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Cosimo de’ Medici takes power in Florence.

The former mosque of Seville, consecrated as a Cathedral in 1248, is transformed into a Gothic Cathedral

Some archaeological evidence shows that the Ming Dynasty Grand Admiral Zheng He (a Muslim and eunuch) landed near Darwin, Australia.

Muslims occupy Venetian Thessaloniki

Venice turns to land dominions and allies itself with Florence against Milan. Thirty years of wars follow in Lombardy. And the fleets Venice sends up the Po are more impressive than those it sends to the East. The consequence is that Thessaloniki will soon be

Upon the death of Henry V, King of England, and Charles VI, King of France, the English proclaimed Henry VI, King of England and France; while the French proclaimed Charles VI, King of France, at Poitiers.

Flash flooding in the Netherlands: North Sea surges into countryside with 3 meters of water: 60,000 dead

Admiral Zhen He’s second African mission during the Ming Dynasty. He reached Somalia and Kenya. He may also have reached South Africa and circumnavigated the Cape of Good Hope. Chinese art of the period is rich in references to Africa, and, conversely, 15th-century Chinese handicrafts

From the Flemish, the technique of oil paints came to Italy. Brunelleschi, Donatello, Masaccio, and Leon Battista Alberti brought about a revolution in Western art, known as the Renaissance: the mastery of perspective, the mathematical conception of composition, and the admiration for Greco-Roman classical antiquity.

Filippo Brunelleschi invents linear perspective

Constantinople. The Ottomans are besieging the city with an advance maneuver. They will conquer it in 1453.

Beijing. The Forbidden City is under construction.

The Poles defeat the Teutonic Knights at Tannenberg.

Plate armor (full armor) appears on the battlefields for both the knight and the horse

Construction of the Forbidden City in Beijing

Zheng He (Cheng Ho) naval commander of the Ming Dynasty, leads 7 expeditions into the Indian Ocean reaching Madagascar, the east coast of Africa, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and, perhaps, Australia

Mongolia. In the quriltai (nobles’ meeting) of 1404, Timur calls the Ming ruler Zhu Yuanzhang a pig emperor (tunghuz-khan), identifying the ruler with an animal abhorrent to Islam, and declares jihad against the Ming.

French Marshal Boucicault, an ally of the Genoese, stops in Cyprus to persuade the King, the last Crusader kingdom in the East, to support Genoa. He then continues to the Venetian base of Modone, where Zeno’s fleet is stationed. The next day, Zeno sails out

Tamerlane arrives in Anatolia with 140,000 men against Bayazid’s 85,000. The confrontation begins with the betrayal of the Black Tatars, who defect to the Mongols. Also on Bayazid’s side are the Serbs led by Stefan Lazarevic, and on Tamerlane’s side are the Genoese. Tamerlane prevails

Buddhism almost completely disappears from the Indian subcontinent, supplanted by Hinduism and Islam

Earthquake measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale in the Modena area

Kabul, Afghanistan. Timur gathers his army to invade India. He manages to capture and sack Delhi after defeating Sultan Mahmud II Tughlaq, who had also deployed numerous elephants. The carnage in Delhi will last three days.

Caffa. Tamerlane receives a Genoese delegation. From now on, they will be his allies. And from this moment, the Western powers conceive the idea of using Tamerlane as an anti-Ottoman weapon.

The Crusade of Nicopolis. Illegally organized and poorly executed. It resulted in a catastrophic defeat.

Toqtamish, Tamerlane’s main internal rival, is definitively defeated.

Byzantine Empire. Murad’s Ottomans conquer Thessaloniki, which will become one of the main Ottoman cities until the 20th century.

At the head of his nomadic hordes, between 1382 and 1405, the year of his death, Tamerlane amassed an empire stretching from Europe to India. He rebuilt Samarkand and made it his capital. His successors were his son and then his grandson, Ulug-Beg, who was

Venice. The Venetian public debt (Monte Vecchio), after rising from 3 to 5 million gold ducats due to the Fourth War with Genoa, gradually decreased to 3.5 million gold ducats in 1402. The value changed from 92 (in 1375) to 18 (in 1381), and then

Fourth Genoa-Venice War. In Turin, under the auspices of the Green Count Amadeus VI of Savoy and Urban VI, a peace treaty was signed between Genoa, Padua, Aquileia, Hungary, and Venice (Cyprus was excluded because it had not sent its own plenipotentiary ambassadors): Venice had

Fourth Genoa-Venice War. The Austrians occupy Treviso.

