1453 Mehmed II takes Constantinople. End of the Byzantine Empire.

1461 Trebizond falls to the Ottomans.

1472 Ivan III of Muscovy marries a Byzantine princess, Sofia Paleologue, a niece of the last emperor.

1475 Gedik Ahmed Pasha captures Caffa (Ottoman Kefe). The Crimean Khanate reduced to Ottoman vassalage.

1480 Standoff on the Ugra between the Great Horde and Muscovy.

1481 Mehmed II dies. Beyazid II enthroned.

1500 Ivan III defeats Lithuania at the battle of Vedrosha. Muscovy annexes Novgorod, Chernigov and Starodub.

1501 Safavid dynasty takes over Iran and Azerbaijan.

1502 Mengli Girey razes Saray and puts an end to the Great Horde.

1505 Ivan III dies. Vasilii III enthroned.

1510 Muscovy annexes Pskov.

1512 Beyazıd II dies. Selim I enthroned.

1514 Muscovy annexes Smolensk. Selim I defeats Shah İsmail I of the Safavids at the Battle of Chaldiran; East Anatolia under Ottoman control.

1515 Mengli Girey dies. Mehmed Girey I becomes khan in the Crimea.

1519 Ottomans construct forts in the Kuban region.

1520 The reign of Süleyman I begins.

1521 Muscovy annexes Ryazan. Sahib Girey becomes the khan of Kazan.

1523 Filofei, a monk in Pskov, articulates idea of ‘Third Rome’.

1526 Battle of Mohács: Süleyman I defeats Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia.

1532 Vasilii III installs his candidate Canali as the khan of Kazan. Sahib Girey becomes the khan of the Crimean Khanate.

1533 Vasilii III dies. Ivan IV enthroned.

1538 Battle of Preveza: Ottomans gain control of the Mediterranean Sea.

1539 Sahib Girey raids the Janeys in the Taman Peninsula.

1541 Süleyman I conquers Buda in Hungary.

1542 Sahib Girey organises a campaign against the Janeys.

1544 Sahib Girey attacks Kabarda.

1546 Lesser Nogays attack the Crimean Khanate and are annihilated by the Crimeans.

1547 Ivan IV crowned, takes title of ‘tsar’.

1549 Sahib Giray occupies Astrakhan. Sefa Girey of Kazan deposed.

1550 Ivan IV enacts a new code of law and reforms the army.

1551 Sahib Girey raids Kabarda. Deposed by the Ottomans.

1552 Muscovy annexes the Khanate of Kazan. Western Circassians dispatch envoys to the tsar. Safavids establish diplomatic relations with Muscovy.

1555 Treaty of Amasya between the Ottoman Empire and Safavid Iran.

1556 Ivan IV annexes the Khanate of Astrakhan. Dmytro Vyshnevetskyi pledges allegiance to Ivan IV. Zaporozhian Cossacks under Vyshnevetskyi and their Circassian allies begin raiding Ottoman/ Crimean possessions in the north of the Black Sea.