Thadominbya establishes the Upper Burmese kingdom of Ava in 1364 following the collapse of the Sagaing and Pinya Kingdoms due to raids by the Shan States to the north.

Ava, viewing itself as the rightful successor to the Pagan Kingdom, tries in its first years of existence to reassemble the former empire by waging constant wars against the Mon Hanthawaddy Kingdom in the south, the Shan States in the north and east, and Rakhine State in the west.

Thadominbaya dies childless of smallpox at twenty-one in 1368; his widowed queen and her soldier-bridegroom seize power, but opposition government ministers instead support the thirty-seven-year-old Swasawke, who soon evicts the usurping couple, ascends Ava’s throne as king, and settles the border war with Pegu in 1371.

Lithai, who served as uparat during the reign of his father, Lerthai, from the city of Srisatchanalai, an important urban center of the early Sukhothai kingdom, had succeeded to the Sukhothai throne in 1347.

Lithai is known as the writer of the Traiphuum Phra Ruang ('Three worlds of Phra Ruang', Phra Ruang being the dynastic name of Lithai's linneage), a religious text describing the various world of Buddhist cosmology, and the way in which karma consigns living beings to one world or another.

The Traiphuum will go on to serve as an important political document, being reinterpreted in response to changes in the domestic and international political scene.

Japan experiences continual fighting in one province or another as a result of the rival imperial courts in the north and south, impoverishing the country (chroniclers call this period “The Age of the Turncoats”).

The capable Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, after becoming shogun in 1367, reestablishes cordial relations with China and Korea, campaigns against piracy, and attempts to restore order in the countryside.

The Chagatai Khanate had undergone a transformation after the Chagatayid Qazan Khan was killed in 1346.

In the west (Transoxiana), the mostly Turko-Mongol tribes, led by the Qara'unas amirs, have seized control.

In order to maintain a link to the house of Genghis Khan, the amirs have set several of his descendants on the throne, though these khans rule in name only and have no real power.

The eastern part of the khanate, meanwhile, has been largely autonomous for several years as a result of the khans' weakening power.

This eastern portion (most of which is known as "Moghulistan") is, in contrast to Transoxiana, primarily inhabited by Mongols and is largely Buddhist and Shamanist.

The most powerful family in the eastern part of the khanate during this time is a Mongol one, that of the Dughlat amirs.

The Dughlats hold several important towns as vassals to the khans, including Kashgar, Aksu, Yarkand, and Khotan.

The Dughlat amir Bulaji, after seeing the situation in Transoxiana, had decided in around 1347 to raise a khan of his own choosing.

His choice had fallen on Tughlugh Timur, who was at that time little more than an adventurer.

Tughlugh was converted by a Muslim cleric Mauláná Arshad-ud-Din, who unwittingly trespassed on the game-preserves of Tughlugh.

Tughlugh had ordered the cleric before him and demanded to know the reason for the cleric's interference with his hunting.

The cleric answered that he wasn't aware that he was trespassing.

At this point, Tughlugh noticed that the cleric was Persian, and Tughlugh said that "a dog was worth more than a Persian."

The cleric responded, "Yes, if we had not the true faith, we should indeed be worse than dogs."

Puzzled, Tughlugh ordered the cleric to explain the "true faith"; thus was Tughlugh taught the doctrines of Islam, whose concepts of ummah, ghazat (holy war), and jihad inspire his territorial expansionism into Transoxiana.

Thereafter, Tughlugh had embraced Islam.

The conversion is also politically convenient in that he brands the dissident princes which he kills as "heathens and idolaters".

This act results in the amirs of Moghulistan doing the same, although the general population of the region is slower in converting.

Tughlugh Timur—unlike 'Ali-Sultan, who murdered the Franciscan missionaries—appears to have been tolerant towards other religions and intellectuals and shared his Chagatayid and Yuan predecessors' interests in Buddhism.

In around 1363 he extends an invitation to the Tibetan lama, Rol-pai Dorji, who is going back from the court of the Yuan Dynasty headquartered in Dadu (modern Beijing).

The latter politely declines the invitation, however, due to the distance and the Khan's conversion to Islam.

The Moghuls (the Persian designation of Mongols) still preserve their Mongol identity during his reign and speak in the Mongolian language.

Tughlugh Timur soon dies at the age of thirty-four.

His tomb is located in Almaliq.

His conquest of Transoxiana proves to be short-lived, as Amir Husayn and Timur quickly wrest it from Ilyas Khoja.

