16th century
Shakespeare's formative period
The 16th century spans the years 1501 to 1600—the fifteen-hundreds.
Like other century terms, the number is one ahead of the years it contains: the 16th century covers the 1500s, not the 1600s.
The period saw the Protestant Reformation, European colonization of the Americas, and the Renaissance reaching its height.
A 16th-century manuscript, sixteenth-century England.
- MannerismSixteenth-century artistic sophistication movement
- Martin LutherProtestant Reformation founder
- John CalvinFrench Protestant reformer
- Book of Common PrayerAnglican official worship text
- CopernicusRenaissance astronomer, heliocentrism
Renaissance · Leonardo da Vinci · Suleiman the Magnificent · Francis Drake · Protestant Reformation · Hernán Cortés · Akbar · Spanish Inquisition · English Reformation · Ottoman Empire · Michelangelo · Sistine Chapel · Council of Trent · Battle of Lepanto · Queen Elizabeth I · Tower of London · Humanism · Mughal Empire
- time periodsday, year, month, week, hour
- Renaissance LiteratureShakespeare, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, The Prince, Don Quixote
- Canadian ExplorationNorthwest Passage, Hudson Bay, Jacques Cartier, John Cabot, Henry Hudson
- ReformationMartin Luther, John Calvin, 95 Theses, Protestant Reformation, Luther
- Cervantes history and politicsDon Quixote, La Mancha, Golden Age, satire, chivalry
16th century21st century
Years 2001 to 2100
the present · modern era · today · 20th century · contemporary times
16th centuryDigital Age
Post-internet historical period
Industrial Revolution · Medieval period · Dark Ages · Age of Reason · Enlightenment
16th centurymodern age
Current historical epoch
digital age · atomic age · machine age · computer age · medieval period