1488
Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias reaches the Cape of Good Hope, thus proving that it is possible to reach the Indian Ocean from the Atlantic.

1492
Christopher Columbus's first voyage encounters land in the modern-day Bahamas.

1493
Columbus begins his second expedition, in which he would further explore the Caribbean, including the islands of Espanola, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and Cuba.

1494
Spain and Portugal sign the Treaty of Tordesillas to divide all future discoveries in the Americas between the two countries and thus exclude other European powers.

1497
John Cabot sails from England and reaches Newfoundland in North America; Vasco da Gama begins the voyage that will be the first to round the Cape of Good Hope and reach India.

1498
Columbus's third voyage reaches the South American continent off the coast of Venezuela.

1499
Amerigo Vespucci's first voyage explores the coast of South America.

1500
Pedro Alvares Cabral's Portuguese fleet bound for India finds the...