The Spanish Golden Age begins
The Spanish Golden Age is a period of flourishing in arts and literature in Spain, coinciding with the rise of the Spanish Habsburg dynasty and the Spanish Empire.
1550s C.E.
Indigenous peoples of modern-day Brazil form the Tamoyo Confederation
The main reason for this rather unusual alliance between separate tribes was to react against slavery and wholesale murder and destruction wrought by the early Portuguese discoverers and colonisers of Brazil onto the Tupinambá people.
King Gustav I of Sweden founds Helsinki
Helsinki was established as a trading town by King Gustav I of Sweden in 1550 as the town of Helsingfors, which he intended to be a rival to the Hanseatic city of Reval (today known as Tallinn). It is now the capital and most populous city of Finland.
Four kingdoms emerge throughout modern-day Zambia
The period between the 16th and the 19th centuries saw the emergence of organized Iron Age kingdoms in Zambia. Four kingdoms were established in this period – the Kazembe-Lunda, the Bemba, the Chewa, and the Lozi.