The Qara'unas in Transoxiana had meanwhile lost their status as de facto leaders of the Chagatai ulus; they have been replaced by Buyan Suldus, an easygoing and ineffective amir.

Tughlugh Timur judges that he will face little resistance in Transoxiana and invades in March 1360.

As predicted, most of the tribal amirs declare their support for him; those that don't (notably Hajji Beg of the Barlas tribe) decide to flee.

The Moghuls decide to find someone else to administer Hajji Beg's former territories; they agree on Hajji Beg's young nephew Timur, who has submitted to them.

This, incidentally, is the first step in Timur's rise to power as amir of the Timurid Empire.

The Moghuls soon leave Transoxiana after a dispute ensues among their amirs.

In 1361, however, Tughlugh Timur and his army ride into the region for the second time.

This time the khan seems to have decided to depose the Transoxianan amirs and centralize power in his own hands.

He executes several amirs, including Amir Bayazid and Buyan Suldus, while Hajji Beg, who had returned following the departure of the Moghuls in 1360, again retreats.

When the Qara'unas Amir Husayn opposes him, Tughlugh Timur invades his extensive territories located south of the Amu Darya and defeats him in battle.

Amir Husayn flees; the Moghul army advances as far south as Kunduz in pursuit of him and plunders the region.

Having destroyed the power of the Transoxianan amirs and reunified the Chagatai Khanate, Tughlugh Timur appoint his son Ilyas Khoja as viceroy of Transoxiana and departs for Moghulistan.

Hajji Beg is first mentioned in 1358 or 1359, when he participated in the overthrow of the Qara'unas ‘Abdullah, who was effectively in control of the southern Chagatai Khanate.

'Abd Allah, who had recently taken power, was young and inexperienced, and his move to Samarkand threatened Hajji Beg, whose territories were centered in the nearby city of Kesh.

Together with another tribal leader named Buyan Suldus, Hajji Beg removed him from power and killed his puppet khan Shah Temur.

Buyan Suldus was then raised to 'Abd Allah's former position of amir.

Buyan Suldus' refusal to enforce his authority, as well as a continuing state of chaos within the Chagatai ulus, leads the Khan of Moghulistan, Tughlugh Timur, to invade in 1360.

Most of the Chagatai leaders do not oppose the invasion; many of them take the opportunity to pillage each other's lands.

The Yasa'ur Hajji Mahmudshah, whose tribe borders the Barlas, decides to raid their territory with a Moghul army.

Hajji Beg decides at first to resist, but seeing that the Moghuls are much stronger, he flees to Khorasan.

During his retreat, Hajji Beg is accompanied by Timur, a member of a prominent Barlas family, who are Mongols that had been Turkified.

At the age of eight or nine, Timur and his mother and brothers were carried as prisoners to Samarkand by an invading Mongol army.

In his childhood, Timur and a small band of followers raided travelers for goods, especially animals such as sheep, horses, and cattle.

When Hajji Beg’s party reaches the Oxus River, Timur asks to return to Kish so that he can maintain order within the Barlas region.

Timur's prominent standings within the Barlas and with several members of the Moghul elite, however, result in Tughlugh Temur's appointing him as the ruler of the Barlas region.

Timur now aligns himself with tribal leaders that are hostile to Hajji Beg, eventually throwing his support behind Amir Husayn, a nephew of 'Abd Allah and the current leader of the Qara'unas.

In the meantime, the Moghuls abandon the region and head back to Moghulistan.

Soon afterwards, Hajji Beg returns to the Chagatai ulus in an effort to regain control of the Barlas.

He goes to the ruler of the Jalayir, Bayazid, and together they attack the Yasa'uri.

When Timur hears of this, he moves his army in support of the Yasa'uri.

The two sides meet in battle, and while its outcome is disagreed upon, it causes the Barlas emirs as well as the army to defect back to Hajji Beg.

As a result, Timur is constrained to submit to Hajji Beg.

The Barlas and Jalayir then again attack the Yasa'uri and defeats them; this victory secures Hajji Beg's position as leader of his tribe.

In the spring of 1361 Tughlugh Timur again invades the ulus.

Knowing that both Bayazid Jalayir and Buyan Suldus had decided to pledge their allegiance to the khan, Hajji Beg plans to do so as well.

Tughlugh Timur's execution of Bayazid, however, prompts him to change his mind.

He goes to Kish to gather troops, then crosses the Oxus into Khurasan, but there he is killed by a group of Turks.

