II.
THE FIRST COLONIAL PERIOD.
1607—1688
The Renaissance. — The Fifteenth Century1340—1400. Geoffrey Chaucer, English poet.
1401. First execution for heresy
1431. Joan of Arc burned.
1440. Printing from movable types made public by Guttenberg.
1453. Constantinople captured by the Turks.
1460—1471. War of the Roses.
1474. Caxton prints the first book in England.
1492. Discovery of the New World.
1497. Cabot discovers North America.
Reformation in Germany.
Magellan circumnavigates the globe.
Cortez discovers Mexico. is the awakening of literature, science, and art, from the long slumber of the Dark Ages. As the direct result of this emancipation of Europe, there came a period of great activity in almost every sphere of action.
The newly invented art of printing with movable types marked an era in the history of book-making; the invention of gunpowder completely revolutionized the science of war, while the mariner's compass marked a turning-point in the history of navigation. Everywhere was to be seen the activity of fresh intellectual life.
Spirit of the Age. — The Sixteenth Century is the age of discovery. Columbus, Cabot, De Gama, Balboa, Magellan, made six world-revolutionizing discoveries in twenty-nine years. Cortez found a wonderland in Mexico,; Pizarro opened up a new El Dorado in Peru; De Soto discov-
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