THE WORLD SINCE 1492

Some Other Major Events
around the time of the Conquest of Mexico

• In the Middle East, the Ottoman Turks continued to expand their sphere of influence, taking both Cairo and Mecca in 1517, and further inhibiting overland trade between the (East) Indies and the Mediterranean states of Christendom.
  
• In the Indian Ocean, the Portuguese continued their sea-based expansion eastward, setting up trading forts in India and traveling as far as China.
  
• Back in Iberia, the Castilian monarch sent the Portuguese sailor Ferdinand Magellan on a trip to circle the globe. Magellan leaves in 1519 with 270 men. In 1521, Magellan is killed in the Philippines, but his mission is successful: 18 of his men return to Iberia in 1522.
  
• And in the German-speaking realm of Brandenburg, Martin Luther, in 1517, posts his 95 theses attacking corruption in the one and only Catholic Church on the door of the Wittenberg Church. In 1520, he is excommunicated by the Pope. The Protestant Reformation has begun.