16th century

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 48. Chapters: 1500-1550 in fashion, 1550-1600 in fashion, 16th century in poetry, 16th century in literature, Factory, Entertainment in the 16th century, Cartaz, Capotain, 16th century philosophy. Excerpt: As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century lasted from 1501 to 1600. It is regarded by historians as the century in which the rise of the West occurred. During the 16th century, Spain and Portugal explored the world's seas and opened world-wide oceanic trade routes. Large parts of the New World became Spanish and Portuguese colonies, and while the Portuguese became the masters of Asia's and Africa's Indian Ocean trade, the Spanish opened trade across the Pacific Ocean, linking the Americas with Asia. In Europe, the Protestant Reformation gave a major blow to the authority of the Papacy and the Roman Catholic Church. European politics became dominated by religious conflicts, with the groundwork for the epochal Thirty Years' War being laid towards the end of the century. In the Middle East, the Ottoman Empire continued to expand, with the Sultan taking the title of Caliph, while dealing with a resurgent Persia. Iran and Iraq were caught by major popularity of the once-obscure Shiite sect of Islam under the rule of the Safavid dynasty of warrior-mystics, providing grounds for a Persia independent of the majority-Sunni Muslim world. China evacuated the coastal areas, because of Japanese piracy. Japan was suffering under a severe civil war at the time. Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great tried to reconcile the major religions by founding a new religion, Din-i-Ilahi. Akbar was convinced that no religion has the absolute truth. Portrait of a Woman by Bartolomeo Veneto, traditionally assumed to be Lucrezia Borgia. She was the illegitimate daughter of Pope Alexander VI. Ferdinand Magellan led the first expedition that circumnavigated the globe in 1519-1522. Gun-wielding Ottoman Janissaries and defending Knights of Saint John at the Siege of Rhodes in 1522, from an Ottoman manuscript. Spanish conquistadors with their Tlaxcallan allies fighting against the Otomies of Metztitlan in present day Mexico, a 16 century codex. Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of S