Disease and
death

The trade and communication throughout Europe and Asia fostered by the Mongol conquests and empires of the 1200's had a deadly and unforeseen consequence in the mid-1300's: disease joined merchants and missionaries on the trade routes and spread to all the lands linked by the vast network of trade. As early as the 1330's, some areas of China suffered outbreaks of disease. By the 1340's, plague had made its way to central Asia, southwest Asia, Europe, and northern Africa. Wherever it has struck, epidemic plague has carried away perhaps a third to half of the human population.

 

Rising powers

Such dramatic population decline weakened the Mongol rulers of China. In the 1360's, native Chinese forces drove them out and founded the Ming dynasty. As Mongol power has faded elsewhere, the Turkish conqueror Tamerlane has made a bid to rebuild Genghis Khan's empire. As the century draws to a close, he already holds Persia, Afghanistan, and northern India, and his predatory eyes have turned toward Anatolia and China.

 

Political and
economic expansion

In some regions, the 1300's has been an age of impressive political organization. Despite epidemic plague, Ottoman Turks have conquered and absorbed much of the Byzantine Empire. Great prosperity has arrived in western Africa on the backs of camels carrying gold, salt, textiles, and other trade goods. The Mali Empire, which controls the gold trade, is flourishing.