Yersinia pestis. Who would have guessed that a tiny bacterium hitching a ride in a flea’s gut could turn the world upside down? Yet the Black Death, despite its horror, handed us a surprising legacy of progress. Below are the 10 good things we owe to that medieval catastrophe.

10 Good Things Uncovered

10. Healthier People

Human groups evolve when disease pushes them to adapt. Certain gene variants give some people a leg‑up in fighting infections, and those carriers tend to have more offspring. This natural selection—known as positive selection—keeps advantageous genes alive while discarding weaker ones.

Recent research shows that descendants of Europeans who survived the plague carry altered genes that boost disease resistance. This may explain why Europeans react differently to some illnesses and autoimmune disorders. In particular, a trio of immune‑system genes produces proteins that latch onto harmful bacteria, sparking a defensive response. Populations that escaped the Black Death lack these toll‑like receptor genes.

The pandemic acted as a massive laboratory, weeding out the frail. Analyses of skeletal remains from a London churchyard reveal that post‑plague individuals faced a markedly lower mortality risk at every age. Before the plague, only about 10 % expected to live beyond 70; after, that figure doubled to roughly 20 %. Coupled with better diets, this biological reshaping gave post‑plague Europeans longer, sturdier lives. As the old saying goes, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

9. The Perfume Industry

During the pestilence, physicians blamed poisonous vapors for the disease and turned to aromatic herbs as air purifiers. While perfume had existed before, the Black Death turned personal fumigants into a full‑blown craze.

Popular concoctions mixed orange zest with dry cloves, and people carried posies of fragrant flowers. Doctors wore nose bags stuffed with herbs and spices. Pomanders—sometimes called “amber apples”—were amber spheres infused with musk, aloes, camphor, and rosewater, hung around the neck. Aromatic waters such as the rosemary‑lavender‑alcohol blend known as Eau de la Reine de Hongrie (the “Queen of Hungary’s water”) foreshadowed Eau de Cologne, while simpler herbal scents catered to the less affluent.

Bathing fell out of favor because many believed it opened the pores to foul air. In the centuries that followed, dousing oneself in perfume to mask body odor replaced bathing altogether, evolving from a protective measure into a fashionable social custom among the elite.

8. Hospitals

Before the Black Death, hospitals were essentially isolation wards where the sick were kept away to protect the healthy. A critically ill patient entering a medieval hospital was deemed hopeless; the institution’s main role was to dispose of the patient’s belongings and say a Mass for his soul. Healing was secondary to spiritual care, and hospitals functioned more as charitable almshouses than medical centers.

Monks and nuns staffed these facilities, offering herbal concoctions and prayers rather than systematic treatment. They also served as shelters for widows, orphans, travelers, and the destitute, which is why “hospitality” shares the same Latin root as “hospital.”

The massive outbreak forced a dramatic shift. Overwhelmed by sheer numbers, hospitals could no longer act as multi‑purpose waystations; they had to concentrate on caring for the sick and dying. This crisis spurred a new, more scientific approach to medicine: failed medieval remedies were scrutinized, anatomy and surgery entered university curricula, and medicine transformed from a text‑bound philosophy into an observational, practical science.

Professional physicians became central to hospital operations, leading to specialized wards for different ailments and laying the groundwork for modern medical institutions.

7. Sex Comedies

In medieval Europe, the Church castigated secular amusement as the devil’s work, yet the Black Death highlighted the therapeutic power of laughter. Biblical wisdom even notes that “a merry heart does good like medicine.” Advocates argued that Christians needed a respite from spiritual strain, and comedy could recharge a weary soul.

The plague amplified this view. Tracts circulated during the crisis prescribed a regimen of fleeing anger, abandoning sick locales, and surrounding oneself with cheerful companions—physicians even claimed that laughter could cure disease.

Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron (1352), written while sheltering from the plague, is considered the first truly entertaining work of European literature. Its 100 tales, narrated by a group of men and women, brim with love, misadventure, and bawdy humor. Boccaccio’s unabashed sexual jokes appealed to all classes; the stories often blended religion and sex, using implication rather than explicitness to avoid offending the more conservative audience. One tale features a monk persuading a beautiful girl that pleasing God involves letting him place his “devil” in her “hell.”

The Decameron birthed modern fiction. Its focus on everyday people inspired Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, and centuries later, writers like James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway drew from its structure and spirit.

6. More Functional Homes

The shortage of skilled artisans after the plague pushed architects toward simpler, more functional designs. English churches, for example, transitioned from the ornate Decorated Gothic to the sleeker Perpendicular Gothic, emphasizing vertical lines, larger windows, and greater opportunities for stained‑glass artistry.

