The 15th Century CE	1400s CE

1400s  1370-1405 Tamerlane, the Mongol continues his conquest of the Middle East. 1405 to 1433 Zheng He commanded 7 expeditionary voyages to Southeast Asia, South Asia, West Asia, and East Africa	1410s - 1412 The Medici Family are made official bankers of the Papacy. 1415 at Agincourt Henry V defeats French 1415 Jan Hus is excommunicated by the Archbishop of Prague and burned at the stake. 1415 Henry V of England def. French at Battle of Agincourt, Pas de Calais, France. 7,000 French killed; 500 English killed. 1415 Prince Henry of Portugal and his brothers capture the Barbary Pirates' port of Cuerts. This motivates his further expeditions to find the legendary African Christian Prester John
1420s - 1428 English begin Siege of Orléans. 1429 Joan of Arc leads the French to break the siege of Orléans.	1430s - 1431 Jeanne D'Arc is burned alive at Rouen, France. 1433 Cosimo de' Medici is exiled from Florence for a year.
1440s - 1440 Johannes Gutenberg's Printing Press 1441 German-Dutch Thomas à Kempis writes The Imitation of Christ 1448 The Maya civilization splits into warring city-states. 144? Portuguese explorers reach the mouth of the Gambia River in Senegal. 144? The first enslaved black Africans are brought to Europe at the Portuguese beach of Lagos. 1449 Nicholas of Cusa was made a cardinal by Pope Nicholas V. In 1450 he was both named Bishop of Brixen, in Tyrol, and commissioned as a papal legate to the German lands to spread the message of reform.	1450s 1453 Turkish leader Mehmed II besieges and captures Constantinople, making the Ottoman Empire a major regional power and ending European trade with Asia. The Hagia Sophia church is convertd into a mosque 1453 English surrender last outpost in Aquitaine to French, ending the Hundred Years' War. 1453 Turks capture Constantinople 1456 Turks conquer Athens 1455-85 War of the Roses 1469-92 Lorenzo de' Medici rules Florence 1479 Union of Aragon and Castile under Ferdinand & Isabella 1455-87 In the Wars of the Roses, the Houses of Lancaster and York battle for England and Richard Duke of York wins the first battle at St. Albans.
1460s 1460 Prince Henry the Navigator dies. 1460 QueenMargaret's forces defeat and kill Richard Duke of York at the Battle of Wakefield. 1461 The new Duke of York seizes London, deposes Henry VI, and proclaims himself King Edward IV of England. 1462 Vlad IV ("Vlad the Impaler") of Walachia defeated by Ottoman Sultan Mehmed_II.	1470s 1474-1509 Queen Isabella I and Ferdinand II rule a united Spain Portuguese explore West coast of Africa 1475 The Arquebus (hook gun) first appears in Europe and the Ottoman Empire. 1479 Venice loses naval war to Turkey, together with most of her territories along the Aegean Sea.
1480s 1480 Ivan III of Moscow assumes position of Tsar of Russia. 1485 At the Battle of Bosworth Field, Henry Tudor defeats English King Richard III, and takes the English throne as Henry VII, ending the War of the Roses. English nobles were now so weak that they could not challenge the strength of the Tudors, essentially ending feudalism in England. 1486 Henry VII marries Elizabeth of York, uniting the English houses of York and Lancaster. 1488 Bartholomew Diaz rounds Cape of Good Hope finding a route to Asia	1490s 1492 Jews expelled from Spain. 1492 Spanish capture Granada from Muslims. 1492 Christopher Columbus, underestimating the earth's circumference, attempts to sail west from Spain to China, hoping to establish a trade route and spread Christianity, but instead "discovers" America, which he believes to be Indonesia. 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas, Pope Alexander VI divides the New World btw. Spain & Portugal 1499 Vasco De Gama sails from Portugal to India.

1400s