1500luvuilla

1500luvuilla (the 16th century) denotes the years 1501–1600, a period marked by major political, religious, economic and cultural transformations across the world. European maritime exploration and expansion accelerated after the late 15th century, with Spanish and Portuguese voyages establishing overseas empires in the Americas, Africa and Asia. Conquests such as those of the Aztec and Inca polities and the growing Atlantic trade—including the intensifying transatlantic slave trade—reshaped global demographics and economies through the Columbian Exchange.

Religious upheaval profoundly affected Europe: Martin Luther’s 1517 theses sparked the Protestant Reformation and subsequent confessional conflicts, while the Catholic Counter-Reformation, formalized at the Council of Trent (1545–1563), sought internal reform and doctrinal consolidation. Political power shifted as centralized monarchies strengthened, and prolonged conflicts—like the Italian Wars and later the Dutch revolt—redrew regional balances.

The century also saw cultural and intellectual developments often associated with the Renaissance and early scientific thought. Advances in art, literature and scholarship occurred alongside publications such as Copernicus’s heliocentric proposition (1543). In Asia, powerful states including the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal empires expanded and consolidated; Ming China maintained strong bureaucratic rule and vibrant trade networks.

Economically, the influx of New World silver and changing trade patterns contributed to price inflation and the rise of early capitalist institutions. Socially, urbanization, demographic shifts and technological diffusion laid foundations for further global integration in the following centuries.