The Black Death was a night‑marvel in the 14th century, a plague that killed a third of Europe’s population in a few years, and yet it was also the spark that rewired the continent. When the last plague wave struck, the labor market was suddenly flooded with survivors and empty households, so wages rose, peasants gained leverage, and the rigid feudal hierarchy began to crumble. In cities, guilds collapsed and mercantile capitalism found a foothold. Even the church was shaken – the idea that divine punishment could erase entire towns made people look for new explanations, feeding the early stirrings of the Renaissance. So while the death toll was staggering, the afterglow set the stage for new social contracts, urban growth, and a shift toward a more modern, less medieval Europe. It’s a paradox that makes me itch to dig deeper into the archives.