Emperor Taiwu honors his wet nurse, Laby Dou, as “nurse empress dowager” in spring 432, starting what is to be a Northern Wei tradition,

According to this tradition, when a crown prince is named, his mother, if still alive, must be forced to commit suicide. (Some historians do not believe this to be a Tuoba traditional custom, but believe it to be a tradition instituted by the founding emperor Emperor Daowu based on Emperor Wu of Han's execution of his favorite concubine Consort Zhao, the mother of his youngest son Liu Fuling—the eventual Emperor Zhao—before naming Prince Fuling crown prince.)

As a result, because emperors would not have living mothers, they would often honor their wet nurses with the honorific title, "Nurse Empress Dowager."

Emperor Taiwu’s mother had died when he was twelve, two years before being named crown prince.

He also creates one of Helian Bobo's daughters as his empress, and his oldest son Tuoba Huang, by his deceased concubine Consort Helan, crown prince.

In summer 432, with Xia destroyed, Emperor Taiwu, begins to attack Northern Yan in earnest.

In fall 432, he makes the first major attack on Northern Yan in Feng Hong's reign, heading for the Northern Yan capital Helong (in modern Jinzhou, Liaoning).

Helian Ding is by 432 no longer able to hold Shanggui, and …

…having destroyed Qifu Mumo's Western Qin, Helian Ding tries to head west to attack Northern Liang, but is intercepted by the khan of the Tuyuhun, Murong Mugui, defeated, and captured.

The Tuyuhun, a powerful tribe roaming the area of modern Qinghai and Gansu and originally related to the Xianbei, are tent-dwelling experts in horse breeding that also practice agriculture.

As a realm just between the Chinese empires in the east (Northern Wei, and the Southern dynasties) and the other steppe tribes like the Rouran and the Gaoche, the Tuyuhun act as envoys and traders, and many Buddhist missionaries and travelers cross their country.

Feng Hong tries to appease the Northern Wei emperor by delivering gifts of beef and wine to his army but to no avail.

Ten Northern Yan prefectures surrender to Northern Wei, and Northern Wei forces capture a number of Northern Yan cities and put Helong under siege.

However, two months later, Emperor Taiwu withdraws at the start of winter, after capturing thirty thousand households from Northern Yan and relocating them to his You Province (modern Beijing, Tianjin, and northern Hebei).

Feng Hong's official Guo Yuan suggests to Feng Hong that he offer to be a Northern Wei vassal and send a daughter to be Emperor Taiwu's consort, but Feng Hong refuses, stating that the enmity between the states is so deep that he will be killed anyway even if he surrenders.

(While Northern Wei was investing Helong, the Northern Wei general Zhu Xiuzhi, who had been captured from Liu Song, plotted to assassinate Emperor Taiwu and then join Feng Hong, but his plot was discovered, and he flees to Feng Hong, who in turn sends him back to Liu Song, seeking Liu Song aid.

Henceforth, Liu Song and Northern Yan will be informal allies, although Liu Song will provide little actual help.)

The Huns, for half a century after the overthrow of the Visigoths, have extended their power over many of the Germanic peoples of central Europe and fought for the Romans.

Since Ammianus' time, the Huns have acquired huge sums of gold as a result of their treaties with the Romans as well as by way of plunder and by selling their prisoners back to the Romans.

This influx of wealth has altered the character of their society.

By 432, the leadership of the various groups of Huns has been centralized on the Hungarian Plain under a single king, Rugila, also called Rua.

He extracts annual peace payments from the Eastern Roman Empire.

The Lambakanna dynasty of Anuradhapura has ruled since 65; their most noteworthy king is Mahasena (reigned 276–303), who had constructed many major irrigation systems and championed heterodox Buddhist sects.

A Pandyan invasion from southern India ends this dynasty and, briefly, Sinhalese rule, in 432.

Pope Celestine I dies on July 27, 432, after a ten-year reign in which he led a vigorous policy against Nestorianism.

He is succeeded by Sixtus III as the forty-fourth pope.

Baptisteries, commonly octagonal in plan, are among the most symbolic of all Christian architectural forms; and the characteristic design that had been developed by the fourth century CE can be seen today in what is probably the earliest extant example, the baptistery of the Lateran palace in Rome, built by Sixtus III.

The church of Santa Maria Maggiore, located on the Esquiline, is the first great church of Mary in Rome.

Founded in 432, just after the Council of Ephesus, the church raises the Virgin above all created things.

The swing towards a greater employment of glass has reached a point at which mosaics are almost entirely made of this material.

In what must be regarded as a late but vigorous revival of the painterly illusionism of antiquity, there is an audacious blending of colors.

Among the high points of this trend are the flaming visages of angels in Santa Maria Maggiore’s extensive mosaic program of Old and New Testament scenes begun at this time.

Construction begins also on Rome’s Basilica Eudoxiana (now S. Pietro in Vincoli, or St. Peter in Chains), built with money from the empress Eudoxia for the veneration of the chains of St. Peter's Jerusalem imprisonment.

His Roman chains, later added, had become famous after receiving mention at last year’s Council of Ephesus.