The year was seen as being especially important by many ChristiansinEurope, who thought it would bring the beginning of the end of the world. Their belief was based on the phrase "half-time after the time", when the apocalypse was due to occur, which appears in the Book of Revelation and was seen as referring to 1500. This time was also just after the Old World's discovery of the Americas in 1492, and therefore was influenced greatly by the New World.[1]
Historically, the year 1500 is also often identified, somewhat arbitrarily, as marking the end of the Middle Ages and beginning of the early modern period.[2]
The end of this year marked the halfway point of the 2nd millennium, as there were 500 years before it and 500 years after it.
March 11 – The Parliament of Bohemia adopts a new constitution that limits the power of King Vladislav II and subsequent Bohemian monarchs. Miroslav Buchvaldek, Československé dějiny v datech ("Czechoslovak History and Data") (Svoboda, 1987)
March 24 – The day after departing the Cape Verde Islands with the rest of Cabral's fleet, Vasco de Ataíde and his 150 crewmates die when their ship goes down in a storm.[8]
May 1 – Pêro Vaz de Caminha finishes writing his chronicle of the Portuguese discovery of Brazil while accompanying Cabral.[10]
May 3 – Cabral and his fleet depart from Brazil and sail eastward toward Africa, resuming their journey to India.
May 5 – Representatives of the English and Spanish royal families sign a treaty at Canterbury for the marriage of 13-year-old Arthur, Prince of Wales (son of King Henry VII and Elizabeth of York) to 14-year-old Princess Catherine of Aragon. Arthur's marriage to Catherine takes place the next year, but Arthur dies five months later; she marries Arthur's younger brother Henry VIII in 1509.[11]
May 29 – Traveling eastward from Brazil, Cabral and his fleet run into a storm off of the coast of Africa near the Cape of Good Hope and lose four of their 13 ships.[12] Navigator Bartolomeu Dias is among the persons killed.
September 13 – Pedro Cabral's fleet of nine ships arrives in India, more than six months after departing from Portugal, and lands at the port of Calicut, which had been visited two years earlier by Vasco da Gama.[20]
September 15 – Christopher Columbus (Cristobal Colon) is placed under arrest, along with his two brothers, Bartolome and Diego, after appearing before Francisco de Bobadilla, who had replaced him as the Spanish Governor of the New World. ("El 15 de septiemre Bobadilla presenta sus credenciales a Colon... Colon habia ejectuado a varios espanoles cargo de gran peso contra el, asi que al fin Bobadilla resolvio enviarlos presos a Espana para que alla se les juzgase."— "On the 15th of September of 1500, Bobadilla presented his credential to Columbus. Columbus had executed several Spaniards charged with great weight against him, so Bobadilla finally decided to send them prisoners to Spain so that they could be tried there.") [21]
September 23 – Bobadilla hears testimony from 22 witnesses and concludes that the Columbus brothers intended to overthrow him; he has them placed in manacles and chains for deportation to Spain. ("La pesquisa de Bobadilla contra Colon habia comenzado el 23-IX-1500."— "Bobadilla's investigation against Colon had begun on 23 September 1500.") [22]
October 1 – Christopher Columbus and his brothers, arrested and in chains, are deported from Santo Domingo to Spain. [23]
October 22 – Nasir-ud-Din Shah overthrows the government of his father, Ghiyath Shah, ruler of the Malwa Sultanate (located in much of what is now the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh) for the last 31 years. [24] Upon becoming the new Sultan, Nasir has his brother Ala-ud-Din executed, along with Ala-ud-din's children. Ghiyasuddin is poisoned the following February.
November 25 – Christopher Columbus and his brothers arrive in Spain at Seville "after one of the longest Atlantic crossings in the Columbian years" (six weeks) and released on their own recognizance. [23]
December 17 – All charges against the Columbus brothers for malfeasance in governing Hispanola are dismissed by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. [21]
Europe's population is estimated at 56.7 million people (Spielvogel). The world's population is estimated to be between 425 million and 540 million.[28]
Although other reports exist, it is thought that the last wolf in England was killed this year, making the species extinct in that country.[30] The wolf is thought to have been killed in Allithwaite, in Cumbria. However, reports of wolf sightings and laws concerning wolf bounties existed in rural areas of the north until the 18th century.
A group of Māori migrated east from the New Zealand mainland to the Chatham Islands, developing a distinct pacificist culture known as the Moriori (approx date)
^Tom Smith, Discovery of the Americas, 1492-1800 (Facts On File, Inc., 2009) p.35
^Herbermann, Charles George (1909). The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. Robert Appleton Company. p. 457. Retrieved June 15, 2023.
^Dodwell, H. H. (1929). Cambridge History Of India. Cambridge University Press. p. 5. Retrieved June 15, 2023.
^ abRaúl Aguilar Rodas, Cristobal Colón: realidad y ficción tras 500 años de su muerte, 1506-2006 ("Christopher Columbus: Reality and fiction, 500 years after his death") (Paniberica, 2006) p. 95
^José María Vallejo García-Hevia, Estudios de institucions Hispano-Indianas ("Studies of Hispanic and Indian Institutions")(Boletín Oficial del Estado, 2015) p. 167
^ abHelen Nader, The Book of Privileges Issued to Christopher Columbus by King Fernando and Queen Isabel, 1492-1502 (Wipf & Stock, 2004) p.54
^John Andrew Allan and Henry Herbert Dodwell, The Cambridge Shorter History of India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1936) p. 307
^Wouter J. Hanegraaff and Ruud M. Bouthoorn, Lodovico Lazzarelli (1447-1500): The Hermetic Writings and Related Documents, Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Tempe 2005.
^Ciurlok, Jerzy (March 20, 2020). Ich książęce wysokości. Część górnośląska (in Polish). Silesia Progress. ISBN978-83-936190-4-7. Retrieved June 18, 2023. Prince Wiktoryn did not move to either the Ziębice-Oleśnica or Kłodzko estates of the Podiebrady family, although he was entitled to titles related to them. He died on September 30, 1500 in Cieszyn, but was buried in Kłodzko in the family crypts.
^Leicestershire Architectural and Archaeological Society (1874). Transactions. p. 214. Archived from the original on August 21, 2022. Retrieved March 28, 2021.