Domestic architecture also evolved. Pre‑plague homes typically featured a single great hall with an open hearth, where families lived communally and entertained guests. Poorer dwellings—timber frames with wattle‑and‑daub walls and thatched roofs—provided little protection against vermin.

By the late 14th and early 15th centuries, these halls were subdivided with partition walls at one or both ends, creating private chambers separate from servants, animals, and street grime. Upper sections often became parlors or solariums, and elite residences, like Bodiam Castle, even boasted private latrines. The use of rush‑covered floors—breeding grounds for pests—was replaced with carpets and rugs, making homes more luxurious and comfortable.

5. Predominance Of English

You’re reading this in English rather than Latin because the Black Death reshaped language use across Europe. The massive loss of literate monks who copied manuscripts spurred a demand for a more efficient way to reproduce books, paving the way for the printing press and an explosion of printed material.

Fearing long, plague‑riddled journeys, scholars founded local universities, increasing the overall number of higher‑education institutions. With many Latin‑speaking professors dead, universities turned to teachers from lower schools who lacked fluency in Latin. These educators naturally used the vernacular, accelerating the spread of native languages. Boccaccio wrote the Decameron in Italian, making his work accessible to a broader audience, while medical and practical texts became available in local tongues.

In England, English was declared the official language of the courts in 1362, and by 1385 it dominated school instruction. As Britain expanded its empire, English spread worldwide, becoming today’s lingua franca.

4. End Of Feudalism

Feudalism—where serfs owed labor and loyalty to lords in exchange for land—was upended by the Black Death. The massive loss of peasant labor left fields fallow and crops unharvested, forcing landowners to compete for workers.

Surviving peasants leveraged this scarcity, demanding higher, cash‑based wages and better treatment, effectively dictating the terms of their employment for the first time. This shift weakened the traditional power of lords over serfs.

In response, monarchs and nobles attempted to restore the old order. England’s 1350 Statute of Laborers tried to cap wages, and the 1381 Poll Tax sparked the Peasants’ Revolt. Yet the demographic and economic changes were irreversible; serfs transitioned to independent laborers, creating new avenues for social mobility and planting the seeds of modern individualism.

3. The Middle Class

Freedom from feudal obligations opened horizons for ambitious peasants, who flocked to growing towns to practice trades and crafts. The most successful among them amassed wealth, forming a new middle class.

With cash‑based economies taking hold, competition among individual manufacturers began to erode the guild system’s monopoly over production and pricing. This nascent capitalism spurred trade with the East, bringing exotic goods and ideas that enriched European culture.

The burgeoning middle class also became patrons of the arts, science, and philosophy. Their financial support fueled an explosion of creativity that blossomed into the Renaissance, reshaping European intellectual life.

2. Freedom Of Thought

The Catholic Church once dominated every facet of medieval existence, but the Black Death exposed its limitations. As clergy perished alongside the populace and offered no answers to the catastrophe, the Church’s authority waned, prompting many to question doctrine and seek personal spirituality.

One manifestation was the Flagellant movement, where people roamed Europe whipping themselves to atone for sin. Intellectuals, such as England’s John Wycliffe, began voicing dissent against ecclesiastical abuses, a sentiment that would later fuel Martin Luther’s Reformation and, eventually, the Enlightenment’s skepticism toward divine authority.

Thus, the plague opened the floodgates of freethinking, laying the groundwork for centuries of philosophical and scientific inquiry.

1. Humanism

The staggering death toll forced survivors to reevaluate humanity’s worth. Confronted with mortality, people turned inward, celebrating the present life’s beauty rather than fixating on an afterlife. This shift ignited a love for the arts, physical sciences, and human‑centric knowledge.

Petrarch (1304‑1374) championed a new anthropology that saw humans as rational, inherently good, and capable of independent thought—rejecting the doctrine of Original Sin. He emphasized human dignity over religious penitence.

Urban middle‑class patrons, now wielding political and economic power, looked back to Classical Greece and Rome for governance models. Their support encouraged artists and scholars to abandon medieval conventions, birthing a cultural rebirth—the Renaissance—that laid the foundation for today’s secular, human‑focused society.

Larry is a freelance writer whose main interests are history and chess.

These days, you can’t scroll through the internet without stumbling on the phrase “OK, Boomer.” It’s the cheeky retort millennials toss at the Baby Boomer generation when they’re fed up trying to sway opinions. While the meme often feels snarky, the truth is millennials owe a massive debt of gratitude to boomers for a slew of achievements that shape our everyday lives. Below are 10 reasons millennials should thank boomers, each a cornerstone of modern society.

