Pre-1600: Warfare: Chronology

IMPORTANT EVENTS TO 1600

IMPORTANT EVENTS TO 1600

1450?–1550?

• The Huron and Iroquois confederations are formed.

1493

• Pope Alexander VI issues four papal bulls validating Spain’s claims to the territories discovered by Christopher Columbus.

1494

• The Spanish and Portuguese crowns agree to the Treaty of Tordesillas, which establishes a line of demarcation one hundred leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands. Spain receives the exclusive right to all territories west of the line not ruled by a Christian prince; Portugal receives similar privileges in territory east of the line.

1506

• Pope Julius II agrees to amend the Treaty of Tordesillas by moving the line to 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands.

1510?

• French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Basque fishermen initiate trade with the Indians of Nova Scotia and Labrador, giving them cloth and iron weapons in exchange for beaver pelts.
• French privateers begin to attack Spanish treasure ships returning from the New World.

1513

• Calusa Indians successfully defeat a Spanish landing party led by Juan Ponce de León at San Carlos Bay in Florida.

1517

• Calusa Indians repulse a second Spanish landing party under the leadership of Hernández de Córdoba.

1519–1521

• A Spanish force under the command of Hernando Cortés conquers the Aztec empire in Mexico.

1520

• The Portuguese establish a short-lived colony on Cape Breton Island.

1521

• The Calusas defeat the Spanish for the third time at San Carlos Bay. Juan Ponce de León, the leader of the Spanish expedition, dies of wounds inflicted by the Indians.
• Spanish explorer Pedro de Quxós lands at Winyaw Bay in present-day South Carolina, where he enslaves sixty Guale Indians.

1521–1526

• During the first phase of the Hapsburg-Valois Wars, French corsairs under the command of Jean Ango of Dieppe take a heavy toll on Spanish treasure ships.

1526

• The Spanish establish the short-lived colony of San Miguel de Gualdape near the mouth of the Pee Dee River in present-day South Carolina.

1528

• Seeking to copy the success of Cortés, Panfilo de Narváez leads an expedition of three hundred men to Florida; only four members survive.

1529

• In the Treaty of Saragossa, Spain and Portugal agree to a demarcation of their spheres of control in the Pacific Ocean.

1530?

• Micmac Indians war with the Stadacona branch of the Saint Lawrence Iroquois for control of the Gaspé Peninsula.

1532

• A Spanish expedition under the command of Francisco Pizarro conquers the Incan empire of Peru.

1534

• The Iroquois Indians’ first contact with Europeans occurs at Baie de Gaspé when they meet a French expedition under Jacques Cartier.

1535

• During Cartier’s second voyage, Donnacona, the leader of the Stadacona Indians, attempts to monopolize the region’s fur trade by preventing the French from exploring further up the St. Lawrence River.

1536

• Led by Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, the four survivors of the Narváez expedition arrive in Mexico after wandering for eight years through present-day Texas and northern Mexico. They report rumors of a wealthy Indian civilization located somewhere northwest of New Spain.

1539–1543

• Hernando de Soto leads an expedition across the present-day southeastern United States in search of gold and silver.

1540–1542

• Francisco Vásquez de Coronado leads an expedition of Spanish cavalry and Mexican foot soldiers into the American southwest in search of the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola.

1541

• Jacques Cartier constructs the first French settlement in North America, Charlesbourg-Royal, near the site of present-day Quebec City.

1542

• Facing constant attacks by the nearby Stadacona Indians, Cartier decides to abandon Charlesbourg-Royal. Jean François de La Rocque, sieur de Roberval, establishes a new colony called France-Roy near the same site.
• Hernando de Soto dies of disease. His lieutenant, Luis de Moscoso y Alvarado, leads the expedition westward in a failed attempt to link up with Coronado.

1543

• The three hundred survivors of the De Soto expedition escape down the Mississippi River to Mexico on rafts.
• The French abandon France-Roy, in part because of hostile relations with nearby Native Americans.
• In the Reneger Incident, British privateer John Reneger seizes the Spanish ship San Salvador, initiating a lengthy period of poor relations between Spain and England.

