Crown of Castile

State · 1236–1515 CE · at its largest around 1512 CE

Union of the kingdoms of Castile and León from 1230, which conquered much of al-Andalus and, joined with Aragon through Isabella and Ferdinand, formed the core of Spain.

On its lands while it lasted

Djenné-Djenno (c. 250 BCE – c. 1400 CE): One of the oldest known towns in sub-Saharan Africa, in the inland Niger delta of Mali; occupied from about the 3rd century BCE and abandoned by around 1400.
Trans-Saharan trade (c. 700–1600 CE): Camel caravans crossed the Sahara between Morocco and the Niger bend, exchanging North African goods and Saharan salt from mines such as Taghaza for West African gold, enriching the empires of Ghana, Mali and Songhai.
Reconquista (718–1492 CE): Centuries-long series of campaigns by Christian kingdoms to take the Iberian Peninsula from Muslim rule, ending with the fall of Granada in 1492.
Fibonacci (c. 1170 CE – 1250 CE): Mathematician from Pisa who introduced Hindu–Arabic numerals to Europe; the Fibonacci sequence is named after him.
Sundiata Keita (c. 1217 CE – 1255 CE): Founder of the Mali Empire, celebrated in the oral Epic of Sundiata, who defeated the Sosso king Sumanguru around 1235.
Mali Empire (c. 1235–1670 CE): West African empire founded by Sundiata Keita that at its height in the 14th century stretched from the Atlantic coast to the Niger bend and controlled major gold sources.
Foix (c. 1236 CE): Capital of County of Foix (1236–1555).
Mansa Musa (c. 1280 CE – 1337 CE): Ruler of the Mali Empire whose lavish pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324–25, carrying vast quantities of gold through Cairo, made Mali famous across the Mediterranean world.
Christopher Columbus (c. 1451 CE – 1506 CE): Genoese navigator who sailed west for Castile in 1492 to reach Asia and instead reached the Caribbean, beginning lasting contact between Europe and the Americas; he governed Hispaniola from Santo Domingo until he was sent home in chains in 1500.
Songhai Empire (c. 1464–1591 CE): Empire centred on Gao that under Sunni Ali and Askia Muhammad became one of the largest states in African history before falling to a Moroccan invasion in 1591.
Columbus’s first voyage (1492–1493 CE): Sailing for Castile from Palos with three ships, Christopher Columbus reached the Bahamas on 12 October 1492, then Cuba and Hispaniola, opening lasting contact between Europe and the Americas.
Pietà (1499 CE): Michelangelo’s marble sculpture of the Virgin Mary holding the body of Christ, finished around 1499 in Rome when he was in his early twenties. It stands in St Peter’s Basilica and is the only work he signed.
St. Peter's Basilica (1506 CE): Pope Julius II laid the foundation stone of the new basilica in Vatican City in 1506; it was consecrated in 1626. Bramante, Michelangelo and Bernini all shaped its design.
Sistine Chapel ceiling (1508–1512 CE): Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican between 1508 and 1512, including the Creation of Adam. It is a cornerstone of High Renaissance art.
The School of Athens (1511 CE): Raphael’s fresco in the Vatican’s Stanza della Segnatura, painted between 1509 and 1511, gathers the philosophers of ancient Greece around Plato and Aristotle. It is a defining work of the High Renaissance.