15th Century

As a means of recording the passage of time, the 15th century was the century which lasted from 1401 to 1500 Common Era.

Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, falls to emerging Ottoman Turks, forcing Western Europeans to find a new trade route.

The Papacy was split in two parts in Europe for decades, until the Council of Constance.

Under the rule of Yongle Emperor, who built the Forbidden City and commanded Zhenghe to explore the world overseas, Ming Dynasty's territory reached pinnacle. Tamerlane established a major empire in the Middle East and Central Asia, in order to revive the Mongolian Empire. The Inca Empire rose to prominence in South America.

Spanish and Portuguese explorations led to the first European sightings of the Americas and the sea passage along Cape of Good Hope to India, in the last decade of the century. After these first sightings by Europeans, transportation increased to Europe from America. Native indigenous cultures that lived within the continent of the Americas had already developed advanced civilizations that attest to thousands of years of human presence; sophisticated engineering, irrigation, agriculture, religion and government existed before the arrival of the Spanish and the Portuguese. The idea that Europeans "discovered" America can lead to misunderstanding the true nature of the encounter between two distinct and independent civilizations, namely European and Indigenous American.

In European history, the 15th century is seen as the bridge between the Middle Ages, the Early Renaissance, and the Early modern period.