Editing 1340s (section)

==Asia==
===Political developments===

====Mongol decline====
[[Image:Asia in 1345.svg|thumb|right|The political configuration of Asia in the mid-1340s]]In the [[Kipchak Khanate]], [[Uzbeg Khan|Özbeg Khan]] of the [[Golden Horde]] died in 1341, ending what Muslim chroniclers considered a golden age.<ref>Saunders, p 164, 165</ref> His elder son [[Tini Beg|Tinibeg]] ruled for a year or two, before being dethroned and killed at the hands of his younger brother Janibeg in 1342.<ref name="Saunders165">Saunders, p 165</ref> Janibeg's fifteen-year reign was notable for the appearance and rapid transmission of the [[Black Plague]] along the trade routes from [[inner Asia]] in this decade.<ref name="Saunders165"/> The nation "struggled into new life" after the plague had passed in the following decade.<ref name="Saunders165"/>

The [[Chagatai Khanate]] was being split by religious dissensions between the traditionalist Mongol adherents of the ''[[Yassa|Yasa]]'' and the Mongol and [[Turkic peoples|Turkish]] converts to Islam.<ref name="Saunders172-173">Saunders, p 172-173</ref> The eastern half of Chagatai seceded under the conservative Mongol element when [[Tughlugh Timur|Tughluk Temür]] seized power in [[Moghulistan]] around 1345.<ref name="Saunders172-173"/> The Khanate continued in Transoxiana, but the Chatagai khans became the puppets of the now enthusiastically Muslim Turkish amirs, and the amir [[Amir Qazaghan|Kazghan]] overthrew the Khan [[Qazan Khan ibn Yasaur|Kazan]] in 1347.<ref name="Saunders173">Saunders, p 173</ref>

In the [[Persia]]n [[Ilkhanate]], the Mongol [[Hulagu Khan|House of Hülegü]] had been extinguished in the male line with the death of Il-Khan [[Abu Sa'id (Ilkhanid dynasty)|Abu Sa'id]] in 1335, .<ref>Boyle, p 413</ref> As JJ Saunders wrote, "A crowd of competitors for the vacant throne started up, but of some history has scarcely condescended to record their names, much less their actions, and an interval of more than thirty years was filled with confused political struggles"<!--(until the emergence of [[Tamerlane]] in 1369)-->.<ref>Saunders, p 146</ref> Numerous claimants were set up in the 1330s; by 1339, the two rivals were [[Jahan Temür]] set up by [[Hasan Buzurg|Shaik Hasan-i Buzurg]], and [[Suleiman Khan]] supported by [[Hassan Kuchak|Shaik Hasan-i Kuchak]].<ref name="Boyle-p415">Boyle, p 415</ref> In June 1340, the two Hasans and their rival khans met in battle on the Jaghatu; "Hasan-i Buzurg was defeated and fled to [[Baghdad]], where he deposed Jahan-Temür and himself assumed sovereignty as the founder of the [[Jalayirids|Jalayir dynasty]]".<ref name="Boyle-p415" /> The deposition of Jahan-Temür can be regarded as the final dissolution of the Ilkhanate. Although his rival retained nominal power among the [[Chobanids]] for another year or two, he in turn was deposed by Hasan-i Kuchak's brother and similarly disappears into obscurity.<ref>Boyle, p 415-416</ref> "So insignificant had these figureheads become", according to JA Boyle, "that we are not even informed as to the time and manner of their death".<ref name="Boyle416">Boyle, p 416</ref> Suleiman was replaced as puppet by Anushirvan, "in whose name his Chobanid masters continued to strike coin until 1353".<ref name="Boyle416"/>
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In the 1330s, the claimants included [[Arpa Ke'un|Arpa Ke'ün]] (a great-grandson of [[Ariq Böke|Arigh Böke]]); who was defeated by the [[Oirat]] candidate Musa (a grandson of [[Baydu|Baidu]]); who was defeated by a great-grandson of [[Mengu-Timur|Mengü-Temür]], set up as a claimant by [[Hasan Buzurg|Shaik Hasan-i Buzurg]].<ref>Boyle, p 413-414</ref>  [[Hassan Kuchak|Shaik Hasan-i Kuchak]] passed off a Turkish slave as his long deceased father Temür-Tash, as a pretence to attract the supporters of the [[Chupanids|Chobanids]] as well as the Oirat tribesmen who had fought under Musa.<ref>Boyle, p 414-415</ref>
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====China====
[[File:HukouWaterfall4.jpg|thumb|left|Flooding of the [[Yellow River]] posed a serious problem for the Yuan administration, effecting a recentralisation and regulation of power by the end of the decade]]
In China, the Mongol Yuan dynasty was in a gradual state of decline, due to complex and longstanding problems such as the "endemic tensions among its ruling elites".<ref name="Franke561">Franke, p 561</ref> [[Ukhaantu Khan, Emperor Huizong of Yuan|Toghon Temür]] had been installed as emperor at age thirteen in 1333, and was to reign as the last Yuan emperor until 1368.<ref name="Franke561"/> In March 1340, the Yuan chancellor, [[Bayan of the Merkid]], was removed in a carefully orchestrated coup, and replaced by his nephew [[Toqto'a (Yuan dynasty)|Toqto'a]].<ref name="Franke572">Franke, p 572</ref> In Bayan's overthrow by the younger generation, the movement to restore the status quo from reign of [[Kublai Khan]] effectively died.<ref>Franke, p 568, 572</ref> Bayan's purges were called off; his supporters dismissed; positions he had closed to the Chinese were reopened; the meritocratic system of examinations for official service was restored.<ref name="Franke573">Franke, p 573</ref> By this time, Temür had just begun to participate in the formal functions of state, and assisted in the "anti-Bayan coup": he issued a posthumous denunciation of his uncle [[Tugh Temür]]; he exiled the grand empress dowager Budashiri and his cousin El Tegüs; and entrusted the upbringing of his infant son Ayushiridara to Toghto's household.<ref name="Franke573-574">Franke, p 573-574</ref>

