Timur begins twenty years of almost continuous conquest with the capture and destruction of Herat

Victory at Kosovo gives the Ottoman Turks control over Serbia, which becomes a vassal state

The Ottoman sultan Bayazid I brings the Slav kingdom of Bulgaria under his control

Pisa is captured by Florence, to be followed a few years later by the purchase of the seaport of Livorno

The Poles defeat the Teutonic knights between Tannenberg and Grunwald, bringing the coastal strip around Gdansk into the Polish kingdom

The Viking settlement in Greenland ends, after 400 years, when the last ship leaves the colony and sails for Norway

The Portuguese, discovering the lush and uninhabited island of Madeira, send colonists to settle it

Skanderbeg, Albania's national hero, begins his long campaign of successes against the Turks

The Hungarian general Janos Hunyadi takes Sofia from the Turks and in the next few months liberates most of Bulgaria, Serbia and Albania

A Turkish army routs the Hungarians at Varna on the Black Sea, beginning a process which brings the Turks to the gates of Belgrade by 1456

A Muslim ruler is established in Malacca, forming the first of many Muslim dynasties in the Malay archipelago

Portugal claims ownership of the region of Guinea, subsequently the centre of their slave trade on the west African coast

The Turks, besieging Belgrade, are dispersed by a peasant army inspired by the preaching of a Franciscan friar, St John of Capistrano

The Turks complete the occupation of Greece, which remains within the Ottoman empire until the nineteenth century

The Chimu empire in Peru is conquered by the Incas under the leadership of Pachacuti's son Topa

Mehmed II and the Ottoman Turks conquer Bosnia, where a large number of noble families convert to Islam

Skanderbeg dies and Albania becomes fully absorbed into the Ottoman empire

Ivan III subdues proudly independent Novgorod, removing the city's famous bell

The Portuguese establish a further presence on the west coast of Africa, at the mouth of the Congo river

The Inca empire is extended to the north and a second capital is established at Quito

Venice's annexation of Cyprus completes a useful chain of islands stretching to the eastern Mediterranean

On the death of Matthias Corvinus, in 1490, the Habsburgs recover Vienna from the Hungarians

The army of Ferdinand and Isabella besieges and takes the city of Granada, completing the long reconquest of Spain from the Muslims

Diego Columbus, brother of the explorer, establishes the first secure Spanish colony at Santo Domingo

The Portuguese establish trading posts in east Africa, on the coast of Mozambique