10 They Won The Cold War

Before the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the globe was locked in the Cold War’s icy grip, pitting the Soviet Union against the West, including the United States and NATO allies. Spanning 44 years, this standoff involved generations from the Silent cohort to Gen X, yet it was the Baby Boomers who finally saw it conclude without a single shot fired.

Throughout the decades, boomers clashed across the Atlantic via proxy wars and the race to build ever‑larger nuclear arsenals. Ultimately, they helped end the conflict by fostering economic instability within the USSR and championing political and social democratization. The Soviet collapse stemmed from a mix of economic pressure and social upheaval, driven by a generation that protested the Vietnam War in the West and Soviet boomers who grew disillusioned with communist doctrine.

9 The Beatles, Steven Spielberg, & Erin Brockovich

Although the Beatles were born just before the boomers’ birth year, they rose to fame as the Boomer generation entered adulthood. Their seismic influence on music and culture inspired countless rock and pop artists across generations. In the realm of film, Steven Spielberg redefined cinema by inventing the summer blockbuster, cementing his status as one of the greatest directors ever.

Beyond entertainment, Erin Brockovich emerged as a Boomer who championed the underdog. Not merely a movie title, Brockovich’s real‑life legal battle against corporate environmental damage sparked widespread public outrage and heightened awareness of climate‑related issues.

8 They Helped Establish A Worldwide Network Of Telecommunications

Boomers grew up amid the Space Race, watching Neil Armstrong step onto the Moon, and many later became the scientists and engineers at NASA and ESA who built the global telecommunications web we rely on today. Their work in the 1970s laid the foundation for the satellite networks that connect phones and computers worldwide.

By populating Earth’s orbit with communication satellites, boomers helped stitch humanity together like never before. While later generations expanded on this infrastructure, the core of today’s global connectivity traces back to the relentless efforts of boomers during the 1970s, ’80s, and beyond.

7 They Made Men’s Willies Work Again

What might seem a light‑hearted topic is actually a serious medical breakthrough. Dr. Gill Samuels, a Boomer from Bury, Lancashire, joined Pfizer in 1978 and became a pivotal figure in developing the iconic blue pill, Viagra.

Launched in 1998, Viagra sparked countless jokes, yet its impact on society is undeniable. Men who once faced despair over erectile dysfunction wrote letters of gratitude, and many participants in the clinical trials begged to stay on the medication. While newer treatments exist, the revolutionary blue pill originated from a Boomer‑led discovery.

6 They Shattered A Significant Glass Ceiling

After World War II, women were largely confined to traditional roles, but boomers catalyzed change. As families migrated to suburbs, divorce rates rose and women realized they didn’t have to endure loveless marriages, prompting a surge of women into the workforce. Confronted with a glass ceiling, they began to break through.

Pioneering figures such as Sally Ride—the first American woman in space—Dr. Leona Fulani—the first woman on every state’s presidential ballot—and Carly Fiorina—the first female CEO of a Fortune 20 company—exemplify boomers who shattered barriers. Hillary Clinton later added to this legacy by becoming the first woman to mount a serious bid for the U.S. presidency.

5 Civil Rights & The ADA

The Civil Rights movement ignited while many boomers were still toddlers, yet as they matured they witnessed injustice and chose to fight. Boomers protested the Vietnam War, marched alongside earlier activists, and internalized those lessons to champion civil‑rights reforms and disability rights.

In 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) passed, guaranteeing access for all Americans, regardless of ability. Though critics argued it imposed costs on businesses, the ADA opened doors for countless individuals, enabling them to work and communicate—especially for the deaf and hearing impaired—through nationwide services.

4 They Ended The Draft

One of the most tangible boomer gifts to millennials is the abolition of the military draft in 1973. Before the All‑Volunteer Force, every American man faced compulsory service, and after the loss of 58,220 servicemen in Vietnam, public opinion soured.

The Department of Defense let the Selective Service Act lapse in June 1973, ending conscription. Boomer‑led protests against the draft were pivotal, allowing the U.S. military to evolve into a top‑tier, volunteer‑driven force where service is a choice, not an obligation.

3 They Gave The World The Personal Computer

Early computers filled entire rooms and cost fortunes, remaining the domain of corporations and governments. The advent of the personal computer democratized computing, bringing it into homes worldwide. This revolution owes much to Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs—both boomers born in 1950 and 1955.

While Jobs and Wozniak are household names, countless other boomers contributed to the first microprocessors. Personal computers reshaped society, much like Gutenberg’s press once did, ushering in an era where anyone could access digital tools.