Toghto's first term exhibited a fresh new spirit which took a predominantly centralist approach to political solutions.<ref name="Franke573"/> He directed an unsuccessful project to connect the imperial capital to the sea and the [[Shanxi]] foothills by water; he was more successful in his attempt to organise funds for the completion of the official histories of the [[Liao dynasty|Liao]], [[Qin dynasty|Qin]] and [[Song dynasty|Song]] dynasties.<ref name="Franke573"/> In June 1344, however, he tendered his resignation following a series of local rebellions that had broken out against the Yuan in scattered areas of China.<ref name="Franke574">Franke, p 574</ref>

Toghto's replacement as chancellor was Berke Bukha, an effective provincial administrator who took the opposite, decentralised approach to Toghto.<ref>Franke, p 573, 574</ref> Bukha had learned firsthand from the great [[Hangzhou]] fire of 1341 that central regulations had to be violated to provide immediate and effective relief.<ref name="Franke574"/> Accordingly, he promoted able men to local positions and gave them discretionary authority to handle relief and other problems.<ref name="Franke574"/> Similarly, he granted local military garrisons blanket authorisation to prevent the spread of banditry.<ref name="Franke574"/> In 1345, Bukha's administration sent out twelve investigation teams to visit each part of China, correct abuses, and "create benefits and remove harms" for the people.<ref name="Franke574"/>

Bukha's approach failed to arrest the mounting troubles of Yuan China in the 1340s, however.<ref name="Franke574"/> The central government was faced with chronic revenue shortfalls.<ref name="Franke574"/> Maritime grain shipments — vital for the inhabitants of the imperial capital — had seriously declined from a peak of 3.34 million bushels in 1329 to 2.6 million in 1342.<ref>Franke, 574–575</ref> From 1348 on, they continued only when permitted by a major piratical operation led by Fang Kuo-chen and his brothers, which the authorities were unable to suppress.<ref name="Franke575">Franke, p 575</ref> Additionally, the [[Yellow River]] was repeatedly swelled by long rains, breaching its dykes and flooding the surrounding areas.<ref name="Franke575"/> When the river finally began shifting its course, it caused "widespread havoc and ruin".<ref name="Franke575"/> In 1349, the emperor recalled Toghto to office for a second term.<ref name="Franke575"/> With high enthusiasm and strong belief from his partisans that the problems were soluble, he began a radical process of recentralisation and heavy restriction of regional and local initiative in the following decade.<ref name="Franke575"/>

====India====
The 1340s saw the founding of the [[Bahmani Kingdom]] in central India. Wars between the Muslims of the north and the southern Hindus of the [[Vijayanagara Empire]] occurred in this period. In 1341, the [[Sultan of Delhi]] chose [[Ibn Battuta]] to lead a diplomatic mission to [[China]].<!--Copied from [[1341]] article-->{{citation needed|date=June 2013}}

===Culture, religion and philosophy===
Pope [[Benedict XII]] had despatched the Italian Franciscan [[John of Marignolli]] in 1339, who travelled safely through the Yuan territories of [[Kipchak Khanate|Kipchak]] and [[Chagatai Khanate]] during the [[Pax Mongolica]] and reached the imperial capital of Ta-tu<!--source: "Peking"; today: "Beijing"--> in 1342.<ref name="Saunders153">Saunders, p 153</ref> He was received in an audience with Toghon Temür, to whom he presented some large European horses — their bulk, according to JJ Saunders, "surprised Chinese and Mongols alike, accustomed as they were to the small, wiry animals of the [[steppes]]".<ref name="Saunders153"/> Marignolli stayed in China for five years, departing by ship in 1347 and returning to Avignon in 1353.<ref>Saunders, p 153-154</ref>

====Military technology====
* The poet [[Gunpowder warfare#China|Zhang Xian]] wrote the ''Iron Cannon Affair'' in 1341, detailing the destructive use of [[gunpowder]] and the cannon.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Artillery : a History.|last=John.|first=Norris|date=2013|publisher=The History Press|isbn=9780750953238|location=New York|oclc=856868990}}</ref>