Political Leaders of the Age of Exploration
The atlas holds 16 people and 313 moments here, from 1415 to 1647. The most recorded lives are Galileo Galilei, Niccolò Machiavelli and Michel de Montaigne.
Notable people
Galileo Galilei
from 1564 to 1642
35 moments here
Italian astronomer, physicist, engineer, mathematician, and natural philosopher. Born in Pisa, Galileo was educated in Tuscany, taught mathematics at…
Niccolò Machiavelli
from 1469 to 1527
32 moments here
Florentine diplomat, civil servant, political theorist, playwright, and historian of the Italian Renaissance.…
Michel de Montaigne
from 1533 to 1592
31 moments here
French Renaissance writer, magistrate, diplomat, and two-term mayor of Bordeaux, best known for the Essais.…
Hernán Cortés
from 1485 to 1547
30 moments here
Spanish conquistador, commander, explorer, governor, and writer whose 1519–1521 campaign against the Aztec Empire helped establish Spanish rule in…
Suleiman the Magnificent
from 1494 to 1566
29 moments here
Ottoman sultan from 1520 to 1566, known in Ottoman tradition as Kanuni, the Lawgiver. Born at Trabzon and educated for dynastic rule, Suleiman…
Leonardo da Vinci
from 1452 to 1519
27 moments here
Italian Renaissance painter, draftsman, engineer, architect, anatomist, and natural philosopher.…
Peter Paul Rubens
from 1577 to 1640
25 moments here
Flemish Baroque painter, designer, humanist, collector, and diplomat. Rubens was born at Siegen, spent formative years in Cologne and Antwerp, worked…
Jacques Cartier
from 1491 to 1557
22 moments here
French navigator and explorer from Saint-Malo whose three Atlantic voyages of 1534, 1535–1536, and 1541–1542 surveyed the Gulf and River of Saint…
Thomas More
from 1478 to 1535
22 moments here
English lawyer, humanist author, royal councillor, Speaker of the House of Commons, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and Lord Chancellor under…
Zheng He
from 1415 to 1433
20 moments here
Zheng He (born Ma He) was a Ming Chinese admiral and diplomat who commanded seven state-sponsored voyages across the South China Sea and Indian…
Nicolaus Copernicus
from 1473 to 1543
15 moments here
Renaissance astronomer, canon, physician, administrator, and economist whose heliocentric model placed the Sun rather than Earth at the center of the…
Francis Bacon
from 1561 to 1626
13 moments here
English philosopher, lawyer, statesman, Attorney General, and Lord Chancellor under James I.…
Thomas Hobbes
from 1588 to 1647
7 moments here
English philosopher and political theorist, best known for Leviathan (1651). Hobbes’s documented movements include study at Oxford, European travel…
John Locke
from 1632 to 1647
3 moments here
English philosopher, physician, and political writer. Locke was born in Somerset, educated in London and Oxford, served Lord Shaftesbury in London,…
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
in 1646
1 moment here
German polymath, philosopher, mathematician, jurist, diplomat, court councillor, historian, and librarian.…
Louis XIV
in 1638
1 moment here
Louis XIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 1638–1715), king of France from 1643, was the Bourbon monarch known as the Sun King.…
Moments
- 1415 Return from the fourth voyage Zheng He
- 1417 Ritual at Quanzhou before the fifth voyage Zheng He
- 1421 Personal mission to Ganbali Zheng He
- 1424 Diplomatic mission to Palembang Zheng He
- 1431 Seventh-voyage embarkation Zheng He
- 1431 Arrival at Liujiagang on the seventh voyage Zheng He
- 1431 Arrival at Changle on the seventh voyage Zheng He
- 1432 Arrival at Vijaya Zheng He
- 1432 Arrival at Surabaya Zheng He
- 1432 Arrival at Palembang on the seventh voyage Zheng He
- 1432 Arrival at Malacca on the seventh voyage Zheng He
- 1432 Arrival at Semudera on the seventh voyage Zheng He
- 1432 Arrival at Beruwala Zheng He
- 1432 Arrival at Calicut on the seventh voyage Zheng He
- 1433 Arrival at Hormuz Zheng He
- 1433 Return to Calicut from Hormuz Zheng He
- 1433 Return to Semudera Zheng He
- 1433 Return to Malacca Zheng He
- 1433 Return to Vijaya Zheng He
- 1433 Arrival at Taicang Zheng He
- 1452 Born near Vinci Leonardo da Vinci
- 1469 Moves to Florence Leonardo da Vinci
- 1469 Birth in Florence Niccolò Machiavelli
- 1473 Birth in Toruń Nicolaus Copernicus
- 1478 Witnesses a contract in Vinci Leonardo da Vinci
- 1478 Birth in the City of London Thomas More
- 1482 Moves to the Sforza court Leonardo da Vinci
- 1485 Birth in Medellín Hernán Cortés
- 1490 Consults at Pavia Cathedral Leonardo da Vinci
- 1491 Birth at Saint-Malo Jacques Cartier
- 1491 Studies at the University of Kraków Nicolaus Copernicus
- 1492 Studies at Oxford Thomas More
- 1494 Legal training at New Inn Thomas More
- 1494 Born at Trabzon Suleiman the Magnificent
- 1495 Paints The Last Supper Leonardo da Vinci
- 1496 Arrival for studies in Bologna Nicolaus Copernicus
- 1496 Student at Lincoln's Inn Thomas More
- 1497 Aldebaran occultation observation Nicolaus Copernicus
- 1498 First diplomatic mission Niccolò Machiavelli
- 1499 Mission to Caterina Sforza Niccolò Machiavelli
- 1500 Flees to Venice Leonardo da Vinci
- 1500 Returns to Florence Leonardo da Vinci
- 1500 Jubilee-year stay in Rome Nicolaus Copernicus
- 1500 Stays in Bologna Leonardo da Vinci
- 1500 First French mission Niccolò Machiavelli
- 1501 Medical studies in Padua Nicolaus Copernicus
- 1501 Pacification mission Niccolò Machiavelli
- 1502 Continues to Pesaro Leonardo da Vinci
- 1502 Inspects Urbino Leonardo da Vinci
- 1502 Arrives in Cesena Leonardo da Vinci