchanged edition.

Context: “Old Bible” should not be read as limiting Coverdale’s work to the Old Testament.

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De Soto’s expedition reaches the Mississippi

AD 1541

Americas

Hernando de Soto’s expedition reached the Mississippi River in 1541 during its violent passage through Indigenous territories. “Discovered” expresses the expedition’s European viewpoint; the river was already known and used by the people living there.

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The Geneva Bible

New Testament in 1557; complete Bible in 1560

Bible translation

The Geneva New Testament preceded the complete Geneva Bible. The poster’s 1557 date applies to the New Testament; the whole Bible appeared in 1560 and became influential among English-speaking Protestants.

Dates: The date depends on which edition is meant.

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Huguenot settlement ventures

1562 and 1564; poster's 1535 event unresolved

Americas

French Huguenot settlement ventures in southeastern North America include Ribault’s expedition in 1562 and Laudonnière’s Fort Caroline settlement in 1564.

Unconfirmed detail: The wall chart gives 1535, but the particular event intended by that date has not been identified.

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William Shakespeare is born

April, AD 1564

Europe

Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564. His baptism on April 26 is documented; the frequently celebrated April 23 birthday is traditional, not established by a surviving birth record.

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The Spanish founding of St. Augustine

1565

Americas

Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and Spanish settlers establish St. Augustine in Florida in 1565.

The poster marks the settlement '(Fr.)'; the founding expedition was Spanish.

Names and identities: Founders identified as Spanish, not French

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Ottoman conquest of Cyprus

Conquest in AD 1570–1571

Mediterranean

Ottoman forces conquered Cyprus from Venice during a military campaign completed with the fall of Famagusta. “Ceded” should not imply a peaceful voluntary transfer in 1571.

Context: The change of rule followed conquest.

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Drake’s circumnavigation

Voyage of AD 1577–1580

Atlantic and Pacific

Francis Drake’s expedition sailed around the world between 1577 and 1580. The voyage combined exploration with attacks on Spanish shipping and possessions; it was not the first circumnavigation of the globe.

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The end of Songhay imperial power

AD 1591

Africa

The Songhay empire’s political dominance ended with the Moroccan invasion in 1591. This did not erase the region’s peoples or cultural traditions.

The nearby 1572 on the poster belongs to the Saint Bartholomew entry, not the Songhay event.

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Oliver Cromwell is born

AD 1599

Europe

Oliver Cromwell was born in 1599. His military and political prominence belongs to the seventeenth-century civil wars and Commonwealth, not this birth year.

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Jamestown and English Virginia

Jamestown founded in AD 1607

Americas

English colonists established Jamestown in 1607 within the homeland of the Powhatan peoples. It became a lasting English settlement, not the beginning of Virginia’s human history.

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Champlain establishes Québec

1608

Americas

Samuel de Champlain establishes Québec in 1608, as the current poster states.

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The Authorized or King James Version

First published in AD 1611

Bible translation

The King James Bible was produced by a group of translators and first published in 1611. It drew on earlier English translations as well as Biblical-language texts.

“Authorized Version” is its familiar English title, not a claim that it was the first English Bible.

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The first Romanov tsars

Michael from 1613; Alexis from 1645

Russia

Michael Romanov became tsar in 1613, followed by his son Alexis in 1645. “First” and “second” identify their place in the Romanov dynasty, not the first and second rulers ever to bear the title tsar.

Context: Dynastic numbering is distinguished from the older title.

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The Plymouth settlement

AD 1620

Americas

The Mayflower settlers established Plymouth in 1620. They included Separatist Christians often called Pilgrims; “Puritans” is a broader label and should not blur Plymouth with the later Massachusetts Bay settlement.

The colony was established in Wampanoag homelands.

Context: Plymouth’s Pilgrims and later Puritan migration are related but distinct.

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New Netherland becomes New York

Dutch colonization in the 1620s; English takeover in 1664

Americas

Dutch trading and voyages preceded formal colonization. Settlers arrived at Governors Island in 1624, and New Amsterdam developed on Manhattan in the following years.

English forces took the colony in 1664. The poster’s 1613 is an early-contact marker, not the standard foundation date of New Amsterdam.

Context: Trading contact, settlement and change of government are separated.

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Dutch trading on the Connecticut River

Trading post at present-day Hartford, AD 1633

Americas

The Dutch House of Hope trading post belongs to the early colonial contest over the Connecticut River. The label does not mean that all Connecticut was founded as a Dutch colony or that the area lacked Indigenous inhabitants.

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The French settlement of Montréal

Ville-Marie founded in AD 1642

Americas

French settlers founded Ville-Marie, the settlement that became Montréal, in 1642. The commemorated foundation is a colonial milestone in a region with a much longer Indigenous history.

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The New England Confederation

Agreement of AD 1643

Americas

Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut and New Haven formed a confederation for mutual defense and cooperation. This was an alliance of particular colonies, not the creation of a single New England government.

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Qing rule and the queue hairstyle

Qing rule in China from 1644; revolution and abdication in 1911–1912

East Asia

Manchu conquest brought the Qing to power in China. The male queue hairstyle became associated with the new ruling order and political allegiance; it was not an unchanged custom worn by every Chinese person throughout history.

The dynasty’s ending is variously marked by the 1911 revolution or the emperor’s 1912 abdication.

Dates: The long date range is associated with Qing rule, not an individual hairstyle’s universal use.

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The Ottoman–Venetian war over Crete

War of AD 1645–1669

Mediterranean

The war beginning in 1645 centered on Crete and ended with the surrender of Candia in 1669. The Morea is a different region.

The poster’s parenthetical combines the start of the Cretan war with the name of another theater of Ottoman–Venetian conflict.

