the year was seen as being especially important by many christians in europe, who thought it would bring the beginning of the end of the world. their belief was based on the phrase "half-time after the time", when the apocalypse was due to occur, which appears in the book of revelation and was seen as referring to 1500. this time was also just after the old world's discovery of the americas in 1492, and therefore was influenced greatly by the new world.[1]