The world: 1540s

1540–1549

Events in this period 3

1. 1543 · Europe · Science

   De revolutionibus orbium coelestium

   De revolutionibus orbium coelestium is the seminal work on the heliocentric theory of the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus. The book, first printed in 1543 CE in Nuremberg, Holy Roman Empire, offered an alternative model of the universe to Ptolemy's geocentric system, which had been widely accepted since ancient times.

2. 1545 · South America · Economy

   Cerro Rico

   Cerro Rico, also known as Cerro Potosí or Sumaq Urqu ; is a mountain in the Andes near the Bolivian city of Potosí. Cerro Rico—popularly conceived as being "made of" silver ore—is famous for having provided vast quantities of silver to the Spanish Empire, most of which was shipped to metropolitan Spain. It is estimated that approximately 85 percent of the silver produced in the central Andes during this period came from Cerro Rico.

3. 1543 · Japan · Economy

   Nanban trade

   The Nanban trade was trade between Europeans and the Japanese that took place in Japan from the arrival of Europeans in 1543 to the first Sakoku Seclusion Edicts of isolationism in 1614.

Descriptions are the opening paragraph of each Wikipedia article (CC BY-SA 4.0). Open an event for the full text and a link to the source.

Still under way

• Sengoku period1467 – 1615

Around the same time

• Magellan expedition1519 – 1522
• Fall of Tenochtitlan1521
• Founding of the Mughal Empire1526
• Battle of Cajamarca1532
• Battle of Mactan1521
• Battle of Mohács1526
• Livonian War1558 – 1583
• Great Siege of Malta1565
• Manila galleon1565

Other maps for this period

• War mapsSengoku period
• War mapsItalian Wars
• Epidemics mapSweating sickness
• Epidemics mapCocoliztli epidemics