Afonso de Albuquerque captures Malacca, ending the Malacca Sultanate and beginning European colonial presence in Southeast Asia.
Afonso de Albuquerque seizes Goa from the Bijapur Sultanate; it becomes the capital of Portuguese India until 1961.
Warriors led by the chieftain Lapulapu defeat Ferdinand Magellan's men on Mactan island; Magellan is killed.
From the 16th to the 19th century, an estimated 12.5 million enslaved Africans were shipped across the Atlantic to the Americas, with profound consequences for both continents.
A Portuguese fleet under Pedro Álvares Cabral reaches the coast of Brazil, beginning Portugal's claim to and colonization of the land.
The ship Victoria under Juan Sebastián Elcano returns to Spain, completing the circumnavigation begun by Magellan.
Vasco da Gama's fleet left Lisbon, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, sailed up the East African coast and reached Calicut, opening a direct sea route between Europe and Asia.