Christianity in the 16th century

In 16th-century Christianity, Protestantism came to the forefront and marked a significant change in the Christian world.

Age of Discovery

During the age of discovery the Roman Catholic Church established a number of missions in the Americas and other colonies in order to spread Christianity in the New World and to convert the indigenous peoples. At the same time, missionaries such as Francis Xavier as well as other Jesuits, Augustinians, Franciscans and Dominicans were moving into Asia and the Far East. Under the Padroado treaty with the Holy See, by which the Vatican delegated to the kings the administration of the local churches, the Portuguese sent missions into Africa, Brasil and Asia. While some of these missions were associated with imperialism and oppression, others (notably Matteo Ricci's Jesuit China missions) were relatively peaceful and focused on integration rather than cultural imperialism.

The expansion of the Catholic Portuguese Empire and Spanish Empire with a significant role played by the Roman Catholic Church led to the Christianization of the indigenous populations of the Americas such as the Aztecs and Incas. Later waves of colonial expansion such as the Scramble for Africa or the struggle for India by the Netherlands, England, France, Germany and Russia led to Christianization of other native populations across the globe, eclipsing that of the Roman period and making it a truly global religion.

16th century

The 16th century begins with the Julian year 1501 and ends with either the Julian or the Gregorian year 1600 (depending on the reckoning used; the Gregorian calendar introduced a lapse of 10 days in October 1582).

It is regarded by historians as the century in which the rise of the West occurred. During the 16th century, Spain and Portugal explored the world's seas and opened world-wide oceanic trade routes. 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 Asia.

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.

Timeline of Montreal history

The timeline of the history of Montreal shows the significant events in the history of Montreal that transformed it from a small fort into a big city of North America.

Pre-European period