Iberian Union

State · 1582–1639 CE · at its largest around 1588 CE

The dynastic union of the crowns of Portugal and Spain under the Spanish Habsburg kings, beginning with Philip II in 1580 and ending with the Portuguese restoration of 1640.

On its lands while it lasted

Trier (16 BCE – 1618 CE): Capital of Electorate of Trier (1333–1618).
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.
Elizabeth I (1533 CE – 1603 CE): Queen of England and Ireland from 1558 to 1603. Her reign saw the Protestant religious settlement, the defeat of the Spanish Armada and a flowering of English drama.
Miguel de Cervantes (1547 CE – 1616 CE): Spanish novelist, playwright and poet whose Don Quixote (1605, 1615) is widely regarded as the first modern novel and one of the greatest works of world literature.
Galileo Galilei (1564 CE – 1642 CE): Italian astronomer and physicist born in Pisa who pioneered experimental science and telescopic astronomy. Condemned by the Inquisition in 1633, he spent his last years under house arrest near Florence.
William Shakespeare (1564 CE – 1616 CE): English playwright and poet from Stratford-upon-Avon whose plays, performed in London, include Hamlet, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in English.
Johannes Kepler (1571 CE – 1630 CE): German astronomer and mathematician who, working in Prague with Tycho Brahe’s observations, found that planets move in ellipses and formulated his three laws of planetary motion.
Spanish Armada (1588 CE): Philip II sent a great fleet to escort an invasion army from Flanders to England. Harried in the Channel and scattered by English fireships off Gravelines, the Armada sailed home around Scotland and Ireland, losing many ships to storms.
Don Quixote (1605 CE): Miguel de Cervantes published the first part of this novel about a self-styled knight in Madrid in 1605; the second followed in 1615. It is often called the first modern novel.
Gunpowder Plot (1605 CE): English Catholic conspirators led by Robert Catesby planned to blow up the House of Lords at the State Opening of Parliament on 5 November 1605 and kill James I. Guy Fawkes was arrested guarding the gunpowder beneath the chamber.
Rembrandt (1606 CE – 1669 CE): Dutch painter and printmaker from Leiden who worked in Amsterdam. A master of light and shadow, he is considered the greatest artist of the Dutch Golden Age.
Thirty Years' War (1618–1648 CE): A series of wars fought mainly in the Holy Roman Empire from 1618 to 1648, involving most European powers. It devastated Germany, where millions died from fighting, famine and disease.
Johannes Vermeer (1632 CE – 1675 CE): Dutch painter from Delft known for quiet interiors filled with soft daylight, such as Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Milkmaid. He painted slowly, and only about 35 of his works survive.
John Locke (1632 CE – 1704 CE): English philosopher and physician, a founder of empiricism and liberalism, whose Two Treatises of Government and Essay Concerning Human Understanding argued for natural rights, government by consent and knowledge from experience.
Louis XIV (1638 CE – 1715 CE): The 'Sun King', King of France from 1643 to 1715, the longest recorded reign of any major European monarch. He embodied absolute monarchy and moved his court to Versailles.