Changes

A contender for the most devastating pandemic in history is the Black Death between 1346–1353. While it does seem that pandemics did greatly shape the course of history in earlier periods, such as the Justinian Plague and the typhoid that likely weakened Athens, few events shaped global history as the Black Death. The Black Death weakened many states, including those across the Middle East, China, India, and Europe. Some regions did not recover more quickly, while others were never able to recover completely until the past century, such as the Middle East. For Europe, it took over 200 years for the population to approach levels of the 14th century. The remnants of this plague in fact have been found to reoccur or break out in various regions in the Old World, including in Central Asia where it likely originated, until the early 20th century.

==Recent Pandemics==