1549

• Timucuan Indians destroy a Dominican mission on Tampa Bay and kill two priests, including the mission’s founder, Luis Cáncer de Barbastro.

1550?

• The musket replaces the crossbow as the principal weapon among conquistadors in Spanish America.
• The Hurons and Iroquois increasingly wage war with each other.

1552–1556

• French vessels continue to prey upon Spanish treasure ships returning from the New World. Spain retaliates by attacking French fishing vessels off Newfoundland.

1555

• A French fleet under Adm. Jacques de Sores captures and sacks Havana.

1559

• The Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis ends the Hapsburg-Valois Wars between France and Spain.

1559–1561

• Spanish colonists under the command of Tristán de Luna y Arellano fail in their attempt to establish a colony in Florida, largely because a severe hurricane destroys most of the expedition’s ships in Pensacola Harbor.

1560

• Fifty Spanish troops under the command of Mateo del Sauz join three hundred Coosa warriors in an attack on the Napochi Indians.

1560–1563

• Three separate Spanish attempts to colonize Florida fail.

1561

• The Spaniard Antonio Velazquez leads the first European ship into Chesapeake Bay. His crew kidnaps the Indian Paquiquineo and inadvertently spreads a major epidemic that kills many of the Native Americans in the region.

1562

• Philip II decrees that Florida is no longer the object of Spanish colonization efforts.
• French admiral Gaspard de Coligny, a Huguenot, sends the navigator Jean Ribault to explore the coast of Florida. Ribault establishes a short-lived, earthen fort on the site of modern Port Royal, South Carolina.

1564

• French Huguenots under the leadership of René Goulaine de Laudonnière found Fort Caroline at the site of present-day Jacksonville, Florida, as a base from which French ships could raid the Spanish treasure fleet.

1565

• A Spanish expedition under the command of Pedro Menéndez de Aviles founds St. Augustine in preparation for an attack on Fort Caroline. After capturing the French stronghold, Menéndez executes the Huguenot survivors for heresy.

1565–1567

• Menéndez establishes a network of forts and blockhouses throughout the southeastern North America.

1567

• Spanish naval forces attack a British fleet commanded by John Hawkins off Vera Cruz, Mexico.

1567–1569

• Hostile Indians overrun all but the largest of the forts established by Menéndez.

1568

• A French expedition retaliates for the Spanish attack on Fort Caroline by temporarily recapturing the fort and hanging the garrison.

1570

• Jesuits establish a mission near the Chesapeake Bay to convert the local Algonquin Indians.

1571

• Algonquins attack and kill the Jesuit missionaries in the Chesapeake Bay region. Spanish forces retaliate the next year by killing thirty-four Indians.

1572

• Francis Drake captures Nombre de Dios in present-day Panama and seizes the annual silver caravan as it arrives from Peru.

1578

• Humphrey Gilbert explores North America for England in a voyage designed, in part, to attack the Spanish fishing fleet off Newfoundland.

1580?

• Increasing European demand for fur begins to change the style of warfare among eastern woodland Indian tribes.
• Seeking slaves to work the rich silver mines at Zacatecas and Santa Bárbara in northern Mexico, Spaniards begin raiding Indian settlements in southern Texas.

1581

• French ships begin sailing annually to the Montagnais trading center of Tadoussac on the St. Lawrence River.

1585

• En route home from Roanoke, the British ship Tiger under the command of Richard Grenville captures the Spanish treasure vessel Santa María de San Vicente.

1586

• A British raiding fleet under Sir Francis Drake attacks and destroys the Spanish fort at St. Augustine.

1595

• Drake and John Hawkins lead a disastrous raid on Spanish possessions in the New World. Hawkins dies of illness in the Virgin Islands while preparing to attack Puerto Rico.

1596

• Drake dies of dysentery in the West Indies.

1597

• Franciscan missionaries living among the Guale Indians of present-day Georgia attempt to keep Chief Juanillo from becoming tribal mico. The Guale respond by massacring five priests.

1598

• Indians from the Pueblo town of Ácoma attack a Spanish force of thirty soldiers commanded by Vicente de Zaldívar, killing thirteen, in response to the Spaniards’ demand for food. Juan de Oñate retaliates by destroying Ácoma and enslaving the five hundred survivors.