What if the Black Death Wiped Out Europe?

Disease isn't fun(Hell yeah) Cities traditionally have been cesspools of human filth nobody knew what germs were until a couple centuries ago so before modern medicine when pandemics got bad They got bad and one of the most infamous pandemics was the black death a global outbreak that killed Roughly 75 million people in the span of a decade keep in mind This was out of a global population of only 450 million when it spread into Europe It's Estimated at least a third to even half of all Europeans died in around seven years the ramifications of that are Astounding people dying in the streets bodies everywhere family is completely wiped out many Europeans truly believed it was the apocalypse and that leaves an interesting question What if in an alternate timeline it was at least for Europe? What if the [black] [death] didn't just kill off half of Europe? What if it reached the levels of the Columbian exchange that wiped out the native Americans? 90% keep in mind. This is simply one possible scenario. This is not a 100 percent prediction It's an exercise of alternate history now 90% is a percentage so horrific Europe can't possibly bounce back there are simply so few people to repopulate that just like the americas in our timeline Europe becomes an open Sparsely populated [peninsula], they simply can't sustain large complex societies anymore So what could happen in this alternate scenario usually I teach some context to catch people up who aren't familiar with the history But the black death is so commonly taught that there really isn't much Context needed to be said in our timeline the plague spread when rats from AsIa came over fleas on those rats had disease fleas bit the people People bit people medieval zombies just joking everyone died Well half of everyone died everywhere except for poland in this alternate scenario it is 1360, 20 years since the mysterious Plague ravaged through Europe in his timeline the disease swept through every European City and Town there isn't anything very different about this alternate plague It's just far larger than in our timeline ninety percent of Europe's people are entirely wiped out by 1360 there Are only Seven million Europeans left a population smaller than New York City Spanning the scale of the United States when a population density is that low the lands are? Relatively quiet, and people can't sustain these complex feudal societies anymore Any city that survives shrinks to the size of a village wilderness slowly takes back areas like rome Florence London the vast amounts of the buildings are largely ruins empty testaments to the people that once live there Similar to the pyramids of Egypt or [the] Maya any native who survived has lived in small isolated Pockets in Central Poland western civilization is effectively dead Christianity is a fringe religion Catholicism and orthodoxy if they do exist is either abroad or within the small polish bubble That's the best case as for coastal regions. Who bore the full brunt of the plague. They are entirely? depopulated no more Southern Europeans In really any size [any] sizable population is Farther up North. Europe in this alternate timeline is this giant power vacuum there is no kingdoms to raise an Army and Defend lands, so Europe with its vast fields and temperate climate seems pretty attractive to neighboring powers the iSlamic world Recovers from its own plague even [if] it took a few decades It would only be a matter of time before Muslim powers start sending Excursions into the open Wilderness of the North frying reel see the follow couple centuries marks an age of islamic Colonization of Europe it isn't a large united effort instead It's by multiple different groups the moors and arabs expand into France the turkish Ottomans cross into greece Sack a depopulated constantinople and move on to Southern Europe is likely this territory could reach Southern Germany That'll Vienna looked up the Mongol tribes Then barge in from Central Asia to seize the territory of Russia which they've previously lost This is just an interesting speculation and they aren't too important What should be noted is that Europe becomes a battleground between numerous islamic groups? Turkish Arab and Mongol. Even with their differences. They all share Islam the leading dominant Faith in the world Christianity and Judaism [now] simply fragments Europe in the middle East has now merged into one Single Form what is [the] fate of the Europeans [themselves] they can't always live in isolation over the centuries any Europeans really left either live in impoverished Squalor or migrate into Muslim cities some convert to Islam others Don't it really depends on how tolerant the region is they migrate to even then? Europeans are simply a distinct minority in the new Muslim cities as Centuries past old cities are renovated new occupants migrate in as the population of Europe rises once again The continent though is culturally and Ethnically divided arabs in the west turks and mongols in the east and to either decide to sail off to find new lands say America most likely not one of the Major reasons Europe wanted to find a new trade route was because they were so [isolated] by the turks since in the pSAlter timeline this region isn't really blocked then. There's no reason to sail across the atlantic [don't] expect the Chinese to colonize it either no matter how many of you were hoping I'd say China by this time began a weird period Of isolation Where they didn't want any more maritime trade and that leaves America uncolonized? For at least many centuries. There's just no drive to expand further Europe [and] Africa are instead that new world for colonization African slavery still is a large and prominent occurrence I could go into a whole spiel [about] the Arab slave trade But in this alternate timeline rest assured tens of millions of Africans are enslaved Not by [Europeans], but by [arabs] does the world reach the technological level it is now No in many ways it seems that Europe's path to industrialization wasn't simply an inevitable path. More or less a fluke. For Millennia Europe had kept the same model Feudalism, when the plague hit it killed so many those who survived demanded higher wages? Undermining the social order forcing Innovation Europe's isolation forced it to seek new Routes leading to the Americas Solidifying Europe's new step ahead allowing for complex technological advances to operate society it was a lightning in a bottle of chance. I simply don't see this occurring anywhere else China and east Asia chose to isolate themselves They didn't need to innovate so they just chose to sustain old technologies as for the Islamic world Its Golden age had died starting a century's long period Of stagnation The reason for this is complex and too much for this video long story short after my research I don't think this is simply [because] [of] the region I think this was a societal problem Like how Europe was in a standstill since the days of rome the islamic world had the same issue Having Europe when it changed this it simply expanded there would still be advances in the sciences mathematics and philosophy but in many different areas I simply don't see much technological change to the stage that we're at now Occurring which really puts our world today in perspective this is simply one scenario there are countless others however the point of this video isn't purely to theorize about the What-if, but to think about the history that did happen in a different light how fleas biting people a plague. Centuries ago could lead to Europe's eventual empires and you listening to me right now This is Cody of the alternate history Hub this video was sponsored by audible and online service which has an unmatched selection of [audiobooks] from all your favorite novels their catalog allows you access to audio recordings from practically every Genre Instantaneously over the magic of the internet one of the best uses in my opinion for it are for alternate history [audiobooks] including the works of Harry Turtledove But the book which inspired me the most to make this video was the years of rice and salt by Kim Stanley Robinson it details a world where the black death left Europe practically uninhabited while other cultures moved in to take its place You can listen to this and many other alternate history audiobooks really anything from any Genre? Anywhere on a phone computer or tablet Regardless of whether you continue with audible or none? You can sign up now for a 30-day trial with audible and get an audiobook of your choice Doesn't have to be altering history Absolutely free just click on the link provided in the description below W audible.com/althistory, this is Cody of alternate history hub.

Channel: AlternateHistoryHub

Views: 2,586,510

Keywords: Black Death, AlternateHistoryHub, alternate history, history, Black Death and Europe, Black Death history, Medieval europe, what if the black death wiped out europe?, alternate history hub

Id: DEYwXLpBpfI

Length: 10min 8sec (608 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 08 2017