page_title: 16th century
section_title: 1570s
hierarchical_section_title: 16th century / Events / 1570s
context_page_description: The 16th century begins with the Julian year 1501 and ends with either the Julian or the Gregorian year 1600.
  The 16th century is regarded by historians as the century in which the rise of Western civilization and the Age of the Islamic Gunpowders occurred.
  During the 16th century, Spain and Portugal explored the Indian Ocean and opened worldwide oceanic trade routes, and Vasco da Gama was given permission by the Indian Sultans to settle in the wealthy Bengal Sultanate. Large parts of the New World became Spanish and Portuguese colonies, and while the Portuguese became the masters of Asia's and Africa's Indian Ocean trade, the Spanish opened trade across the Pacific Ocean, linking the Americas with India.
  This era of colonialism established mercantilism as the leading school of economic thought, where the economic system was viewed as a zero-sum game in which any gain by one party required a loss by another. The mercantilist doctrine encouraged the many intra-European wars of the period and arguably fueled European expansion and imperialism throughout the world until the 19th century or early 20th century.
context_section_description: 1570: Ivan the Terrible, tsar of Russia, orders the massacre of inhabitants of Novgorod.
  1570: Pope Pius V issues Regnans in Excelsis, a papal bull excommunicating all who obeyed Elizabeth I and calling on all Catholics to rebel against her.
  1570: Sultan Hairun of Ternate (in present-day Indonesia) is killed by the Portuguese. Babullah becomes the next Sultan.
  1571: Pope Pius V completes the Holy League as a united front against the Ottoman Turks.
  1571: The Spanish-led Holy League navy destroys the Ottoman Empire navy at the Battle of Lepanto.
  1571: Crimean Tatars attack and sack Moscow, burning everything but the Kremlin.
  1571: American Indians kill Spanish missionaries in what would later be Jamestown, Virginia.
  1571: Spanish conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi establishes Manila, Philippines as the capital of the Spanish East Indies.
  1572: Brielle is taken from Habsburg Spain by Protestant Watergeuzen in the Capture of Brielle, in the Eighty Years' War.
  1572: Spanish conquistadores apprehend the last Inca leader Tupak Amaru at Vilcabamba, Peru, and execute him in Cuzco.
  1572: Jeanne d'Albret dies aged 43 and is succeeded by Henry of Navarre.
  1572: Catherine de' Medici instigates the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre which takes the lives of Protestant leader Gaspard de Coligny and thousands of Huguenots. The violence spreads from Paris to other cities and the countryside.
  1572:  First edition of the epic The Lusiads of Luís Vaz de Camões, three years after the author returned from the East.
  1572: The 9 years old Taizi, Zhu Yijun ascended the throne of Ming Dynasty, known as Wanli Emperor.
  1573: After heavy losses on both sides the Siege of Haarlem ends in a Spanish victory.
  1574: in the Eighty Years' War the capital of Zeeland, Middelburg declares for the Protestants.
  1574: After a siege of 4 months the Siege of Leiden ends in a comprehensive Dutch rebel victory.
  1575: Oda Nobunaga finally captures Nagashima fortress.
  1575: Following a five-year war, the Ternateans under Sultan Babullah defeated the Portuguese.
  1576: Tahmasp I, Safavid shah, dies.
  1576: The Battle of Haldighati is fought between the ruler of Mewar, Maharana Pratap and the Mughal Empire's forces under Emperor Akbar led by Raja Man Singh.
  1576: Sack of Antwerp by badly paid Spanish soldiers.
  1577–80: Francis Drake circles the world.
  1577: Ki Ageng Pemanahan built his palace in Pasargede or Kotagede.
  1578: King Sebastian of Portugal is killed at the Battle of Alcazarquivir.
  1578: The Portuguese establish a fort on Tidore but the main centre for Portuguese activities in Maluku becomes Ambon.
  1578: Sonam Gyatso is conferred the title of Dalai Lama by Tumed Mongol ruler, Altan Khan. Recognised as the reincarnation of two previous Lamas, Sonam Gyatso becomes the third Dalai Lama in the lineage.
  1579: The Union of Utrecht unifies the northern Netherlands, a foundation for the later Dutch Republic.
  1579: The Union of Arras unifies the southern Netherlands, a foundation for the later states of the Spanish Netherlands, the Austrian Netherlands and Belgium
  1579: The British navigator Sir Francis Drake passes through Maluku and transit in Ternate on his circumnavigation of the world. The Portuguese establish a fort on Tidore but the main centre for Portuguese activities in Maluku becomes Ambon.
caption: Sir Francis Drake.
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