thumb|[[Timur, the founder of the Timurid Empire.]]

The 14th century lasted from 1 January 1301 (represented by the Roman numerals MCCCI) to 31 December 1400 (MCD). It is estimated that the century witnessed the death of more than 45 million lives from political and natural disasters in both Europe and the Mongol Empire. West Africa experienced economic growth and prosperity.

In Europe, the Black Death claimed 25 million lives wiping out one third of the European population while the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of France fought in the protracted Hundred Years' War after the death of King Charles IV of France led to a claim to the French throne by King Edward III of England. This period is considered the height of chivalry and marks the beginning of strong separate identities for both England and France as well as the foundation of the Italian Renaissance and the Ottoman Empire.

In Asia, Tamerlane (Timur), established the Timurid Empire, history's third largest empire to have been ever established by a single conqueror. Scholars estimate that Timur's military campaigns caused the deaths of 17 million people, amounting to about 5% of the world population at the time. Synchronously, the Timurid Renaissance emerged. In the Arab world, historian and political scientist Ibn Khaldun and explorer Ibn Battuta made significant contributions. In India, the Bengal Sultanate separated from the Delhi Sultanate, a major trading nation in the world. The sultanate was described by the Europeans as the richest country to trade with. The Mongol court was driven out of China and retreated to Mongolia, the Ilkhanate collapsed, the Chaghatayid dissolved and broke into two parts, and the Golden Horde lost its position as a great power in Eastern Europe.

In Africa, the wealthy Mali Empire, a huge producer of gold, reached its territorial and economic height under the reign of Mansa Musa I of Mali, the wealthiest individual of medieval times, and perhaps the wealthiest ever.

In the Americas, the Mexica founded the city of Tenochtitlan, while the Mississippian mound city of Cahokia was abandoned.

Events

1301–1309

thumb|[[Mansa (title)|Mansa Musa I of Mali, described as the wealthiest individual in history

  • 1309–1377: The Avignon papacy transfers the seat of the Popes from Italy to France.

1310s

  • The Great Famine of 1315–1317 kills millions of people in Europe.
  • 1318–1330: An Italian Franciscan friar, Mattiussi, visited Sumatra, Java, and Banjarmasin in Borneo. In his record he described the kingdom of Majapahit.

1320s

thumb|Europe in 1328

  • 1320: Władysław I the Elbow-high is crowned King of Poland which leads to its later unification.
  • 1321: Dante Alighieri: Divine Comedy
  • 1323: Malietoafaiga ordered cannibalism to be abolished in Tutuila (present-day American Samoa).
  • 1325: Forced out of previous habitations, the Mexica found the city of Tenochtitlan.
  • 1327: Tver Uprising against the Golden Horde.
  • 1328: Tribhuwana Wijayatunggadewi succeeds Jayanegara as ruler of Majapahit.
  • 1328–1333: Wang Dayuan, a traveller from Quanzhou, China during the Yuan dynasty, visited Luzon & Mindanao in the Philippines, many places in Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka and India, and reached Dhofar and Aden.

1330s

thumb|The successor states of the Mongol Empire in 1335: the [[Ilkhanate, Golden Horde, Yuan dynasty and Chagatai Khanate.]]

  • 1330: The Battle of Posada results in a major Wallachian victory, sanctioning the independence of the first Romanian principality, Wallachia.
  • 1331–1333: The Genkō War in Japan deposes the Kamakura Shogunate, ending the Kamakura Period and beginning the Kenmu Restoration under Emperor Go-Daigo.
  • 1335: The death of the Ilkhan Abu Said causes the disintegration of the Mongol rule in Persia.
  • 1336: The Vijayanagara Empire is founded in South India by Harihara I.
  • 1336: The Kenmu Restoration ends and the Muromachi period begins in Japan; start of the Nanboku-chō period.
  • 1347: Adityawarman moved the capital of Dharmasraya and established the kingdom of Malayupura in Pagarruyung, West Sumatra.
  • 1348: The 6.9-magnitude 1348 Friuli earthquake centered in Northern Italy was felt across Europe. Contemporaries linked the quake with the Black Death and Great Famine, fueling fears that the Biblical Apocalypse had arrived.
  • 1346 : official elevation to Patriarchate of an independent national Church in Europe, the Serbian Orthodox Church.

1350s

  • 1350: Ramathibodi I establishes the Ayutthaya Kingdom.
  • 1350: Hayam Wuruk, styled Sri Rajasanagara, succeeds Tribhuwana Wijayatunggadewi as ruler of Majapahit; his reign is considered the empire's 'Golden Age'.

1360s

thumb|200px|[[1360s|This 14th-century statue from Tamil Nadu, present day India depicts the gods Shiva (on the left) and Uma (on the right). It is housed in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.]]

  • 1363: The Battle of Lake Poyang, a naval conflict between Chinese rebel groups led by Chen Youliang and Zhu Yuanzhang, takes place from August to October, constituting one of the largest naval battles in history.
  • 1365: The Old Javanese text Nagarakertagama is written.
  • 1396: The Battle of Nicopolis, in which the Ottoman Empire defeats a large Crusader army of knights and infantry from various Christian kingdoms including Hungary, France, the Holy Roman Empire, Burgundy and Wallachia.
  • 1396: The Second Bulgarian Empire ends, with the capture of the last stronghold fortress of Vidin and its king Ivan Sratsimir by the Ottomans.
  • 1397: The Kalmar Union is established, uniting Norway, Sweden and Denmark into one kingdom.
  • 1397: Reign of Chimalpopoca begins as the third tlatoani of Tenochtitlan.
  • 1399: Zhu Di launches the Jingnan campaign from Beiping (Beijing) to unseat his nephew, the Jianwen Emperor.

Undated

  • Transition from the Medieval Warm Period to the Little Ice Age.
  • Crisis of the Late Middle Ages
  • The poet Petrarch coins the term Dark Ages to describe the preceding 900 years in Europe, beginning with the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 through to the renewal embodied in the Renaissance.
  • Beginning of the Ottoman Empire, early expansion into the Balkans.
  • Iwan vault, Jamé Mosque of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran, is built.
  • Early 14th century: Kao Ninga paints Monk Sewing (attributed) in the Kamakura period (Cleveland Museum collection).
  • An account of Buddha's life, translated earlier into Greek by Saint John of Damascus and widely circulated to Christians as the story of Barlaam and Josaphat, became so popular that the two were venerated as saints.
  • Singapore emerges for the first time as an important fortified city and trading centre.
  • Islam reaches Terengganu, on the Malay Peninsula as evidence by the Terengganu Inscription Stone.
  • The Hausa found several city-states in the south of modern Niger.
  • Work begins on the Great Enclosure at Great Zimbabwe, built of non-cemented, dressed stone. Research suggests the city's population to be between less than 10,000 to 18,000 at its peak.

Inventions, discoveries, introductions

  • Music of Ars nova
  • Foundation of the University of Kraków
  • Chinese text the Huolongjing by Jiao Yu describes fire lances, fire arrows, rocket launchers, land mines, naval mines, bombards, cannons, and hollow cast iron cannonballs filled with gunpowder, and their use to set ablaze enemy camps
  • First pound lock in Europe reportedly built in Vreeswijk, Netherlands in 1373

References