Fourth Genoa-Venice War. Manfredonia. Vettore Pisani dies, his body brought back to Venice and buried in Sant’Antonio di Castello. Meanwhile, the Carraresi take Castelfranco, Asolo, and Noale, continuing to lay siege to Treviso. Venice, unable to relieve it, cedes it, with reservation of its rights,

Fourth Genoa-Venice War. Chioggia. On July 1st, the Genoese capture Koper. Arbe falls on August 8th, but Pisani’s fleet reconquers the two cities, routing the enemy.

Fourth World War Genoa-Venice. Chioggia. A bombardment knocks down the wall of a convent, burying Pietro Doria. He is replaced by Napoleon Grimaldi, who attempts to force his way into the Brondolo lagoon, but is driven back.

Kulikovo Polje on the Don. Dmitry, Prince of the Principality of Moscow, defeats the Mongols on the Don River: the gradual process of Russia’s liberation from the Mongols begins.

Fourth Genoa-Venice War. Carlo Zeno plundered Genoese merchant ships throughout the Mediterranean because all Genoese forces were concentrated in Venice. He plundered Genoese merchantmen everywhere between Genoa and Sicily, a route he made twice. He then pushed eastward to Tenedos, then Constantinople, and finally Beirut,

Fourth Genoa-Venice War. Genoa represents Venice’s most dangerous rival for dominance of Mediterranean trade. The victor in these contests (the first Genoa-Venice war was 1350–1355) will never be able to prevent its opponent from deploying a fleet equal to or more powerful than the previous

Hundred Years’ War: Under Richard II, King of England

China. Introduction of paper banknotes, a world first. It means believing in something you can’t see or touch: sheets of paper that everyone recognizes as having value. They’re called “feiqian,” or flying money. They’re larger than an A4 sheet of paper and gray, printed on

A Chinese Ming delegation is on an official visit to Italy.

Period of rule as Emir of Timur Barlas, in Turki-Chagatai تیمور, temur, “iron”, also Temur-i lang, in Turki-Persian تیمور لنگ, i.e. Temur “the lame”, Italianized to Tamerlano also “Temurbeg” from “Temur Bek” (Tatar: бөх , transl. lord) (Shahrisabz, 8 April 1336 – Otrar, 19 January

Notarial records show that on January 26, 1368, two citizens of Modena sold to Leone, son of the late Sabbatuccio da Monestanto, a Jew resident in Modena, a garden intended as a cemetery for a Jew named Mosè, his heirs, and his family. A decree

The University of Krakow is founded

Aegean Sea. Third Venetian-Genoese War. The Genoese send a fleet of 64 galleys under the command of Paganino Doria. A small Venetian fleet under Niccolo’ Pisani, with 20 galleys, is in the Aegean seeking plunder. When Pisani learns of Doria’s fleet, he takes refuge in

China. After the flood of 1344, which significantly altered the Yellow River’s course, the emperor launched a massive hydraulic project to restore its previous course. With 140,000 subjects and 20,000 soldiers at work, the work was successfully completed after seven months.

The price of light (per million lumens per hour – about enough to read a book for 2.5 hours a day for a year) is 35,000 pounds in 2000. It will fall to 15,000 in 1550, 5,000 in 1825, and 3 at the beginning of

Until around 1350, lending money with interest was prohibited in Christianity, Islam, and the Jewish community, due to the problems caused by the constant human tendency to borrow more money than one could repay. As a result, money was based on physical resources such as

Bubonic plague in China

Genoese ships under siege in Crimea arrive in Genoa and spread the Black Death throughout Europe.

Earthquake measured 5.8 on the Richter scale in Ferrara

The economies of the Maritime Republics of Genoa and Venice are severely damaged and pitted against each other by the Mongol closure of eastern markets, triggered by minor incidents in Caffa (Genoese) and Tana. Caffa, Genoese, is also besieged, with plague-ridden corpses thrown at it.

King Edward III of England declares insolvency. This is the first documented case of international default. The insolvency causes the collapse of the Florentine bank of Peruzzi and Bardi.

