Was there a good side of the black plague?

Question

This is for history project, catagory being: tragedy and triumph

Answer 1

Decimation of the population forced survivors to innovate new technology to achieve the same work with fewer people to do it. This also required improving the general level of education, and opened new opportunities to those who were previously stuck in hereditary roles. In addition, failure of the Church to do anything useful about the crisis led more people to seek answers through science. The net effect was abandonment of the feudal system, development of the middle class, and the start of the Renaissance.

Answer 2

"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger."

Due to exposure to such things and the built imunological system, the European civilization destroyed the American one. The more the humans are exposed to anything similar, the better their imunilogical system becomes, through natural selection. Look how nice teeth and how healthy are the African tribes - natural selection at work. On the long run, this is good, although we might surpass the rats through genetical engineering.

Another aspect is the collective experience gathered in dealing such cataclysmic epidemies. I don't really believe in this because I think that the way we have been treating AIDS for example, leaves alot to desire. Seems that the human concerne is not headed in such direction as much as the threat requires it. Simply, not enough is invested into research. The bacteria, viruses and other organisms have been much longer on Earth, and we have so much more to learn from these lifeforms.

One other good side of the Black Plague could be the control of the population. The human race tends to overpopulate and the Black Plague could be contemplated as a natural population controler. Similar to this is the Klauzeritz's theory that wars have the same natural rhole, and are thus necessary.

Answer 3

Remember to ask 'Which one?' The two really big epidemics of the plague were the ones in the sixth century, and the one in the fourteenth century. The first one may have brought about the dark ages. The second one some say brought about the end of serfdom, (in some countries) as the population of the countryside dropped to a point where it could no longer support a feudal ruling caste. In each case it is a bit like asking 'would there be a good side to a big nuclear war'.

Answer 4

Two things come to mind: One, there was a shortage of food at the time prior so now there were less people to take care of. Second, it taught the world the importance of sanitation and medicine. It really boosted science and research.

Answer 5

I don't think it's fair to refer to the USA's racial situation as "the black plague". You should know better.