Born ThenLife in the 16th century
Be born somewhere between 1500 and 1599, weighted by real births, and live five lives from that year on.
The numbers
The world had about 512 million people around the middle of the 16th century. Life expectancy at birth was near 26 years, mostly because so many children died; people who reached adulthood often lived into their fifties or sixties. About 7% could read and 8% lived in towns. Most births happened in South China (17%), North India (15%), North China (10%), South India and Sri Lanka (8%), West Africa (5%).
All numbers before 1800 are modelled from long-run population and life-expectancy estimates by region. How it works
What happened
- Indian Ocean slave trade 700–1799
- Sengoku period 1467–1590
- Collapse of the Taíno population 1493–1530
- Atlantic slave trade (West Africa) 1501–1799
- Atlantic slave trade (Kongo and Angola) 1514–1799
- Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire 1519–1521
- Smallpox epidemic in Mexico 1520–1521
- Smallpox in the Inca Empire 1525–1527
- Ethiopian–Adal war 1529–1543
- Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire 1532–1572
- Cocoliztli epidemic of 1545 1545–1548
- Plantation slavery in Brazil 1550–1799
- Cocoliztli epidemic of 1576 1576–1578
- Russian conquest of Siberia 1580–1700
- Moroccan invasion of the Songhai Empire 1591–1599
- Imjin War 1592–1598