2 They Invented The Internet

The Internet, a staple of modern life, traces its roots to the ARPANET—though not a boomer invention, it provided the framework for later packet‑switching networks that blossomed into the web. Many contributors were boomers, but Sir Tim Berners‑Lee stands out as the father of the World Wide Web.

Born in 1959, Berners‑Lee invented the Web in 1989, giving us URLs, HTTP, and HTML. As director of the World Wide Web Consortium, he continues to steer the Internet’s evolution, ensuring the network remains open and accessible.

1 They Created Video Games

The first video game emerged in 1958 when physicist William Higinbotham programmed a simple oscilloscope display. The real spark came in the early 1960s with MIT’s Spacewar! on the PDP‑1, inspiring a wave of hobbyist programmers.

By the 1970s, the industry exploded thanks to boomers like Allan Alcorn, who created Pong. Throughout the late ’70s and ’80s, boomers dominated game development, laying the groundwork for today’s massive entertainment sector.

The American Revolution handed us the promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, yet a treasure trove of ideas and everyday conveniences we now take for granted actually stem from the French Revolution.

10 Things We Explore Below

10 The Idea Of Equitable And Humane Capital Punishment

Dr. Joseph‑Ignace Guillotin championed a new, supposedly humane method of execution, and in 1792 the state adopted the now‑infamous blade‑dropping device as its sole sanctioned means of death. Compared with the grisly alternatives of hanging, drowning, or burning, the guillotine was a stark improvement. Even worse was the breaking wheel, which tore limbs and backs as condemned bodies were draped over it, faces turned upward “to await God’s judgment.”

French surgeon Antoine Louis promoted the device for its speed and efficiency, initially dubbing it the louisette or louison. Over time it earned the nickname “the national razor.”

Exact figures are elusive, but historians estimate between 520,000 and 650,000 souls met the blade. In Paris alone, 1,376 counter‑revolutionaries were executed between June 10 and July 28 1794. The guillotine also earned the moniker “the widow,” as about 88 % of its victims were men; women comprised less than 1 % of those decapitated before its final use in 1977, versus roughly 3.6 % of American executions being female.

9 The Metric System

In 1793, the French introduced the metre as a way to replace the chaotic tangle of over 800 regional units. The new standard was based on the distance from the North Pole to the equator measured along the Paris meridian, sweeping away body‑based measures such as the foot (pied) and thumb (pouce), as well as the bushel (boiseau) and the acre (arpent or septier).

Travel writer Arthur Young observed during his 1787‑89 tour: “In France, the infinite perplexity of the measures exceeds all comprehension. They differ not only in every province, but in every district and almost every town.” The metric system finally became law in 1799 after a period of resistance.

Across the Atlantic, Thomas Jefferson dabbled with metric conversion in 1789, Alexander Graham Bell tried again in 1906, and the United States passed a succession of acts (1866, 1968, 1975, 1988, 1996, 2004) encouraging its adoption—yet the public remains wedded to feet and yards.

8 The Baguette (‘Equality Bread’)

In 1793 a government decree mandated that all bread be made equal, eliminating the heavy round loaves (the boule) for the poor and the lighter, flaky loaves for the wealthy. While the precise origin of the modern baguette is still debated, the revolutionary era undeniably gave birth to this slender staple.

One legend claims the baguette emerged as a tax‑avoidance strategy. In 1790, talks of an indirect and direct tax on the traditional boule prompted bakers to alter flour blends and shape, allowing them to sell untaxed, elongated loaves.

Another story credits a Viennese officer‑turned‑baker who arrived around the 1830 Revolution, introducing beer‑leavened, steam‑baked, elongated breads. Yet a third theory links the baguette to Napoleon’s army, noting its cylindrical form and lighter weight made it easier for soldiers to carry compared with the 1‑3 kg boule.

7 The Fabulous Restaurant Scene In Paris

Before 1789, France’s 26 million citizens included roughly 400,000 nobles. After the upheaval, only about 15,000 nobles remained, leaving a surplus of talented cooks and waitstaff seeking new livelihoods. Many opened innovative eateries where patrons could sit at personal tables, dine on fine china, and choose from diverse menus.

The term “restaurant” originally described a restorative broth of concentrated meat juices. By the mid‑18th century, it evolved to denote establishments serving such “restauration.” The first venue offering choices beyond the classic broth opened in Paris in 1872.

With the aristocracy’s exodus, 1789 saw the emergence of roughly 100 modern‑style Parisian restaurants. By 1819, that number had exploded to over 3,000, reshaping the city’s culinary landscape.

