| 1533–1545 | Dai Viet [political events] | Nguyen Kim restores the south of Dai Viet to the Le dynasty, governing from Hue. The usurping Mac family remains in control of the north from Hanoi. |
| 1535–1545 | Holy Roman Empire, Spanish Netherlands [crime and punishment] | After the failure of the revolution in Münster and the risings elsewhere, about 30,000 Anabaptists are executed in the Netherlands alone; the remainder follow the new pacifist Dutch prophet Menno Simons and cease to be a political force. |
| March 1537 - March 1540 | England [political events] | The dissolution of the greater monasteries of England and Wales proceeds through inducement, coercion, and the trial and execution of abbots, directed by King Henry VIII's minister Thomas Cromwell. |
| 1538 | Italy [painting] | The Italian artist Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) paints Venus of Urbino. |
| 24 February 1538 | Hungary, Austria, Habsburg Monarchy, Holy Roman Empire, Transylvania, Ottoman Empire [political events] | Archduke Ferdinand I of Austria signs the Peace of Nagyvárad with Janos Zápolya, Voivode of Transylvania, ending their war for Hungary. Though they divide the country with the Ottoman sultan Suleiman I the Magnificent along the lines of the status quo, the whole is to revert to Ferdinand on the death of the currently childless Zápolya. |
| 28 April 1538 | Spain, Central America [colonization] | The Spanish conquistador Hernando Pizarro, half-brother of Francisco Pizarro, leads his forces to victory over the rival faction of Diego de Almagro, capturing their leader, at Las Salinas; Almagro is subsequently executed in Cuzco (8 July). |
| 18 June 1538 | France, Holy Roman Empire, Italy, Papal States, Swiss Confederation [Habsburg–Valois Wars (1494–1559)] | King Francis I of France and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V sign the ten-year Truce of Nice; they retain their conquests in Piedmont, Italy, the Duke of Savoy losing all his territories except Nice, France; Francis recovers Hesdin and gains Mirandola in the Romagna; the Swiss Confederation retains the canton of the Vaud. |
| 4 September - 6 November 1538 | India, Portugal, Ottoman Empire, Egypt [wars] | An Ottoman Egyptian fleet under Suleiman Pasha arrives to aid the Gujaratis in their blockade of the Portuguese-held fortress of Diu, northwest India; the Muslim admirals quarrel and the Egyptians return to Yemen, enabling the Portuguese to hold out. |
| 10 September 1538 | Holy Roman Empire [political events] | The principal Catholic German princes, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, his brother Ferdinand I, Archduke of Austria and king of the Romans and Bohemia, George, Duke of Saxony, the dukes of Brunswick, and the archbishops of Mainz and Salzburg, form the League of Nuremberg, to counter the Protestant Schmalkaldic League. Joachim II, the tolerant elector of Brandenburg, stays out. |
