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1433 CE

This year falls in the High and Late Middle Ages (c. 1000–1500 CE). Trade grows across Eurasia, and in the thirteenth century the Mongols build the largest connected land empire in history. The Black Death kills a large share of the people of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa from the 1340s, and the era closes with the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and the first European voyages to the Americas.

Within fifteen years

Ruler · High and Late Middle Ages · TurkeyMehmed II1432–1481Ottoman sultan from 1451 to 1481, born in 1432, who conquered Constantinople in 1453 at the age of twenty one. The fall of the thousand year old Byzantine capital made the Ottomans a world empire. He went on to take Serbia, Bosnia, Greece and Crimea.

Ruler · High and Late Middle Ages · RomaniaVlad the Impalerc. 1428/31–1476/77Vlad III Dracula, Prince of Wallachia in 1448, 1456–1462 and 1476. Fought the Ottoman Empire under Mehmed II and became known for mass impalement. Death counts handed down by chroniclers are disputed.

Civilization · High and Late Middle Ages · Aztec EmpireAztec Empire1428–1521The Aztec Empire ruled central Mexico from its island capital Tenochtitlan, one of the world's largest cities. Its Triple Alliance dominated the region for less than a century. Cortés conquered it in 1521.

Ruler · High and Late Middle Ages · PeruPachacutir. c. 1438–c. 1471Ninth Sapa Inca, reigning about 1438 to 1471, who turned a small highland kingdom into the Inca Empire. He rebuilt Cusco as the imperial capital and launched the conquests that carried Inca rule the length of the Andes. The empire's roads, storehouses and terraces were largely his work.

Ruler · High and Late Middle Ages · RussiaIvan III1440–1505Grand prince of Moscow from 1462 to 1505, born in 1440, who made Russia an independent power. He ended two centuries of Mongol overlordship by refusing tribute in 1480, annexed Novgorod and other principalities, and took the title sovereign of all Russia. The double headed eagle became Russia's emblem under him.