Has a plague ever caused a civilization to collapse?

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I'll attempt to answer your question directly -- no. You have specified a plague collapse with no other factors, and I do not think that any civilization has experienced such an absence of other factors.

I suppose you could call the Easter Island people a civilization, and argue that the lack of resources may have brought about a plague, depending upon definitions, but at any rate, I don't think that's what you're talking about. I understand you to mean a thriving civilization otherwise not limited by (say) small island existence or a snowbound dependence upon restricted food sources; Carthage, Rome, Babylon, Mayans, and so forth.

And I don't believe that any of them, plagued or not, have ever been sufficiently isolated that the event of a devastating plague would not invite other factors (civilized or barbarian) to come take what's left and kick the civilization over the edge.

Upvote:0

The pre-Columbian civilisation in North America was reduced to hunter gathering by the plague to that may qualify.

The Norse settlement of Greenland may also be of interest, but it (probably) wasn't disease that caused them to vanish.

Upvote:2

There is never just one factor that causes a civilization to collapse. Usually many civilizations steadily fall in to collapse. It would be helpful if you were to narrow your parameters of the question. The term "civilization" is very broad. Historians trace Western civilization back to the Greek city-states in that began in about 800 B.C.E. However there have been many empires and kingdoms that have collapsed in the framework of Western Civilization. The Roman Empire, and The Holy Roman Empire. Also there have been no genuine records of Anarchy in the western world. Germany, After the Thirty Years War was essentially anarchy, however they were still ruled by the Hapsburg Empire. Also Arkansas was essentially in anarchy during the American Civil War. There were two state Capitols, one capitol run by the Federal Government, and another by the Confederate Government. However the local Arkansans did not comply with the rules set forth by either government. We historically remember this period of Arkansas History of being apart of the Confederate Government, and therefore was not in true anarchy.

Upvote:28

When Europeans discovered Americas they also imported plagues. These plagues were one factor of the collapse of the pre-columbian cultures.

http://www.examiner.com/article/apocalypic-mysterious-plague-killed-millions-of-native-americans-the-1500s :

The deaths of somewhere between 40 and 100 million people during a relatively short span of time was not caused by just one disease, but several. Many references assume that the near extinction of the population was caused by European diseases for which the people of the Americas had no immunity. [...] In several regions, these diseases completely annihilated entire ethnic groups[...]

In late 1520, as the Hernan Cortes expedition waited to strike the capital of the Aztecs, Tenochtitlan, a fatal blow, small pox swept through the Aztec Empire. It is estimated that 40% of its population died of the disease. [...]Without the devastation of the smallpox epidemic, it is far less likely that the Spanish and their native allies would have been able to conquer the Aztec Empire.

By 1528, the Central American smallpox epidemic had reached the Inca Empire in South America. [...] Smallpox soon killed many of the Inca leaders and soldiers. When they saw the power of the imperial government weakened, vassal peoples rebelled. They gave the assistance to Pizzaro’s puny army that was needed to topple the Incas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_conquest_of_the_Aztec_Empire :

The Aztecs were struck by a smallpox plague starting in September 1520, which lasted seventy days. Many were killed, including their new leader, the Emperor Cuitlahuac

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_conquest_of_the_Maya#Impact_of_Old_World_diseases :

The Old World diseases brought with the Spanish and against which the indigenous New World peoples had no resistance were a deciding factor in the conquest; they decimated populations before battles were even fought.[78] It is estimated that 90% of the indigenous population had been eliminated by disease within the first century of European contact.[79]

It were not the plagues alone, but the casualties made the empires weaker and made it possible, that European conquistadors won the day.

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