Ulus of the Golden Horde. Khan Ozberg, a direct descendant of Genghis Khan from the line of Batu and Jochi, dies. His long reign, begun in 1313, thus ends. His name is the origin of the ethnic name Uzbek.

A Chinese delegation is on an official visit to Pope Benedict XII in Avignon.

Byzantine Empire, Middle East. After Nicaea (Iznik, 1333), the Ottomans also conquered Nicomedia (Izmit), becoming a serious threat to Constantinople.

Hundred Years’ War: Flemish Phase

Byzantine Empire, Middle East. The Ottomans conquer Nicaea (Iznik).

Modena. The Pio family manages to force the Este family to lift a terrible siege of Modena and San Felice.

Venice, Milan, Florence, Naples, and Palermo have a population of around 150,000-200,000. In western Italy, only Paris has close to 100,000 inhabitants. And in 1348, Europe’s urban population will collapse again due to the Black Death.

Louis the Bavarian, after being crowned King of Italy in Milan the previous May, was then crowned Emperor in Rome on 7 January, which was the epilogue of a profound military and political crisis in the Guelph camp.

Agreement between the Mongol occupiers and the principality of Moscow to collect taxes for the Khan in the principality and neighboring principalities; this agreement will bring fortune to the city of Moscow, previously just a village on a river.

Orhan, son of Osman or Othman (“Ottoman” means sons of Othman), a client of the Seljuk Turks, was granted territory near Constantinople. Here they would develop as warriors in border clashes with the Byzantines. By 1360, the Ottomans had more territory on the European side

Kanku Musa undertakes an expensive pilgrimage to Mecca, a 4,300-kilometer journey, with an entourage of 15,000 people and 15 tons of gold. Kanku Musa was the ninth mansa of the Mali Empire, which reached its territorial peak during his reign. Musa is known for his

The pontiff banned all trade with Egypt, severely damaging Venetian commerce. For 23 years, no Venetian ship sailed to Egypt, the main regular trading destination, especially the port of Alexandria.

Modena. Rainaldo Bonacolsi (Duke Passerino), breaking his agreement, has Francesco Pico and his sons Prendiparte and Tommasino arrested. He then lets them starve to death, and Francesco Bonacolsi subsequently has Mirandola demolished.

Modena. Francesco Bonacolsi, son of Rainaldo, known as Passerino, assembles a powerful Ghibelline army, which he entrusts to Sassolo da Sassuolo and Manfredino da Gorzano. With these forces, he marches on Montefiorino, where the Modena army suffers a crushing defeat.

Modena. The Ghirlandia bell tower is completed by Arrigo (Enrico) da Campione, with the addition of the golden knob, raising the tower to 88 meters in height and giving it its final appearance.

Venice. Following the war with Ferrara, Venetian public debt reached an astronomical figure: it exceeded one million gold ducats. Repaying it, at best, would take decades, if it were ever repaid. But the 5% annual interest rate (paid 2.5% every six months), unchanged since 1262

Boccaccio was born in Paris

Upon the death of Ghazan, the Mongol governor of the Ilkhanid ulus, he was succeeded by his brother Oljeitu. He initially adopted the Christian faith and changed his name to Nicholas, in honor of Pope Nicholas IV. He later became a Buddhist, and finally a

In the fresco in the Scovegni Chapel in Padua, Giotto also depicts a comet. It may be Halley’s Comet, which passed by in 1301.

Transit of Halley’s Comet

Bubonic plague kills 75 million people (about 35% of the population) in Europe.

In New Zealand, the arrival of the Polynesians, the first mammals on the archipelago, leads to the extinction by extermination of the Moma, land birds, large in size like ostriches.

Dissolution of the Islamic Empire

Syria. Ilkhanid troops, north of Homs, clash with the Mamluk army and overwhelm it. They then sack Homs.

Syria. Ilkhanid troops reach Aleppo.

The Ottomans rule the Sunnis from Istanbul.

India. The first Mongol attempt to take Delhi faces a formidable enemy in Sultan Ala’oddin Khalji. The Mongols are forced to retreat with heavy losses.

Square sails appear for the first time in the Mediterranean

Marco Polo, prisoner of the Genoese, after the battle of Curzola, told to his cellmate, Rustichello da Pisa, Il Milione, account of his travels in the Far East