Timeline for the Spanish and Portuguese Empires

Very much a work in progress. More Portuguese than Spanish.

Year Portugal Spain
1415 Capture of Ceuta
1415-1433 15 Voyages along northwest Africa
1419-1425 (Re)discovery of Madeira and beginning of settlement
1424 or 1425 Unsuccessful expedition of Fernando de Castro to the Canarias
1426 Conçalo Velho reached “Terra Alta”
1427 (Re)discovery of the Azores by Diogo de Silves
1431 or 1432 Transplant of domestic animals to the Azores
1434 First certain past Cape Bojador by Gil eanes.
1435 Gil Eanes and Alfonso Baldaia voyage beyond Cape Bojador.
1436 Afonso Baldaia to Rio do Ouro (today Villa Cisneros)
1437 Voyage to rio de Ouro Failed attack on Tangier; capture of Prince Fernando.
1440 Expedition to Canarias
1441 or 1442 Antão Gonçalves takes first captives at Rio do Ouro.
1441 Nuno Tristão to Cabo Branco
1443 Nuno Tristão to islands of Gete and Garças in Arguim bay.
1444 Gonçalo de Sintra to Arguim Anto Gonçalves, Diogo Afonso, and Gomes Pires on trade and raid to Rio do Ouro.
Nuno Tristão to the Terra dos Negros (in Senegal)
Lanzarote to islands of Naar and Tider to raid for Negroes.
Dinis Dias to Cape Verde and Ilha da Palma.
1445 Dinis Eanes, Álvaro Gil, Mafaldo (Gonçalo Coelho) to Terra dos Negros. Antão Gonçalves, Garçia Homem, Diogo Afonso to Cape Blanco and Arguim.
Large expedition of Lanzarote and men of Lagos, plus others of Lisbon, etc, to region of Arguim. Slave raids.
Lanzarote and Gomes Pires to Senegal region and Cape Verde.
Álvaro Fernades beyond Senegal and Cape Verde to cabo dos Mastos.
1446 Gomes Pires to Rio do Ouro. Trade and raid. Estevão Afonso and six caravelas to Terra dos Negros.
etc, etc
1487-1488 Bartolomeu Dias sailed around Cape of Good hope to east coast of Africa to about present-day Great Fish River.
1492-1493 Christopher Columbus to America
1494 Treaty of Tordesillas
1497-1499 Vasco da Gama to east coast of Africa and India
1499-1502 Voyages of Gaspar and Miguel Corte-Real to America in the region of Labrador, Newfoundland, and perhaps New England.
1500-1501 Pedro Álvares Cabral’s discovery of Brazil while en route to India
1500 Most probable date of Joo Fernandes Lavrador and Pedro de Barcelos voyage to Greenland.
1502 Vasco de Gama bombards Calicut and establishes a feitoria in Cochin.
1503 First trip of Afonso de Albuquerque to Asia.
1504 Duarte Pacheco Pereira repulses the Samorin of Calicut from Cochin. King Manuel grants concession to Lucas Rem and the Welsers to outfit ships in the 1505 fleet.
1505 Franscisco de Almeida named first viceroy. He ravages Mombasa and conquers Quilon. His regimento contains beginnings of an imperial strategy. pedro de Anaia takes Kilwa.
1506 Lourenço de Almeida visits Ceylon. King Manuel establishes spice trade as royal monopoly. Afonso de Albuquerque returns to Asia with Tristão da Cunha, and they capture Socotra. Albuqueque bears secret orders to succeed Almeida when term expires. Madagascar discovered.
1507 Albuquerque invests Ormuz, which agrees to accept Portuguese garrison, but reneges when Albuquerque’s captains desert to Viceroy Almeida.
1508 Arzila besieged by Portuguese. Mameluke fleet descends from Suez into Indian Ocean, joins Malik Ayaz at Diu, and defeats small Portuguese fleet under Loureno de Almeida.
1509 Quarrel between Afonso de Albuquerque and Viceroy Francisco de Almeida. Almeida defeats Mameluke fleet in Diu harbour, establishing Portuguese naval supremacy in Indian Ocean. Marshal of Portugal arrives and installs Albuquerque in power. Diogo Lopez Sequeira visits Malacca.
j1510 Albuquerque conquers Goa.
1511 Albuquerque conquers Malacca. He sends Francisco Serrão to discover Moluccas.
1513 Albuquerque repulsed before Aden. He sails into Red Sea, becoming first Western commander to do so, but early reversal of monsoons forces him to lay over on barren Kamaran Island. Jorge Álvares arrives in China. Portuguese capture Azemmour.
1514 Probable date of Antnio fernandes’s first trip into East African interior of Monomotapa.
1515 Albuquerque returns to Ormuz and captures it, is dismissed and dies on return to Goa. Portuguese overwhelmed at Mamora.
1516 Chaul fortified.
1517 Fernão Peres de Andrade arrives in Canton.
1518 Lopo Soares de Albergaria founds fortress in Ceylon.
1519 Ferdinand Magellan leaves Europe on voyage of circumnavigation.
1520 Diogo Lopes de Sequeira, on foray into Red Sea, drops off the embassy of Rodrigo de Lima at Massawa, whence it establishes contact with “Prester John”, the Ethiopian emperor Lebna Dengal.
1521 Death of King Manuel. Succession of King João III.
1522 Remnants of Magellan’s expedition arrive in Moluccas, inaugurating hostilities there between Portugal and Spain over the next decades.
Portuguese build fort of São João de Ternate.
1524 Luso-Spanish conference meets between Elvas and Badajoz to debate ownership of Moluccas on basis of Treaty of Tordesillas agreement.
Vasco da Gama sent back to India as first viceroy since Almeida. Fort at Passumah (Sumatra) abandoned.
1525 Johore attacks Malacca, whose captain-general, Pero Mascarenhas, retaliates.
1526 Samoriin of Calicut invests Portuguese fortress there.
1529 Treaty of Zaragoza over Moluccan question. double marriage between Emperor Charles V, King João II, and their sisters.

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