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Originally Posted by JrKASperov
That never happened. As far as I know, the pandemic with the most casualties was the Spanish flu, and that one only managed to kill about 1-5% of the population. See, it's dangerous to use such highly suggestive formulations as "wipe out" when you don't even know the facts. Of course we have this idea that such pandemics are dangerous but that's because we've been given that image through the media for since before I was born.
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According to Wikipedia, the Spanish flu of 1918 killed between 20 - 100m people, more than died in WW1. The mortality rate was between 2.5 - 5%, and as you say approx. 5% of the world's population at the time died. Approximately 33% of Europe's population at the time was wiped out.
In comparison, bubonic plague killed approx. 75m people. According to Wikipedia the world's population reduced from 450m in 1350 to 350-375m in 1400. That's an overall reduction of 16 - 20% of the world's population at the time. 50-60% of Europe's population was "wiped out" (excuse the pun).
Obviously no plague or pandemic has totally wiped out the world' population if you take this literally, otherwise none of us would be here. But if you look at the impact the Black Death had on society in 1300 vs other pandemics that occurred either before or after, it was possibly the most significant. Why?
- medical knowledge in the 1400s was very different to 1918 - there were no antibiotics or antiviral drugs
- public health considerations were minimal as nobody knew of the nature of contagious disease at the time
- it significantly changed Europe's social structure - the Roman Catholic Church lost a lot of the power it had as they could not "save people from the Black Death"
- most of the dead were from lower classes of society ie. peasants, farmers, serfs etc. Their deaths had a significant impact on agriculture and the economy
- the feudal system that had been in place declined after the plague, as higher status jobs that had been lost (eg physicians, clergy, gravediggers) had to be replaced, freeing serfs and peasants from duties that the social status they had been born in had locked them into. See below:
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Finally, the devastating and immediate impact of the Black Death prepared the way for a reconstruction of society. Deserted towns and vacant church and governmental positions had to be filled with new people. At first the demand was specific: more physicians, more clergy, and—of special urgency—more gravediggers were needed. The demand for new people to move into key positions throughout society opened the door for many who had been trapped in the ancient feudal system. It was also a rare opportunity for women to be accepted in positions of responsibility outside of the home (e.g., as witnesses in court proceedings). People who lacked "social connections" now could find more attractive employment; merit had started to challenge social class membership. These developments fell far short of equality and human rights as understood today, but they did result in significant and enduring social change.
http://www.deathreference.com/Bl-Ce/Black-Death.html
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- more people began to study medicine as medical texts began to be translated from Greek and Latin into local languages
- the mortality rate caused a lot of people to a ) lose their belief in God, as well as to b ) live in a more decadent manner, as death seemed inevitable
So maybe not "wiping out the world", but it certainly redefined society, particularly in Europe but also in the Middle East. Wiped out what had been there before and replaced it with something new - a new social structure, a new set of values, a new set of beliefs.
This is not to diminish the severity of the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, where more people died. However, I feel that the impact to society was less, because:
- the world's population was much greater at the time, and the social upheaval was not to the same extent as the Black Death
- the fact that WWI had just happened and devastated communities across the US and Europe minimised the societal impact of the Spanish flu pandemic
Of course, tell that to the 20-100m people who died in 1918 and they would likely disagree with me.
In fact, if I were to look at plagues that significantly changed the course of human history, right alongside the Black Death I would put Justinian's Plague in the mid 500s. It prevented Justinian and the Byzantine Empire from ultimately retaking Italy and re-forming the Western Roman Empire, and the Byzantine Empire never reached such heights after it.