1391
Iberian pogroms: Seville's juderia destroyed
Inflamed by the preaching of Archdeacon Ferrand Martinez, a Sevillian mob attacked the Jewish quarter, killing perhaps four thousand and forcing tens of thousands more into baptism. The riots spread to Cordoba, Toledo, Valencia, and Barcelona in a wave of violence lasting months. Iberian Jewry never recovered. The conversos created a new social problem for Spain.
Timur defeats Tokhtamysh at the Battle of the Kondurcha
On the Volga steppe, Timur shattered the army of the Golden Horde khan who had dared to challenge his supremacy. The victory broke the Horde's military power and opened the Russian principalities to a century of fragmentation. Moscow, ironically, would be the long-term beneficiary of Timur's destruction of its overlord.
Ming tribute system with Siam and Java
Hongwu formalized tribute relations with the new Ayutthaya kingdom of Siam and the declining Majapahit of Java, exchanging brocades and porcelain for incense woods and exotic animals. The Ming tribute order, with its careful protocols of diplomatic precedence and gift exchange, stabilized maritime Southeast Asia politically in ways that encouraged urbanization and commercial development.
Timur defeats Tokhtamysh at Kondurcha River
On the Volga steppe, Timur's disciplined cavalry shattered the Golden Horde's army in a battle involving perhaps 200,000 warriors on both sides. The victory broke the back of Mongol power in Russia and opened the way for Moscow's slow rise from vassal principality to sovereign state. Tokhtamysh fled north and never recovered his authority.
Manuel II Palaiologos ascends a shrunken Byzantine throne
The new emperor inherited a polity reduced to Constantinople, a few Aegean islands, and the Despotate of Morea, all surrounded by the Ottomans. He spent his reign begging European kings for crusader help, traveling personally as far as London and Paris. He would outlive Bayezid and die in his bed.