Plague - The Destroyer of Empires

[Timus]

It all boils down to economics, and if you ask an economist what happens if society were to lose 50% of it's population over the course of five years, I'm sure you'd be quite convinced by his answer. Centralized governments were unable to weather epidemics as well as the de-centralized Feudal system which rose to prominence again in Europe and Japan.

I'm an economist and I don't know the answer to that question. For all I know, your country just lost its less productive part of the workforce and now labor productivity growth is skyrocketing, generating surplus, investment, innovation, etc etc.
However, I also still have an ounce of common sense left, and I don't believe a group that lost 50% of its number will be able to maintain its cohesion easily. So yeah, you may be right right, just doesn't have much to do with economics.