Context: Crete and the Morea are distinguished.

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Mehmed IV and changing Ottoman fortunes

Reign of AD 1648–1687

Ottoman Empire

Mehmed IV came to the throne in 1648. His long reign included instability, military successes and major reverses.

The poster’s “great thriving” is a broad evaluation and should not imply uninterrupted prosperity beginning at his accession.

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The Dutch station at the Cape

AD 1652

Africa

The Dutch East India Company established a provisioning station under Jan van Riebeeck at the Cape. Colonial farming and expansion developed afterward in an already inhabited region; “colonizing Boers” compresses that later development into the initial company arrival.

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Two French Mississippi expeditions

1673 and 1682

Americas

Jolliet and Marquette travel along the Mississippi in 1673. La Salle's expedition claims the Mississippi basin for France in 1682.

The poster's short entry combines La Salle's name with the earlier expedition's year.

Dates: Two expeditions separated: 1673 and 1682

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Pennsylvania’s charter and Philadelphia’s founding

Charter in 1681; city planning and settlement in 1682–1683

Americas

The 1681 charter established William Penn’s Pennsylvania grant. Philadelphia’s planning and initial colonial development followed in 1682–1683.

The poster’s 1681 compresses the colony’s charter and the city’s founding into one date.

Context: The charter and the city’s settlement are different milestones.

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Peter the Great and the Russian state

Joint rule from 1682; sole rule from 1696; imperial title in 1721

Russia

Peter shared the throne with Ivan V until Ivan’s death in 1696. Victory over Sweden at Poltava in 1709 strengthened his position.

In 1721 the imperial title and a state-supervised Holy Synod marked major reforms. Catherine I succeeded him in 1725.

State supervision of the Russian Church did not make the emperor the spiritual head of all Eastern Orthodox Christians.

Context: The Russian Church is not identical to the entire Orthodox communion.

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The Salem witchcraft trials

AD 1692

Americas

Accusations of witchcraft led to trials, executions and imprisonment in Massachusetts. The label identifies the prosecutions; it is not evidence that those accused actually practiced supernatural harm.

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Fort Maurepas and colonial Louisiana

1699

Americas

Iberville establishes Fort Maurepas near present-day Biloxi in 1699, an early French colonial foothold in the territory called Louisiana. The place was not within the boundaries of today's state of Louisiana.

Context: Colonial territory and settlement location clarified

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Asante expansion and Atlantic commerce

Early eighteenth-century growth · Historical estimate

Africa

The Asante kingdom expanded in the early eighteenth century and participated in long-distance commerce that included gold, firearms and enslaved people. The poster’s 1700–1717 is not the whole lifespan of the empire, nor should one exchange summarize all Asante society.

Context: The short trade label is placed within a broader history.

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The eighteenth-century Atlantic slave trade

A major century of forced transportation

Atlantic world

The eighteenth century saw an immense volume of forced transportation across the Atlantic. Voyages varied by route, imperial power and decade.

The poster’s “1700-s” describes a century, not a peak in the single year 1700.

Context: The printed label is a century marker.

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Benjamin Franklin is born

AD 1706

Americas

Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston in 1706. His later work as a printer, investigator of electricity and statesman belongs to a longer life than this birth entry represents.

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Belgrade between empires

Habsburg rule between AD 1718 and 1739

Europe

Belgrade changed hands repeatedly between Ottoman and Habsburg forces. It was under Habsburg rule between the treaties of 1718 and 1739.

The poster’s “Bulgrade a part of Serbia 1730” is a geographic shorthand, not the date of an independent Serbian national state.

Dates: Geographic location is distinguished from political sovereignty.

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The Swahili epic of Tambuka

Manuscript tradition dated AD 1728

Africa

Utendi wa Tambuka is a Swahili religious epic recounting conflicts associated with early Islamic history. Its 1728 date belongs to the poem’s manuscript and literary history, not to all the battles narrated in it.

Dates: Literary composition and narrated events are different dates.

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Georgia’s charter and Savannah’s settlement

1732–1733

Americas

Georgia receives its colonial charter in 1732. Colonists led by James Oglethorpe establish Savannah in 1733.

Dates: The wall chart’s 1732 label marks the charter, not the 1733 settlement.

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Thomas Jefferson is born

AD 1743

Americas

Thomas Jefferson was born in Virginia in 1743. This is a birth marker; his major political career belongs mainly to the next period.

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Ottoman territorial change and Habsburg expansion

A long process, not a single date of collapse

Europe

Ottoman losses in central Europe and growing Habsburg control in Hungary and Transylvania changed the balance of power. The poster’s “declines” is a broad judgment, not evidence that every Ottoman institution or region weakened at the same time.

The empire continued for centuries.

Context: Territorial losses and total institutional collapse are not the same.

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Peoples in the chart’s prophetic diagram

A historicist reading of Daniel and Revelation

Biblical interpretation and Europe

Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 use visions of beasts and horns. The chart links them to the breakup of western Roman power and lists Heruli, Vandals, Ostrogoths, Lombards, Franks, Huns, Suevi, Burgundians, Saxons and Visigoths.

This is a historicist Christian interpretation, not a literal ten-way partition agreed in AD 476. The listed peoples formed and changed at different times.

Christian interpretation: The prophetic interpretation remains visible without presenting it as the only Christian reading.

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Later Russo–Turkish wars

Wars of 1768–1774 and 1787–1792; outside this period

Europe

Russia and the Ottoman Empire fought major wars beginning in 1768 and 1787. Both belong after this page’s AD 1750 boundary.

Calling the latter the “second” is relative to the pair shown here, not a count of every Russo–Turkish conflict.

Context: These later entries are retained as connections beyond the period.

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