Gipuzkoa

1458	Joanes de Antxieta, musician to the Court of the Catholic Monarchs, is born in Azpeitia.	1452	Birth of Leonardo da Vinci, greatest exponent of the Renaissance as an attempt to achieve universal knowledge.
1468	The shepherd Rodrigo de Baltzategi claims to have seen an apparition of the Virgin Mary on a thorn bush (Arantzazu).	1478	The Catholic Monarchs create the Spanish Inquisition.
1492	Sailors from Gipuzkoa participate in Columbus' first expedition to the Americas.	1492	Capture of Granada and expulsion of the Jews from all the kingdoms of the Peninsula.
1498	A fire destroys Hondarribia, leaving only 9 houses standing. The use of stone and other measures is encouraged in the towns of Gipuzkoa.	1498	The Portuguese Vasco de Gama reaches India by coasting Africa: the Silk Road, under Turkish control, is no longer the only route for Asian products.
1522	Juan Sebastián Elcano, from Getaria, leads the first expedition to circumnavigate the globe.	1517	Luther criticises the Church and publishes his Theses: birth and expansion of Protestantism.
1527	First documentary record of Gipuzkoan ships in Terranova.	1530	Final division of Navarre into two kingdoms, following the conquest of peninsular Navarre by Castile.
1540	Start of construction on the Igartubeiti baserri-press: thousands of baserris are built following this model, at a time of economic growth in Gipuzkoa.	1540	The Pope ratifies the foundation of the Company of Jesus, a bastion of the Catholic Counterreformation in Europe and a vehicle for evangelisation in Asia and America.
1555	Major victory of Gipuzkoa against the French privateers, despite a balance of one thousand Gipuzkoan sailors killed in three years.	1542	Fray Bartolomé de las Casas denounces the Castilian exploitation of the indigenous peoples of America: although he manages to have laws passed banning their enslavement, his actual success is limited.
1561	Lope de Aguirre, the Oñati-born Amazonian explorer, declares himself a traitor to King Philip II.	1560	Juana de Albret, queen of Lower Navarre, converts to Calvinism and encourages the translation of the Bible into Basque.
Towards 1565	Gonzalo de Perkaiztegi, born in Hernani, introduces maize to the Basque country.	1564-67	Perez de Lazarraga, from Alava, writes several poems and a pastoral novel in Basque, in the Renaissance style.
1567	The territory of Gipuzkoa, as far as San Sebastián and the valley of Baztan-Bidasoa in Navarre, are transferred from the diocese of Bayonne to the diocese of Pamplona.	1568	The Protestant-majority Low Countries rebel against Philip II: this is the start of an 80-year war that ends with their full independence.
1588	Major economic activity at the shipyards of Pasaia to replace the ships lost in the "Spanish Armada".	1584	One of the territories of North America is named Virginia in honour of Elizabeth I, "the Virgin Queen": England has become a major military and economic power.