Timeline Project- 1450

1450 AD

A. Institutions

• 1. Diquis region of Southern Costa Rica use ceramic and granite as permanent markers for ritual ceremonies.
• 2. Hagia Sophia (previously part of Constantinople) was converted to a mosque, which it remained until the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the early twentieth century.
• 3. Greek language and culture revival supports humanistic thought of the Renaissance.
• 4. As an act of filial piety Charles the VII pays to complete the tomb of Jean de Berry.
• 5. Leon Battista Alberti writes treatises that fully integrate the classical orders of architecture.
• 6. Pazzi family hires sculptors to decorate the Pazzi chapel that serves as a chapter house for the friars of the Church of Santa Croce and as a family chapel.
• 7. Frederick V the Habsburg king of Germany is crowned Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III.
• 8. Kirttivasa’s Ramayana written in India
• 9. Hotel de Ville is built as the town hall in Brussels, Belgium
• 10. University of Glasgow founded.

B. Governance

• 1. Italy exists as republics ruled by patrons.
• 2. Alfanso the V of Aragon and Sicily initiates urbanization and restoration efforts throughout his territories.
• 3. Ottoman Empire continues to expand through Middle East, the Anatolian Peninsula and Asia.
• 4. Orient (Japan, China and Korea) experience political turmoil.
• 5. Byzantine empire falls to the Ottomans under Mehmed II
• 6. War of Roses erupts in Great Britain (1455)
• 7. End of the Hundred Years War (1453)
• 8. Mexico: Montezuma I expands Aztec power
• 9. The Complaint of the Poor Commons of Kent sent to the English Government listing grievances about the weak and corrupt government.
• 10. Jack Cade leads the Southwark revolt in London, taking the tower and beheading the treasurer of state.

C. Commerce

• 1. 1450-Johannes Guttenberg invents the printing press
• 2. Ivan the Great III hires architect Aristotle Fiorivanti to travel from Italy to Moscow to design buildings that would fortify cities against invading Turkish Armies.
• 3. Portuguese acquire land in Africa providing them with a competitive source for slaves. Monopoly on slave trade begins.
• 4. Southeast Asia enters the Age of Commerce.
• 5. First Guttenberg-Bible printed c.1455
• 6. Portugal: Henry the Navigator opens school at Sagres
• 7. Italy: Production of clear glass perfected. Exported for use in glass artworks.
• 8. China: First exportation of Ming porcelain
• 9. Capitalism affects the guild system. Guild membership becomes open for purchase.
• 10. Arabian countries begin to import Ethiopian coffee.

D. Technology

• 1. Beauty is based on well-balanced proportions. Alberti’s De re aedifactoria (On Building) “Beauty is that reasoned harmony of all the parts within a body, so that nothing can be added, taken away or altered, but for the worse.”
• 2. Leonardo da Vinci born in 152
• 3. Aqueducts in Rome are renovated by Pope Nicholas V
• 4. The Clun Bridge is completed in Shropshire, UK to accommodate packhorses.
• 5. Development of the three-field system in Europe leads to increase in agriculture
• 6. Cannons are used in battles. Though they can only be fired a few times a day, they pack quite a punch. The final battle of the Hundred Years War is won by the French due to the devastating power of their cannons.
• 7. Spring driven clocks emerge in London.
• 8. The caravel, a type of sailing ship is invented and adapted by Mediterranean countries for sailing down the west coast of Africa.
• 9. The matchlock, predecessor to the musket is invented.
• 10. Master E.S of Germany produces the first engravings to be sold as art.

1450 BC

A. Institutions

• 1. Volcano at Santorini erupts, destroying the city.
• 2. Egyptians use the Valley of the Kings as a burial ground.
• 3. Thothmes III, a priest of the temple of Amon becomes the King of Egypt, ensuring the building of many future temples
• 4. The first of four Vedas written in India
• 5. According to some…1456 BC was the year that Moses led the Jews out of Egypt to wander in the desert for 40 years.
• 6. The mortuary temple of Hatshepsut is designed and built to honor the sun G-d in honor of the queen.

B. Governance

• 1. Greeks conquer the Minoans.
• 2. The Mycenaeans destroy the great palace at Knossos.
• 3. Battle of Meggido between Canaan and Thothmes is the first battle recorded accurately and broadly accepted
• 4. Korea- fall of the Gojoseon
• 5. Assyria is in tumult. Nur-ili dies, his son Ashur-shaduni takes power and is overthrown less than a month later.
• 6. Queen Hatshepsut, fifth pharaoh of Egypt dies

C. Commerce

• 1. Glass pottery used and traded in Egypt
• 2. Hittite migrants now went farther and farther to the west, occupying lands of West Asia Minor
• 3. First Bantu migration south and eastward in Africa

D. Technology

• 1. World’s first dam constructed by the Hittites in Turkey.
• 2. Crete Achaeans discover and begin using the syllabic linear B script
• 3. Some see this as the beginning of the Bronze Age.
• 4. China produces bronzes for use in ritual ceremony

Citations for the Timeline Project:
Roth, Leland M. (2007) Understanding Architecture: Its Elements, History, and Meaning
(Second Edition). HarperCollins.
http://en.wikipedia.org/
http://www.scribd.com/doc/9633774/World-events-History-Timeline500-000-BC2000-AD-
http://www.historyworld.net/
http://historyhaven.com/APWH/unit2/DEVELOPMENTS%20IN%20EUROPE.htm
http://www.nbufront.org/html/MastersMuseums/JHClarke/HistoricalPersonalities/hp4.html