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| c. 1450 |
| | | The caravel, a sailing ship developed in the Mediterranean and used down the west coast of Africa, is adapted by the Portuguese for Atlantic use | |
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| c. 1450 |
| | | Christian boys, trained as slaves in the personal service of the Turkish sultan, acquire considerable power as the elite corps of janissaries | |
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| 1453 |
| | | Constantinople falls to a 21-year-old Muslim conqueror, Mehmed II, bringing the Ottoman Turks their capital city | |
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| 1453 |
| | | The Christian emperor Constantine XI dies in the fighting in Constantinople, as the Greek Byzantine empire yields to that of the Ottoman Turks | |
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| 1477 |
| | | Ptolemy's concept of the world, with the Atlantic stretching to China and India, is printed in Bologna – fifteen years before Columbus sails west | |
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| 1492 |
| | | Christopher Columbus, together with the brothers Martin and Vicente Pinzón, sails west from Palos in Spain | |
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| 1493 |
| | | Pope Alexander VI draws a line through the Atlantic, dividing new discoveries between Spain (west) and Portugal (east) | |
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| from 1517 |
| | | From Bosnia to Egypt and Arabia, the Ottoman Turks now rule the largest Muslim empire since the early caliphate - and will frequently use the title of caliph to assert their authority within Sunni Islam | |
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| 1577 |
| | | Francis Drake sails from Plymouth, heading west for the Pacific and the East Indies | |
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| 1621 |
| | | The Dutch West India Company is chartered to trade and found colonies anywhere along the entire American coast | |
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