Changes

Politically, the collapse of the great Mongol Empire and its states is the most obvious result of the plague. Other states, such as the Byzantine Empire, were weakened by plague and ultimately played a role in their collapse. Thus, one possibility is that the Mongol states could have continued to rule longer, perhaps allowing them to retain power in many regions. Politically, this could have shaped Russia and China, in particular, differently, where Mongol rulers could have ruled longer and potentially have had a more significant impact in the political and social order in those societies. In the Middle East, the presence of the Mongol states and Byzantine Empire could have resulted in making it harder for Turkic groups to migrate and establish power in the region. The Ottoman Empire was one of the beneficiaries of the Black Death because it significantly weakened the Middle East. Ottoman's influence may be dramatically lessened in the absence of the Black Death. This could have also meant that wide areas of Anatolia may have remained Christian for much longer and perhaps would have lingered to centuries to the present.<ref>For more on the weakening of the Byzantines and rise of the Ottomans, see: Ayalon, Yaron. 2014. Natural Disasters in the Ottoman Empire: Plague, Famine, and Other Misfortunes. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, pg. 48.</ref>

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