CHRONOLOGY - Spain and Portugal: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present - page 422

in the Caribbean and the South Ameri-
can mainland in what is now Venezuela.

1500-01
Pedro Cabral, commanding a fleet of 13
ships, follows up on da Gama's voyage by
opening trade with India. En route he
crosses the Atlantic at its narrowest width
and touches the coast of South America,
discovering Brazil in spring 1500.

1494
Treaty of Tordesillas, in which Spain and
Portugal agree on a division of newly dis-
covered lands outside Europe.
Beginning of the Italian Wars (to 1559).
Ferdinand of Aragon intervenes to pre-
vent French conquest of his Neapolitan
kin's territory, and a struggle for mastery
of the rich but politically divided Italian
peninsula evolves into a protracted strug-
gle between France and Spain. Shifting
alliances and periodic truces keep these
wars (which soon extended far beyond
Italy) at the center of European politics
until Spain emerges as the dominant
power.

1501-12
Spanish colonization of Cuba, Puerto Rico,
and (abortively) Florida.

1501-1600
During the 16th century both Spain and Por-
tugal, drawing upon the fruits of war and
conquest, emerge into the full light of the
Renaissance. Spain, which had established
its first printing press in Valencia in 1477,
had already produced a Castilian grammar
that was the first vernacular grammar in
any language (Antonio de Nebrija, 1492)
and one of its greatest works of literature,
Fernando de Rojas's La Celestina (1499).
An abundant flow of writers, artists, and
religious thinkers would continue on
through the generations to come. Portugal
would move away from foreign influences
to produce such literary masterpieces as Os
Lusíadas (1572), Luíz Vaz de Camões's epic
account of his countrymen's overseas voy-
ages, as well as the masterpieces of Manu-
eline art and architecture that adorn
churches and palaces.

1495-1521
King Manuel I of Portugal, presiding over
the great age of political and economic
expansion in Asia, Africa, and America,
comes to be known as “the Great” or “the
Fortunate.” The riches that flow into Lis-
bon from control of Far Eastern trade fos-
ter an extravagant royal lifestyle and
patronage of the arts. In 1497 he marries
the eldest daughter of Ferdinand and Isa-
bella, marking the start of a Portuguese-
Spanish dynastic alliance that will be
renewed over several generations. In that
same year he expels the Jews from Por-
tugal, as a gesture of solidarity with his
in-laws.

1504
Isabella of Castile dies. Her daughter, Jo-
anna, succeeds her with Philip of
Habsburg as king-consort (Philip I).

1497-99
Vasco da Gama leads an expedition to India,
opening up Portugal's contact with the
Far East.

1505
Portuguese establish forts on the coast of
East Africa and western India, beginning
their colonial presence in these regions.