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The papal forces of Julius II take Modena and Mirandola from the French in January, the French take Bologna May 13, Pope Julius allies himself with Venice to drive the French out of Italy, and in October he enlists Ferdinand II of Aragon and England's Henry VIII in his Holy League.
Portuguese forces under the command of Afonso de Albuquerque capture Malacca on the Malay Peninsula August 15, taking the center of the East Indian spice trade to complete Portuguese control of Far Eastern spice sources (see 1509). The sultan of Malacca Mahmud Shah has ruled the city-state since 1488. He flees across the peninsula to Pahang on the east coast, fails in his attempt to enlist Chinese support, and will go on to found the kingdom of Johore as a rival to Malacca (see 1526).
Spanish forces under Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, 46, use force to gain control of Cuba. Velázquez was on Christopher Columbus's second voyage in 1493 and has been entrusted by Diego Columbus (Colón) with conquering Cuba as the island's governor (adelantado). He has arrived with his nephew Juan de Grijalva, 31, and Hernándo Cortéz, 26, and in the next 4 years will establish the settlements of Baracoa, Bayamo, Santiago de Cuba, and Havana (La Habana) (see 1515; New Spain, 1518; Cortéz, 1519).
Diego Columbus (Colón) receives the hereditary title viceroy of the islands in May, but will have trouble fighting off encroachments on his authority (see 1509; 1526).
The first African slaves to be imported into the New World arrive in Cuba, where the native Carib population has dropped alarmingly.
Colonists in Hispaniola hear the Dominican friar Antonio de Montesinos preach a sermon against the enslavement of Indians.
Poland establishes serfdom under laws passed by the diet.
A Spanish ship bound from Darien in Panama to Santo Domingo strikes a reef and founders in the Caribbean. The survivors reach the Yucatán, where some are killed and eaten according to native ritual and the remainder enslaved. Only two will survive (see Cortéz, 1519).
Italian scholar Peter Martyr Anglerius (Pietro Martire d'Anghiera), 52, of the Spanish court publishes a crude map of the Caribbean indicating the existence of an island that he calls "Biminy" northwest of Cuba (see Ponce de León, 1513).
Natives on the Caribbean island that they have known as Boriquén rebel against their Spanish overlords. The rebellion is easily suppressed, and the island is officially renamed Puerto Rico November 8 (see 1509). Ferdinand II of Aragon grants the settlement a coat of arms and distributes the island's lands and its 30,000 Taíno natives among his soldiers.
Watches—mentioned for the first time in print in the Nuremberg Chronicles—have hour hands but no minute hands. "From day to day more ingenious discoveries are made," writes Johannes Cocleus; "for Petrus Hele, a young man, makes things which astonish the most learned mathematicians, for he makes out of a small quantity of iron horologia devised with very many wheels, and these horologia, in any position and without any weight, both indicate and strike for 40 hours, even when they are carried on the breast and in the purse." Few people have any need for clocks, much less watches, since daily schedules are determined by the height of the sun and hourglasses are used to measure time in cooking and other quotidian tasks (see 1670).
St. John's College at the University of Cambridge receives its charter April 9 and will open on the site of the 13th century Hospital of St. John. John Fisher, bishop of Rochester, suggested to the late Lady Margaret Beaufort that she provide funds for the new college. She died in 1509 without leaving any bequest for the school, but the bishop has obtained approval from Henry VIII and will obtain funds from the executors of Lady Margaret's estate (see Trinity College, 1546).
Painting: St. Sebastian and Marriage of St. Catherine by Italian painter Fra Bartolommeo (Bartolommeo di Pagolo del Fatorino, or Baccio della Porta), 36; The Sistine Madonna and Julius II by Raphael; Procession of the Magi by Florentine painter Andrea del Sarto (Andrea Domenico d'Agnolodi Francisco), 25; Deposition (triptych) by Quentin Massys.
Woodcut engraving: The Triumph of Christ (10 blocks) by Titian (the work is nearly nine feet long).
Peter Martyr Anglerius gives the first description of corn (maize), which he has heard about from the late Christopher Columbus (see 1492; Nonfiction, 1516).
Muslim clerics at Mecca ban the use of coffee lest people gather in coffee houses and create political trouble (see 1475).
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