15th century

(14th century - 15th century - 16th century - other centuries)

• Renaissance affects philosophy, science and art.
• Rise of Modern English language from Middle English.
• Lollardy is suppressed in England; John Badby is the first person burnt at the stake for heresy in England.
• Great Schism of the Catholic Church is ended in 1417.
• Jeanne d'Arc in 1429 leads French forces to a victory against England in a battle of the Hundred Years' War.
• Constantinople falls to the Ottoman Empire in 1453.
• John Huss is burned at the stake
• Niccolo Machiavelli writes The Prince.
• The Spanish Inquisition is established.
• Muslims and Jews are expelled from southern Spain after almost 800 years of Moslem rule, in 1492.
• The Anasazi Native American civilization mysteriously disappears
• Christopher Columbus reaches Caribbean islands in 1492 and South America in 1498.
• Vasco da Gama completes sea voyage to India, in 1498.
• Zheng He's fleet sails from China to South-East Asia, India, East Africa and Egypt.

Significant people

• Filippo Brunelleschi invents one-point perspective, leads innovation in Italian architecture
• Leonardo da Vinci, inventor and painter
• Henry VII, English King founds the Tudor dynasty
• Zheng He, Chinese eunuch admiral and explorer

Inventions, Discoveries, Introductions

• Printing technology refined by Johann Gutenberg.

Decades and Years