Five plagues that changed history. I personally think that the Spanish Flu may have had less of a role in promoting the 1920s/1930s flapper era and its care free cheap attitude to life. However it's a short, sweet video.

ScribeandSaint, before I watched yesterday your interesting youtube, I did already some search from what I thought was one of the largest epidemics ever in the world, namely the South American decimation of the former Indian population.

I found a good résumé overhere, although as you read the about us, there are no references about the authors...as for the academic worth...
nevertheless if the article is right:
https://www.pri.org/stories/2019-01-31/european-colonization-americas-killed-10-percent-world-population-and-caused

"Our new data-driven best estimate is a death toll of 56 million by the beginning of the 1600s — 90 percent of the pre-Columbian Indigenous population and around 10 percent of the global population at the time. This makes the “Great Dying” the largest human mortality event in proportion to the global population, putting it second in absolute terms only to World War II, in which 80 million people died — 3% of the world’s population at the time."

But now I see that it is also included in the youtube that you mentioned...

As for other discussions that I had on other fora in the time: What with the (so-called by some) Indian's "genocide" in North America, which was from what I read also mostly due to European diseases introduced among Indians not yet resistant to it on the "new" continent...
If someone more knowledgeable than me can explain more on that episode in North America's history?

Kind regards, Paul.

Scribe, going back to my school days, although it was only mentioned fleetingly, we were told that the late medieval outbreak of "the plague" likely helped nudge England out of the practice of serfdom and increased the living wage (albeit very marginally of the common man).  The fact that so many people died meant that those in a position to offer work had to increase the wages of those who were employed to do the work. I had never thought of the plague helping lay the foundation for the Reformation but it's food for thought.

LadyinRetirement wrote:

Scribe, going back to my school days, although it was only mentioned fleetingly, we were told that the late medieval outbreak of "the plague" likely helped nudge England out of the practice of serfdom and increased the living wage (albeit very marginally of the common man).  The fact that so many people died meant that those in a position to offer work had to increase the wages of those who were employed to do the work. I had never thought of the plague helping lay the foundation for the Reformation but it's food for thought.

LiR, yes I did some research in the time for the boards about the Black Death and the consequences as I as you learned at school about shortage of workforces in the aftermath. Page 5 of this essay. And I found even a realtionship between the Black Death, Wyclif and the Lollards. 
Page 7 of this essay
https://digibug.ugr.es/bitstream/handle/10481/43699/3%20Unit%20Three.pdf?sequence=4&isAllowed=y

I want not to elaborate a summary (no time and my English is not the best). For those interested they can read it about all facets of the question and in detail on the site.

Kind regards, Paul.

PaulRyckier wrote:

As for other discussions that I had on other fora in the time: What with the (so-called by some) Indian's "genocide" in North America, which was from what I read also mostly due to European diseases introduced among Indians not yet resistant to it on the "new" continent...
If someone more knowledgeable than me can explain more on that episode in North America's history?

In the meantime I did some research and found what I was speaking about...

It is an article from Guenter Lewy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guenter_Lewy

And it summarizes (? summarise?)  all what I already read about the question and shows how difficult the question still is among others among "human right watchers"...
https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/7302
As said about the Wicliff article I don't want to "summarize"  for lack of time and for my poor difficult English, but for those interested it is all there...
And at least Guenter Lewy seems to follow the same line as I proposed?