Disease and |
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.
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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.
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Political and |
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.
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