xxiv Chronology
1521 Hernán Cortés completes the conquest of the Aztecs.
1521 The first recorded slave rebellion in the New World breaks out
on Santo Domingo.
1522 Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition completes its circumnavigation
of the globe.
1528 Spanish explorer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca lands near Tampa
Bay, beginning a long odyssey in the southeast of the modern-
day United States.
1531 Saint Juan Diego reports receiving a vision of Mary that becomes
known as the Virgin of Guadalupe.
1533 Francisco Pizzaro conquers the Incas.
1534 Jacques Cartier explores the Saint Lawrence River.
1535 Spain establishes the Viceroyalty of New Spain (modern Mexico).
1536 The Spanish establish Buenos Aires.
1539 Hernando de Soto’s expedition lands near present-day
Tallahassee, Florida.
1539 The first book published in the New World comes off a Mexico
City printing press.
1540 The first convent in the New World opens in Mexico City.
1542 Bartolomé de Las Casas, a Spanish Dominican priest, publishes
a defense of Indians against Eu ro pean exploitation in An Account,
Much Abbreviated, of the Destruction of the Indies.
1542 In the New Laws, Spain abolishes Indian slavery.
1545 The Spanish found Potosí, the site of South Amer i ca’s most
lucrative silver mines.
1555 English merchants form the Muscovy Company, an early joint-
stock trading company.
1558 Queen Elizabeth I ascends to the throne of England.
1566 The Dutch Revolt against Spanish rule begins. It will continue
until 1648.
1571 Sir Francis Drake sacks Panama and plunders the Spanish
silver train.
1577 Sir Francis Drake commences raiding the Pacific coast of
South America.
1588 Spanish Jesuit José de Acosta publishes a book on how to care
for Indians to promote evangelization of natives.
1588 The Spanish Armada fails to conquer England.
1589 Richard Hakluyt publishes The Principall Navigations, Voiages and
Discoveries of the English Nation to promote English colonization
in the New World.
