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search Millennium: 2nd millennium Centuries:
13th century14th century15th century Decades: 1310s 1320s
1330s1340s1350s 1360s 1370s Years: 1340 1341 1342 1343 1344 1345
1346 1347 1348 1349 Categories: BirthsDeathsArchitecture  The
1340s were a Julian calendar decade in the 14th century, in the
midst of a period in world history often referred to as the Late
Middle Ages in the Old World and the pre-Columbian era in the
New World.  In Asia, the successors of the old Mongol Empire
were in a state of gradual decline. The Ilkhanate had already
fragmented into several political territories and factions
struggling to place their puppet leaders over the shell of an
old state; the Chagatai Khanate was undermined by religious
unrest and fell to rebellion. The Black Plague swept through the
Kipchak Khanate in 1346, and also affected the Genoese colonies
under Mongol siege, thence spreading into Europe. The Yuan
dynasty in China was struck by a series of disasters