Tughlugh Timur now gives Timur command of Kish a second time, but he will lose it soon afterwards.

It is believed that Timur tried to steal a sheep from a shepherd in around 1363 but was shot by two arrows, one in his right leg and another in his right hand, where he lost two fingers.

Both injuries crippled him for life.

Some believe that Timur suffered his crippling injuries while serving as a mercenary to the khan of Sistan in Khorasan in what is today the Dashti Margo in southwest Afghanistan.

Timur's injuries have given him the names of Timur the Lame and Tamerlane by Europeans.

Timur gains prominence as a military leader whose troops are mostly Turkic tribesmen of the region.

According to Gérard Chaliand, Timur was a Muslim, and he saw himself as Genghis Khan's heir.

Though not a Borjigid or a descendent of Genghis Khan, he clearly sought to invoke the legacy of Genghis Khan's conquests during his lifetime.

His name Temur means "Iron" in old Turkic languages (Uzbek Temir, Turkish Demir).

With the Khan of the Chagatai Khanate, he takes part in campaigns in Transoxiana.

His invasion of Khorasan at the head of a thousand horsemen is the second military expedition that he leads, and its success leads to further operations, …

…among them the subjugation of Khwarezm and Urgench.

Northeast Europe (1360–1371 CE): Territorial Consolidation, Economic Revival, and Diplomatic Initiatives

Between 1360 and 1371 CE, Northeast Europe witnessed significant territorial consolidation by regional powers, gradual economic revival following the devastations of the Black Death, and early diplomatic movements toward stronger regional alliances. The period was marked by strengthened administration by the Teutonic Order, continued Swedish governance in Finland, and ongoing economic and political stability within the Livonian Confederation.

Consolidation of Teutonic Rule in Estonia and Prussia

The Teutonic Order firmly established its administration in Estonia, which had been acquired from Denmark in 1346. They strengthened strategic sites such as Reval (Tallinn), particularly enhancing fortifications on Toompea Hill. In Prussia, the Order reinforced governance and defense structures, notably in major urban centers like Königsberg, solidifying their regional influence and facilitating economic recovery.

Early Diplomatic Steps Toward Scandinavian Unity

During this era, the kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden increased diplomatic interactions to address common economic and security concerns. These early discussions began to lay critical groundwork for what would eventually become the Kalmar Union, driven by the need to counter external threats, stabilize internal politics, and improve economic cooperation, particularly regarding trade and maritime security.

Swedish Integration of Finland

Sweden continued its steady integration and administrative reinforcement of southern Finland. Efforts included building and enhancing fortifications, expanding ecclesiastical and educational institutions, and improving governance frameworks. This integration fostered political cohesion, cultural alignment, and defensive resilience against potential external threats from Eastern Baltic neighbors.

Stability within the Livonian Confederation

The Livonian Confederation, governed from the influential trade hub of Riga, maintained political autonomy and economic resilience. Its strategic location supported the Confederation’s robust maritime trade network, ensuring sustained prosperity. Diplomatic and administrative reforms allowed it to navigate regional challenges successfully and maintain a balanced position between competing powers.

Economic Revival and Urban Prosperity

Major cities, including Reval (Tallinn), Riga, Königsberg, and Visby on Gotland, experienced economic recovery through revived trade and commerce. Strengthened merchant guilds, expanded maritime activity, and enhanced urban governance enabled economic growth, contributing to regional stability and prosperity.

Ecclesiastical Influence and Cultural Stability

Ecclesiastical institutions, particularly the Teutonic Order and regional bishoprics, remained influential. They played central roles in education, cultural continuity, and social governance, fostering cohesion through Latin Christian traditions, and providing stability in the aftermath of the Black Death’s disruptions.

Strategic Diplomacy and Regional Alliances

Geopolitical stability in this period hinged upon diplomatic interactions among regional powers, including the Teutonic Order, Scandinavian kingdoms, and Livonian Confederation. Diplomatic engagements involved careful negotiation, balancing interests, and laying the foundations for broader regional cooperation and unity.

Legacy of the Era

The years 1360–1371 CE significantly shaped Northeast Europe's political, economic, and cultural landscape. Territorial consolidation by the Teutonic Order, strategic diplomacy among Scandinavian kingdoms, sustained economic revival, and enhanced regional cohesion established enduring patterns of governance, diplomacy, and cooperation, influencing Northeast Europe's future trajectory profoundly.