Era: Early Modern
16th Century – 17th Century
The basis of world trade shifts from land-based routes to ocean-going as Europe finally becomes a major world player. The European Renaissance is in full flower, but the destruction of American civilizations and birth of the Atlantic African slave trade also leave their mark on this era. Major empires include the Qing Dynasty, Mughal India, and the Safavid, Ottoman, Spanish, and Hapsburg Empires.
1492: Conquest of Paradise
- Director: Ridley Scott
- Release Date: 1992
- Production Country: France, Spain
When Columbus finds land while searching for a route to China, he believes this is his opportunity to start a new life with a new city under his rule... but the arrival of his ships has tragic consequences for the natives they encounter and Columbus struggles with the duties of leader. Meanwhile, back in Spain, forces there are conspiring against Columbus to strip him of all he has gained.
1612: Khroniki smutnogo vremeni (1612: Chronicles of the Dark Time)
- Director: Vladimir Khotinenko
- Release Date: 2007
- Production Country: Russia
Czarina Kseniya Godunova is heir to the throne with a power hungry Polish husband who wants to rule Russia; a serf enamored with the czarina attempts to help her reach her rightful place.
A Man for All Seasons
- Director: Fred Zinnemann
- Release Date: 1966
- Production Country: United Kingdom
A principled and devout man, Sir Thomas More finds himself on the wrong side of the argument when King Henry VIII is determined to divorce not only his current wife, but the church that refuses to allow him to set her aside. But the King looks to get Sir More's approval, one way or another.
Adanggaman
- Director: Roger Gnoan M'Bala
- Release Date: 2000
- Production Country: France, Switzerland, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Italy
Ossei believes his family to be killed and his village destroyed in a raid by their neighbor King Adanggaman; however, Ossei discovers that his mother is still alive and pursues the soldiers who are marching their captives to market, hoping to free her before she, along with the rest of his people, is sold into slavery.
Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes (Aguirre: The Wrath of God)
- Director: Werner Herzog
- Release Date: 1972
- Production Country: West Germany
A brief mission by a small group of conquistadors sent to explore up the Amazon becomes a nightmare when one of the men leads a mutiny, refusing to turn back because he believes that El Dorado lies ahead of them, up the river. Forced to continue their trip, the soldiers who supported the mutineer find themselves trapped with him as he descends into madness, but it's not clear if he is corrupted by his own dreams of power and avarice, or if the land itself taking revenge on the conquerors.
Alatriste
- Director: Agustín Díaz Yanes
- Release Date: 2006
- Production Country: Spain
Alariste, a Spanish mercenary, does his best to raise his adopted son, hiring out his skills as necessary until, in the end, he must fight for country and king—the king who has imprisoned Alariste's son in the galleys for crimes he did not commit.
Ambavi Suramis tsikhitsa (The Legend of Suram Fortress)
- Director: Sergei Parajanov, Dodo Abashidze
- Release Date: 1984
- Production Country: Soviet Union
A group of Georgians build a fortress to protect themselves from the invading Muslim army, but the walls cannot be completed without great sacrifice.
Anne of the Thousand Days
- Director: Charles Jarrott
- Release Date: 1969
- Production Country: United Kingdom
The King may have pushed his first wife aside in her favor, but Anne Boleyn quickly realizes that her days as Queen may be numbered when she fails to produce a son for a king who is desperate for an heir.
Anonymous
- Director: Roland Emmerich
- Release Date: 2011
- Production Country: United Kingdom, Germany
Queen Elizabeth I is aging and her court is rife with questions concerning her choice of a successor, the intrigue fed by several politically slanted dramatic productions anonymously authored by one of her former lovers, Edward deVere, the Earl of Oxford. When a young upstart named Shakespeare takes credit for deVere's plays and discovers just who is writing them, he threatens to destroy everything the Earl has worked for, including the future of the son Elizabeth gave birth to after their affair.
