1400CE

1400 CE was a transitional moment between the late medieval era and the early modern era. Globally, states were consolidating power, long-distance trade persisted, and cultural exchange continued despite conflicts and demographic changes. In Europe, the late medieval order remained fractured by war and religious division. The Hundred Years' War dragged on between England and France, while the Western Schism left multiple claimants to the papacy and divided Christendom. In the Ottoman world, Bayezid I was the sovereign before the civil war that followed Timur's invasion; this period would soon see upheaval and a temporary fragmentation of Ottoman power. Elsewhere in Eurasia, the Timurid realm controlled parts of the Middle East and Central Asia, contributing to cross-cultural exchange through trade and scholarship.

In East Asia, the Ming dynasty had restored native rule after the fall of the Yuan dynasty and was consolidating central authority from its capital at Nanjing; the era would later sponsor large maritime expeditions that began in 1405. In the broader Asia-Pacific region, trade networks connected China, India, Southeast Asia, and the Islamic world, forming a vibrant exchange of goods, ideas, and technologies.

In Africa, trading networks along the Sahel and the Swahili coast linked inland kingdoms with Indian Ocean commerce, while ecosystems of power persisted in places such as the Sahara, the Nile valley, and sub-Saharan polities. In the Americas, large pre-Columbian centers continued to flourish in Mesoamerica and the Andean highlands, even as social and political arrangements varied regionally.