<P> In the 11th and 12th centuries, constant incursions by nomadic Turkic tribes, such as the Pechenegs and the Cuman - Kipchaks, caused a massive migration of Slavic populations to the safer, heavily forested regions of the north and temporarily halted the expansion of the Rus' state to the south and east . Like many other parts of Eurasia, these territories were overrun by the Mongols . The invaders, who became known as Tatars, were mostly Turkic - speaking peoples under Mongol suzerainty . They established the state of the Golden Horde with headquarters in Crimea, which later adopted Islam as a religion and ruled over modern - day southern and central Russia for more than three centuries . After the collapse of Mongol dominions, the first Romanian states (principalities) emerged in the 14th century: Moldova and Walachia . Previously, these territories were under the successive control of Pechenegs and Cumans . From the 12th to the 15th centuries, the Grand Duchy of Moscow grew from a small principality under Mongol rule to the largest state in Europe, overthrowing the Mongols in 1480 and eventually becoming the Tsardom of Russia . The state was consolidated under Ivan III the Great and Ivan the Terrible, steadily expanding to the east and south over the next centuries . </P> <P> The Great Famine of 1315--1317 was the first crisis that would strike Europe in the late Middle Ages . The period between 1348 and 1420 witnessed the heaviest loss . The population of France was reduced by half . Medieval Britain was afflicted by 95 famines, and France suffered the effects of 75 or more in the same period . Europe was devastated in the mid-14th century by the Black Death, one of the most deadly pandemics in human history which killed an estimated 25 million people in Europe alone--a third of the European population at the time . </P> <P> The plague had a devastating effect on Europe's social structure; it induced people to live for the moment as illustrated by Giovanni Boccaccio in The Decameron (1353). It was a serious blow to the Roman Catholic Church and led to increased persecution of Jews, foreigners, beggars and lepers . The plague is thought to have returned every generation with varying virulence and mortalities until the 18th century . During this period, more than 100 plague epidemics swept across Europe . </P> <P> The Renaissance was a period of cultural change originating in Florence and later spreading to the rest of Europe . The rise of a new humanism was accompanied by the recovery of forgotten classical Greek and Arabic knowledge from monastic libraries, often translated from Arabic into Latin . The Renaissance spread across Europe between the 14th and 16th centuries: it saw the flowering of art, philosophy, music, and the sciences, under the joint patronage of royalty, the nobility, the Roman Catholic Church, and an emerging merchant class . Patrons in Italy, including the Medici family of Florentine bankers and the Popes in Rome, funded prolific quattrocento and cinquecento artists such as Raphael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci . </P>

How did the european countries capture the markets of the world