Founding of Malacca
A port with its hand on the throat of the spice trade
Around 1400 an exiled prince, Parameswara, founded a town on the narrow Strait of Malacca, the main sea lane between the Indian Ocean and China. Malacca quickly became Southeast Asia's greatest market, adopted Islam and spread it across the region; Zheng He's fleet called there. The Portuguese Tomé Pires wrote that whoever is lord of Malacca has his hand on the throat of Venice.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 14th century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1385 Union of Krewo — 15 years earlier
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1380 Battle of Kulikovo — 20 years earlier
- 1410 Battle of Grunwald — 10 years later
- c. 1411 Andrei Rublev's Trinity — 11 years later
Alive at the time
- Timur (aged 64)
- Johannes Gutenberg (aged 0)
- Ibn Khaldun (aged 68)
- Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (aged 42)
- Andrei Rublev (aged 40)
- Bayezid I the Thunderbolt (aged 40)
- Richard II (aged 33)
- Sigismund (aged 32)
- Zheng He (aged 29)
- Henry V (aged 14)