AHC: No Black Death

Not possible. The conditions were causing it from lack of hygiene and the society they lived in. Besides, the disease did help end a primitive version of 1984.

Note: The disease was horrible, but I think was necessary for the development of society because of the Church's totalitarian control.

Wrong.
The black death was imported by merchants coming from the East, it had nothing to do with how many times people bathed. It raged in the arabic areas of Europe (and the Crimean) as well as the European areas.

And the last part is just the standard "all evils come from the church" that has become comme-il-faut, no matter how wrong it is..
 

Alkahest

Banned
I've also been thinking about a Europe without the Black Death. One question that arises is how the radical demographic changes compared to OTL would influence the future power and colonization of the countries that were hit the hardest IOTL. For example, could the Crown of Aragon, one of the greatest victims of the pandemic, become an influential great power?
 
As for preventing the Black Death, overpopulation and poor living conditions were crucial in its occurrence, so it might not be the same plague, but a major epidemic seems pretty likely sometime in the mid-14th century.
I agree entirely. Moreover, it had tremendously important economic impacts. The death of so many working people meant the survivors could demand, & get, higher wages, which raised standards of living. This, in its turn, sparked economic growth.... It may be overstating it to say the Industrial Revolution began here, but the model was there. Did the additional wealth contribute to the Age of Exploration? I suspect it did.
 

MAlexMatt

Banned
This is a clown version of the Middle Ages. Don't know why its such a pet bugaboo with teenagers, autistics, and random AHers, but there it is.

To point out just one wierd thing about what you're saying, witchburning wasn't really a big thing until the Renaissance and Reformation. Certainly not prior to the Plague. Not really a widespread persecution of herbalists going on at all.

To be fair, witchburning did happen in the Middle Ages. Witches were a Christian sore-point from about when there were originally Christians.

However, it did get a bit worse after Christian civilization started making more money. Not that much worse, but worse.
 
Not possible. The conditions were causing it from lack of hygiene and the society they lived in. Besides, the disease did help end a primitive version of 1984.

Note: The disease was horrible, but I think was necessary for the development of society because of the Church's totalitarian control.

Also the beggining of large scale trade between the west and east made a plague more likely, as populations came into contact with diseases they had no resistance to.
 
To be fair, witchburning did happen in the Middle Ages. Witches were a Christian sore-point from about when there were originally Christians.

However, it did get a bit worse after Christian civilization started making more money. Not that much worse, but worse.

That happens not to be the case.
 
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