Issued by Ferdinand II of Aragon and Juana of Castile at Valladolid; a revision and expansion of the 1512 Laws of Burgos refining regulations on Indigenous labor, settlement organization, and religious instruction in the Americas, reinforcing royal oversight while attempting to address abuses within the encomienda system.

A political treatise offering pragmatic advice to rulers on how to gain and maintain power. It was dedicated to Lorenzo de’ Medici, intended as both a plea for political employment and a manual for effective rule. Machiavelli argued that leaders should prioritize stability and authority, even through deception, fear, or cruelty when necessary, famously noting it is better for a prince to be feared than loved if he cannot be both.

On September 25, 1513, Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and became the first recorded European to sight the Pacific Ocean from the Americas. He formally claimed the vast body of water—then called the “South Sea” (Mar del Sur)—for the Crown of Spain, establishing Spain’s strategic awareness of a western ocean that would shape future exploration and imperial expansion. These events were recorded in a letter he wrote as a report to Spain.

Hernán Cortés reported to King Charles I of Spain (Charles V) on his march into the Aztec Empire, the seizure of Tenochtitlan, and the complex alliances he forged with Indigenous rivals of the Mexica. The letter justified his unauthorized actions by portraying the conquest as both a service to the Crown and a campaign to expand Christian rule and Spanish sovereignty in the newly claimed territories.

Giovanni da Verrazzano’s first voyage was undertaken in the service of King Francis I of France to find a western sea route to Asia. Sailing along the Atlantic coast of North America Verrazzano made some of the earliest European descriptions of the region, including New York Harbor. His voyage strengthened France’s claims to North America and laid the groundwork for later French exploration and colonization.

A vast ethnographic study of Aztec society, religion, language, and daily life based on testimony from Indigenous Nahua informants in central Mexico. Often known as the Florentine Codex, the manuscript preserves one of the most detailed contemporary records of pre-conquest and early colonial New Spain, blending Nahuatl and Spanish text with hundreds of illustrations.

Elizabeth I granted letters patent to Sir Humphrey Gilbert, authorizing him to discover, claim, and govern remote “heathen and barbarous lands” not already possessed by any Christian prince in the name of England. The patent empowered Gilbert to establish colonies, exercise civil and criminal jurisdiction over settlers, and retain a share of profits, laying early legal foundations for English overseas expansion.

Elizabeth I granted a charter to Sir Walter Raleigh, authorizing him to discover, occupy, and govern remote lands not already claimed by a Christian prince, shortly after the death of his half-brother Sir Humphrey Gilbert in 1583. The charter empowered Raleigh to establish colonies and exercise civil authority over settlers, laying the legal groundwork for England’s first sustained attempts at colonization in North America.

A charter to Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons, authorizing him to colonize and govern the territory of Acadia in North America under a royal trading monopoly. The charter empowered de Mons to establish settlements, promote the Catholic faith, and administer justice, laying the legal foundation for France’s early colonial presence in what is now Nova Scotia and the Canadian Maritimes.

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