The Black Death: beneficial?

[Awilla the Hun]

In your opinion, was the Black Death beneficial or detrimental to the areas which it struck?

 

[Elfwine]

Not all areas were identical here. Some saw improvements, others not so much (Norway, for example).

 

[Tyler96]

From a western-European point of view it was beneficial in the long-term by undermining serfdom, ultimately bettering the lot of the common man, but it had the opposite effect in eastern-Europe, and of course in the short-term you just had the mass psychological trauma of millions of dead people.

 

[Agricola]

It depends on the era and the structure of the society. Most historians see the black death in the 14th century as longterm beneficial, while the Antoninian Plague in the 2nd century is seen longterm detrimental.

 

[Olthy]

In the long run, probably beneficial to the wider world, but in the short term, you had millions of people dying from an incurable disease that most people thought came from God to punish everyone. Which can never be that good.

 

[Horgus]

In your opinion, was the Black Death beneficial or detrimental to the areas which it struck?

I think it was quite detrimental in the areas that the plague hit, you have the suffering and death of millions.

On the other hand, it was probably beneficial in the same way that discovering the new world to humanity as a whole. Many people died but humanity on the whole benefited from diversification of diet. So, probably a mixed bag.

 

[M79]

Bad:
-Millions dead with subsequent public health nightmare
-Warfare intensifies over the leftovers
-Economic institutions wracked with decimated trade in the short term
-Disproportionate amount of healers and scholars die
-Psychological trauma on mass scale

Good:
-Labor saving devices and other innovations encouraged
-Orthodoxy of the Church and its ideas about medicine, science, and many other areas come into question laying groundwork for Renaissance
-Peasant class diversifies diet and earns more per capita due to labor shortages
-Avoids likely mass starvation that may have been on horizon
-Slows complete Muslim domination of Balkan peninsula by a generation or two

 

[Elfwine]

Good:
-Labor saving devices and other innovations encouraged
-Orthodoxy of the Church and its ideas about medicine, science, and many other areas come into question laying groundwork for Renaissance

This is not universally true across Europe.

-Peasant class diversifies diet and earns more per capita due to labor shortages

As above.

-Avoids likely mass starvation that may have been on horizon
-Slows complete Muslim domination of Balkan peninsula by a generation or two

And Muslim dominance of the Balkans is a bad thing why again?