Plague and the World Order

What permanent mark will the COVID-nineteen pandemic leave on the world? Past outbreaks have shattered societies and created new systems. One example is the plague of Justinian in the sixth century. It's named after the Roman emperor Justinian and by the time it was over twenty-five to one hundred million people died.

Historians believe the plague spread along trade and military routes into all of Rome, killing up to half its people. Its economy tanked and with it, its mighty military. It couldn't defend against barbarians in Northern Europe which attacked the western Roman provinces. Then the Islamic Rashidun Caliphate from the Arabian Peninsula conquered Roman territories in the Levant, the Caucasus, Egypt, and North Africa.

What remained was a region split into three dissimilar civilizations: the Islamic one in the eastern and southern Mediterranean; the Greek one that becomes Byzantium and the European one in the west. An entirely new world order had evolved.

The plague disrupted Rome's secular governments as people sought solace in religion, allowing the Catholic church to fill the void. A new socioeconomic order also rose when the plague left fewer slaves alive giving them power to gain freedom and rewards for their work on owners' lands which laid the groundwork for feudalism. This new world order continues to have an impact today. We're hopeful today's pandemic won't create such drastic results.