Middle Ages
Oba Ewuare the Great and the Rise of the Kingdom of Benin
Ewuare rebuilt Benin City, reorganised the palace and town chiefs and launched the conquests that made Benin a regional empire.
Era · c. 500 – 1500
Middle Ages
Kingdoms, crusades and plagues: the medieval world from the end of the Western Roman Empire to the fall of Constantinople.
Middle Ages
Hangul: King Sejong Creates the Korean Alphabet (1443)
Korea gained a phonetic alphabet of 28 letters, promulgated in the Hunminjeongeum of 1446, which in the twentieth century became the main script of Korean.
Middle Ages
Skanderbeg (1443): Albania's Revolt Against the Ottomans
Skanderbeg held off repeated Ottoman invasions until his death in 1468; Krujë fell in 1478 and Albania came under Ottoman rule.
Middle Ages
Battle of Varna (1444): The Crusade That Ended in Disaster
Decisive Ottoman victory; King Władysław III and Cardinal Cesarini were killed and the Crusade of Varna collapsed.
Middle Ages
Vlad the Impaler: Vlad III Dracula, Prince of Wallachia
Vlad III fought the Ottomans and his internal enemies with extreme brutality; he lost his throne in 1462, regained it briefly in 1476 and was killed soon after.
Middle Ages
Tumu Crisis (1449): A Ming Emperor Captured by the Mongols
Oirat victory and the capture of the Ming emperor; Beijing held out under Yu Qian, and the Ming turned to a more defensive frontier policy.
Middle Ages
Gutenberg's Printing Press: Movable Type Changes Europe
Printing with movable metal type spread to more than 250 European towns by 1500, transforming the production of books and the circulation of ideas.
Middle Ages
Famine of One Rabbit (1454): Aztec Mexico's Great Hunger
Thousands left the Valley of Mexico or sold themselves into servitude; the famine led to new food storage policies and was remembered as a disaster tied to the year 1 Rabbit.
Middle Ages
Aztec Flower Wars: Ritual Warfare Against Tlaxcala and Allies
The flower wars left Tlaxcala and its neighbours unconquered but hostile to the Aztecs, which made them willing allies of the Spanish in 1519.
Middle Ages
Machu Picchu: History of the Inca Royal Estate in the Andes
Machu Picchu served as a royal estate until it was abandoned around the time of the Spanish conquest; it became world famous after 1911 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983.
Middle Ages
Fall of Constantinople (1453): End of the Byzantine Empire
Ottoman victory; Constantinople was captured, the Byzantine Empire ended and the city became the Ottoman capital.
Middle Ages
Wars of the Roses (1455-1487): Lancaster Against York
The House of York won the throne in 1461 and lost it in 1485 to Henry Tudor, whose marriage to Elizabeth of York founded the Tudor dynasty.