Worst Catastrophe in History

Historically what has been the greatest catastrophe of all time?

There are many to chose from to make a poll. As I think of them:

The Fall of the Roman Empire in the west (it continued in the east, based at Constantinople)

World War I and/or the Versailles Treaties

Constantine's adoption of Christianity as the state religion of Rome

The Third Punic War (fall of Carthage, and the last power to challenge Rome in the Mediterranean for centuries)

World War II (though it can be argued it was a consequence of WWI and Versailles)

The Opium War and the forcible opening of China by the West

Colonization in the XVIII and XIX centuries (states and empires fell to Western powers)

The French Revolution

The October Revolution (in Russia)

The long decline of the Ottoman Empire

The Crusades

Colonization in the XV and XVI Centuries

Any others?

The plague dark ages
Caribbean, North and South America populations decimated by European infectious diseases.
WW II, It truly was a world war
Jerry Garcia passing away.

>The Fall of the Roman Empire in the west (it continued in the east, based at Constantinople)
Since it was largely brought about by a traitor who led the Romans into a trap, it was the policy of allowing Barbarians to enter the Roman legions that was the real cause. You know: Immigration.

>World War I and/or the Versailles Treaties
You mean The Great War or the War to End All Wars...... Treaty and Wilson's 14 points: God himself had only 10.

Constantine's adoption of Christianity as the state religion of Rome.
State religions often had little effect on daily life.

The Third Punic War (fall of Carthage, and the last power to challenge Rome in the Mediterranean for centuries)

World War II (though it can be argued it was a consequence of WWI and Versailles)
The war or America's entry into it?

The Opium War and the forcible opening of China by the West
So England made money selling opium, America made fortunes selling naval store to Madagascar Pirates.

Colonization in the XVIII and XIX centuries (states and empires fell to Western powers)
Kipling's The White Man's Burden

The French Revolution
France continued on the same course after the rioting of the peasants.

The October Revolution (in Russia)

The long decline of the Ottoman Empire

The Crusades
Heck, look at the size of that land mass that kept European's out of the phenomenally profitable Spice Trade, but allowed several Catholic religious orders to operate slave markets and to acts as "liberators".

Colonization in the XV and XVI Centuries
Accepted economic principles.

Quote: terapined

The plague dark ages

Good ones.

Quote:

Caribbean, North and South America populations decimated by European infectious diseases.

That would be covered under colonization in the 16th and 17th Centuries.

The Great Leap Forward?

Genesis 6-9?

The mid-90s Buffalo Bills?

Quote: Nareed

Constantine's adoption of Christianity as the state religion of Rome

This was more of a tragedy..

The great famine in China 1958-1961 or the "Three Bitter Years" may have killed more people than any on your list except WWII.

According to government statistics, there were 15 million excess deaths in this period. Unofficial estimates vary, but scholars have estimated the number of famine victims to be between 20 and 43 million. Historian Frank Dikötter, having been granted special access to Chinese archival materials, estimates that there were at least 45 million premature deaths from 1958 to 1962. Chinese journalist Yang Jisheng concluded there were 36 million deaths due to starvation, while another 40 million others failed to be born, so that "China's total population loss during the Great Famine then comes to 76 million."

The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people and peaking in Europe in the years 1346–53.

The 1918 flu pandemic (January 1918 – December 1920) infected 500 million people across the world, including remote Pacific islands and the Arctic, and killed 50 to 100 million of them—three to five percent of the world's population.

Quote: Pacomartin

The 1918 flu pandemic (January 1918 – December 1920) infected 500 million people across the world, including remote Pacific islands and the Arctic, and killed 50 to 100 million of them—three to five percent of the world's population.

Nature has a way of controlling all populations.
Now that we have prevention for most of these
things, what will happen to the balance in nature.

Quote: Evenbob

Nature has a way of controlling all populations.
Now that we have prevention for most of these
things, what will happen to the balance in nature.

I used to wonder as well. Then I learned about medicine.

Nature wins. Always.

Gallic Wars of Julius Ceasar. He claimed a million deaths when the population of Europe was less than 30 million.

Quote: Evenbob

Nature has a way of controlling all populations.Now that we have prevention for most of these things, what will happen to the balance in nature.

A Malthusian catastrophe was based on the simple observation of the Reverend Malthus in 1798 that populations grow geometrically, and the sources to feed and maintain them only grows linearly. By definition there must be a catastrophe to right that imbalance. At that time the world population was roughly 1 billion and only London and Paris were huge cities in Europe.


Of course he died in 1834 and he didn't see France approach Zero Population Growth in the late 19th century. I don't think there was any way to forsee massive birth control.