15th century in Canada

Events

• 1450 - the Iroquois form the Great League of Peace and Power.
• 1492 - Christopher Columbus, backed by Spain, reaches San Salvador Island, "discovering the New World" and encountering Arawak and Taíno people. Thinking he is in India, he calls them Indians.
• 1494 - Treaty of Tordesillas divides the colonial world between Spain and Portugal.
• 1497-98 - John and Sebastian Cabot explore east coast of North America for England. They kidnap three Mi'kmaq men.
• 1497 - Giovanni Caboto, a Venetian in English service, during a voyage underwritten by Bristol merchants, claims Newfoundland for England on June 24, laying the basis for English claims to Canada and inspiring a series of further explorations.
• 1498 - English explorer John Cabot, making a second voyage to North America, travels the coast of Labrador, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and trades furs with the Mi'kmaq.
• 1498-99 - Portuguese explorer João Fernandes Lavrador first sights and sails along the coasts of the Labrador Peninsula.