Kingdom of Spain

State · 1516–2026 CE · at its largest around 1890 CE

The Spanish monarchy formed from the union of the crowns of Castile and Aragon, ruled by the Habsburgs and then the Bourbons, with Madrid as its capital from 1561.

On its lands while it lasted

Magellan–Elcano expedition: Philippines to Spain (1521–1522 CE): After Magellan was killed at Mactan in April 1521, Juan Sebastián Elcano led the survivors via the Moluccas and around Africa. The Victoria reached Spain in September 1522 with 18 men, completing the first circumnavigation of the globe.
Middle Passage (c. 1526–1866 CE): The forced voyage of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas. Of about 12.5 million people embarked between the 16th and 19th centuries, some 1.8 million died on the crossing.
Mughal Empire founded (1526–1857 CE): Empire founded by Babur that at its height ruled most of the Indian subcontinent, famed for its wealth, administration and architecture.
Taj Mahal (1632 CE): White marble mausoleum at Agra built by Shah Jahan for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, begun in 1632; the most celebrated work of Mughal architecture.
George Washington (1732 CE – 1799 CE): Commander of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War and first President of the United States (1789–1797).
American Revolutionary War (1775–1783 CE): War in which thirteen British colonies, aided by France, won independence and formed the United States of America.
US Declaration of Independence (1776 CE): Adopted by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia on 4 July 1776, it declared the thirteen colonies independent and asserted natural rights.
Simón Bolívar (1783 CE – 1830 CE): Caracas-born leader who led the independence of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia from Spain, known as El Libertador.
Haitian Revolution (1791–1804 CE): Uprising of enslaved people in the French colony of Saint-Domingue that abolished slavery and created Haiti, the first state founded by formerly enslaved people.
First Opium War (1839–1842 CE): Britain defeated Qing China in a war over trade and the opium traffic, beginning China's "century of humiliation".
Indian Rebellion of 1857 (1857–1858 CE): Uprising that began with a mutiny of sepoys at Meerut and spread across northern India, leading to the end of East India Company rule.
British Raj (1858–1947 CE): After the 1857 rebellion the British Crown took direct rule of India from the East India Company, governing until independence in 1947.
American Civil War (1861–1865 CE): War between the Union and the Confederacy of southern slave states; the Union victory preserved the United States and ended slavery.
Wilbur and Orville Wright (1867 CE – 1948 CE): American aviation pioneers from Dayton, Ohio, who built and flew the first successful powered, controlled airplane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on 17 December 1903. Wilbur died in 1912 and Orville in 1948.
Meiji Restoration (1868 CE): Imperial rule was restored under Emperor Meiji, launching Japan's rapid modernisation.