Apocalypto
- Director: Mel Gibson
- Release Date: 2006
- Production Country: United States
Taken captive by Mayans intent on a human sacrifice to appease their gods, the warrior Jaguar Paw must find a way to survive and return home to save his small family, now trapped in the cave where he had hidden them for safety.
Black Robe
- Director: Bruce Beresford
- Release Date: 1991
- Production Country: Canada, Australia, United States
A trip to check on a distant Catholic mission in Quebec becomes a journey through terror and faith as a young Jesuit priest and his Algonquian guides are by turns accosted and captured on their way to the Huron village.
Brazil: An Inconvenient History
- Director: Phil Grabsky
- Release Date: 2000
- Production Country: Brazil, United Kingdom
The last country to abolish slavery in the Western World, Brazil was by far the largest participant in the Atlantic slave trade, receiving nearly half of all Africans who survived the slave ships.
Cabeza de Vaca
- Director: Nicolás Echevarría
- Release Date: 1991
- Production Country: Mexico, Spain, United States, United Kingdom
Saved by a local Native American community, the survivors of an ill-fated Spanish expedition to Florida learn to navigate the complex societies of pre-Columbian North America, but years with a foreign people do not erase their longing for their own culture, so when they hear of a Spanish colony on the western shores of Mexico, they are determined to make the arduous journey home.
Cenneti beklerken (Waiting for Heaven)
- Director: Dervis Zaim
- Release Date: 2006
- Production Country: Hungary, Turkey
A Croatian painter of miniatures is conscripted to paint a portrait of a condemned Ottoman prince in order to help identify the prince.
Choi-jong-byeong-gi Hwal (War of the Arrows)
- Director: Han-min Kim
- Release Date: 2011
- Production Country: South Korea
When his sister is kidnapped by Manchurian soldiers on her wedding day, the famous archer Nam-Yi is determined to bring her home—even if it means he must kill the entire Manchurian army, one man at a time.
Christopher Columbus
- Director: Alberto Lattuada
- Release Date: 1985
- Production Country: Italy, United States, France, West Germany
An Italian boy grows up to be an expert sailor and navigator, as well as somewhat of an adventurer, and later manages to convince the Spanish crown to finance his attempt to find a shortcut to Cathay. Though Columbus never finds his shortcut, what he does find will change the course of world history.
Como Era Gostoso o Meu Francês (How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman)
- Director: Nelson Pereira dos Santos
- Release Date: 1971
- Production Country: Brazil
As the French and Portuguese exploit rivalries between the native tribes in order to further their own territorial claims, a Frenchman is captured by the Tupinamba—only they are convinced he is Portuguese and therefore allied with their traditional enemies. Still, he is given a wife and taken into the tribe, only to discover that he must convince the tribe that he is actually French before the end of the year, when he will be killed and eaten as part of an annual ritual meant to give the Tupinamba power over their enemies.
Conquistadors
- Director: David Wallace
- Release Date: 2000
- Production Country: United Kingdom
Historian Michael Wood follows the trail of the Conquistadors from Spain into South America and Mexico.
Cromwell
- Director: Ken Hughes
- Release Date: 1970
- Production Country: United Kingdom
Disgusted by the French Catholic influences that are ruining his nation, Lord Oliver Cromwell intends to take his family to the New World, but is convinced to stay and fight instead a battle which soon moves from the political to the military battlefields, and eventually results in Cromwell, the man who refused to believe in the Divine Right of Kings, sitting alone on a throne he believes to be bequeathed to him by his god.
Egri csillagok (Stars of Eger)
- Director: Zoltán Várkonyi
- Release Date: 1968
- Production Country: Hungary
Two young Hungarian children, an orphan boy and a young noble girl, are kidnapped by a Turkish slave trader, although, thanks to the cleverness of the boy, they are able to escape. Years later, the young boy must again defend the girl from Turks, only this time there are 200,000 Ottomans against only 2,000 Hungarians in the Fortress of Eger.