1496 AD–1497 AD
Henry VII’s patent and John Cabot’s Atlantic voyage
British Empire · Colonization & sovereignty · Ideas, knowledge & culture
Henry VII authorized Cabot and his sons to sail, occupy, and monopolize lands the patent described as unknown to Christians; Cabot reached North America’s already inhabited North Atlantic coast in 1497. This is a legal antecedent of English expansion, not the empire’s instantaneous birth
Precision, calendar, and review
- Start
- year · no uncertainty qualifier in this record
- End
- year · no uncertainty qualifier in this record
- Calendar and convention
- Historical-era years; the source calendar is not identified. No conversion of days is assumed.
- Year zero
- The scale goes from 1 BCE to 1 CE without year zero. Changing era names changes labels only.
- Documentary review
- Date not recorded
Reading the date: duration of a process.
Sources
- avalon.law.yale.edu (opens in a new tab)
Source provenance and scope
- Publication date
- Not identified in metadata; document review pending
- Bibliographic date checked
- 2026-09-23
The correspondence between this reference and individual claims has not yet been itemized.
This record is an editorial synthesis. Consult the sources to check claims and their limits. Chronological relationships alone do not establish causation.