Age of the Empires...

I think that I would call the period from the 1500's to the 1600's the Age of the Empires. I would call the beginning of that age Exploration and the end Change of Empires. At the beginning all the newly created empires traveled from their usual places and found new empires to conquer or become a part of. At the end they all had either strengthened or changed their old home or ways of life.