6 Standardization Of Language And The Invention Of ‘Canadian French’

Although toothbrushes originated in 16th‑century China and reached Europe about two centuries later, they only became fashionable in France after Napoleon endorsed them during the First Empire. Prior to the Revolution, French society was riddled with dialects; only a minority of peasants actually spoke French, while 30‑odd regional tongues dominated.

In 1793, the revolutionary government launched a campaign of “linguistic terror,” imposing a standardized French on the entire nation. This effort aimed to replace the king’s elite French with a more inclusive tongue, encouraging broader communication.

Even after France lost most of its North American holdings in the 1763 Treaty of Paris, French‑speaking Canadians clung to their language. Unwilling to abandon their distinct accents, they preserved a variant that evolved into today’s Canadian French.

5 Fashion For All

Goodbye, aristocratic culottes and men’s tights! Under the Ancien Régime, clothing signaled rank: nobles flaunted cloaks, gold‑embroidered vests, and feathered hats, while clergy wore richly colored robes. The Third Estate, by contrast, wore plain black suits, white ties, and simple hats—a visual reminder of inequality.

By 1792, revolutionaries began brandishing banners that criminalized culottes, proclaiming that true republicans were “free and without breeches.” Wearing the old elite attire could even endanger a noble’s life, as a feathered hat could cost them their breeches and, by extension, their status.

Women’s fashion also transformed. Previously, noblewomen required assistance to dress. By the time Josephine de Beauharnais stood beside Napoleon, garments became more practical, allowing women to dress unaided. Decades later, orphan‑turned‑designer Coco Chanel, raised by nuns, would dominate Parisian fashion for six decades, echoing the revolutionary spirit of accessibility.

4 The Public Zoo

The menagerie at the Jardin des Plantes dates back to the late 16th century, but it only became a modern zoo after the Revolution seized private animal collections from aristocratic families. In November 1793, three such collections were transferred to the Jardin, and a decree that same year banned wild animals from roaming the streets of Paris, sending them to the garden.

By 1794, surviving animals from royal menageries in Versailles and Raincy joined the existing collection, and a formal decree established a zoo housing 58 exotic specimens.

Today, the Jardin des Plantes zoo boasts over 1,200 animals, continuing the revolutionary legacy of making once‑exclusive wonders accessible to the public.

3 The Democratization Of Gastronomy

The Almanach des Gourmands, first issued in 1803, chronicled the culinary upheaval that followed the political revolution. As wealth redistributed, the Almanach served as a how‑to guide for fine dining, dedicating its inaugural edition to famed gourmand Monsieur d’Aigrefeuille and spotlighting Jean‑Jacques‑Regis de Cambaceres, whose table was deemed the most distinguished in Paris.

Cambaceres, a revolutionary from Montpellier, allocated a full third of his official budget to his kitchen. He imported regional specialties from across Europe: ox from Hamburg, hams from Westphalia, and wines from Oporto, Madeira, and Malaga, championing gastronomy as part of the revolutionary agenda.

Modern French culinary encyclopedias still reference “à la Cambaceres” as a method for preparing delicacies such as lobster, pigeon, and foie gras. Cambaceres’ most enduring contribution, however, was popularizing haute cuisine among a broader populace.

2 Revolutionary And Modern Medical Techniques

Under the Old Regime, French medicine mirrored the rigid hierarchy of society: physicians oversaw surgeons, and only a privileged few could become doctors. The Revolution’s ideals of liberty and equality seeped into the medical field, especially as wars created urgent needs for battlefield care.

In 1792, Imperial Guard surgeon Dominique Larrey pioneered triage, derived from the French verb trier (“to sort”). He categorized wounded soldiers into three groups: those beyond hope (group 1), those whose survival depended on medical aid (group 2), and those with a good chance of recovery (group 3). The third group received priority, a system overseen by a newly created triage nurse, both on the battlefield and in hospitals.

This systematic approach reshaped emergency medicine, laying groundwork for modern practices that prioritize patients based on severity.

1 The Implementation Of A Red Cross‑Like Medical Service

Nearly a century before the Red Cross was founded, surgeon Dominique Larrey and his colleague Dr. Pierre‑François Percy pioneered humanitarian medical services on the battlefield. Larrey invented the horse‑drawn “flying ambulance” (ambulance volante), capable of transporting up to four wounded soldiers swiftly and comfortably to the nearest field hospital.

In 1799, Percy advanced the concept by creating a mobile surgical unit that could bring an operating table directly onto the battlefield, ensuring immediate care regardless of nationality or allegiance. Their efforts embodied the revolutionary principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity, treating anyone in need.

Later, Dr. Guillotin, famed for the guillotine, helped establish France’s first health committee in parliament in 1790, paving the way for universal health coverage and socialized medicine.

Vive la Révolution!