page_title: 14th century
section_title: Events
hierarchical_section_title: 14th century / Events
caption_attribution_description: Somaskanda (Shiva and his wife Uma) 12th century Chola dynasty Bronze H: 59.2 W: 71.8 D: 31.6 cm South India Housed in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in the Smithsonian, Washington, D.C.
context_page_description: As a means of recording the passage of time, the 14th century was a century lasting from January 1, 1301, to December 31, 1400. 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 and the Indian Subcontinent 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 Charles IV, King of France led to a claim to the French throne by Edward III, King 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 Ottoman Empire.
  In Asia, Tamerlane, 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.
context_section_description: The transition from the Medieval Warm Period to the Little Ice Age.
  Beginning of the Ottoman Empire, early expansion into the Balkans.
  Early 14th century: Attributed to Kao Ninga Monk Sewing is made. Kamakura period. It is now kept at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
  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 a fortified city and trading centre of some importance.
  Islam reaches Terengganu, on the Malay Peninsula.
  The Hausa found several city-states in the south of modern Niger.
  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.
  Iwan vault, Jamé Mosque of Isfahan, Isfahan, Persia (Iran), is built.
  Work begins on the Great Enclosure at Great Zimbabwe, built of un-cemented, dressed stone. The city's population is now between 10,000 and 40,000.
caption: 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..
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