501 HTTPS Required error downloading from Central Repository

Question

I am receiving the following response upon making requests to The Central Repository:

Error 501 HTTPS Required.
Use https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/
More information at https://links.sonatype.com/central/501-https-required

How do I satisfy this requirement so that I may regain access to Central?

Answer

As of January 15, 2020, The Central Repository no longer supports insecure communication over HTTP and requires that all requests to the repository are encrypted over HTTPS.

If you're receiving this error, then you need to replace all URL references to Maven Central with their canonical HTTPS counterparts https://repo1.maven.org or https://repo.maven.apache.org.

If for any reason your environment cannot support HTTPS, you have the option of using our dedicated insecure endpoint http://insecure.repo1.maven.org.

For further context around the move to HTTPS, please see https://blog.sonatype.com/central-repository-moving-to-https.