1480s

* 1480: Inquisition policies begin in the Iberian peninsula under royal authority following canon law. The first auto de fe takes place in Seville in 1481 and from 1482 permanent tribunals begin to be established. Its institutions will remain in force until 1834.
* 1482: The Portuguese navigator, Diogo Cão, becomes the first European to sail up the Congo.
* 1482: Ivan III renounces the Mongol Khanate rule over Russia.
* 1483: William Caxton, the first printer of books in English, prints his translation of "Aesop's Fables".
* 1483: The Sistine Chapel opens (August).
* 1484: The first sugar mill becomes operational in the Gran Canaria.
* 1485: The city of Vienna falls to Matthias of Hungary in his conquest of Austria. He makes it his capital.
* 1485: Forty years of civil war in England is brought to an end after the House of Tudor defeats the House of York in the Wars of the Roses. Stable rule there will gradually be restored.
* 1487: Italian architects begin to build the Kremlin in Moscow.
* 1488: The present Royal Netherlands Navy is formed by decree of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximillian of Austria.
* 1489: Jeannetto de Tassis is appointed Chief Master of Postal Services in Innsbruck. His descendants will come to run much of the postal system in Europe.