1530-1549 Henry VIII breaks with Rome, Portuguese reach Japan

This twenty year period covers the reign of Henry VIII who died in 1547 and was suceeded by his son Edward VI. This period saw constant warfare -- most awful of which was the 1532-1544 Spanish Conquest of Peru -- but a significant milestone during this period happened in 1542 when the Portuguese reached Japan and opened up an ancient and amazing civilization to the rest of the world.

The 1528–1533 Ottoman-Habsburg War in Hungary was ongoing, and then came the 1531 Swiss Civil War, the 1532-1544 Spanish Conquest of Peru by Pizarro, the 1532–1546 Ottoman-Habsburg War in the Mediterranean, the 1533–1536 Counts' War in Denmark, the 1537–1544 Renewed Ottoman-Habsburg War in Hungary and the 1546–1547 Schmalkaldic War.

Henry VIII went crazy during this period. He broke with the Catholic Church by divorcing his first wife - Catherine of Aragon, mother of Mary Tudor - and marrying Anne Boleyn in 1533, with whom he had a daughter, Elizabeth, in the same year.

In 1535 he executed Anne Boleyn, married Jane Seymour (who bore him Edward in 1537), declared himself Head of the English Church and in the same year, 1535, he executed Thomas More for treason (refusing to renounce the Catholic Church) for which he was excommunicated by Pope Paul III in 1538.

In 1534 Cartier discovered the St Lawrence River, in 1540 the Jesuit Order established and in 1542 the Portuguese reached Japan. Being exposed to an aggressive imperialist world may have been a terrible event for the Japanese, but learning about this ancient and amazing civilization was a wonderful experience for the rest of the world.