What if the European trade networks had been devastated by the Black Death?

The Black Death was an event that killed around 60% of Europe's population. One way to put that number into context is to imagine the following: the Black Death was roughly 3x as deadly as the Spanish Flu, even though the Spanish Flu happened in the 20th century and the Black Death happened in the 14th century. Some areas of Europe suffered even greater losses, for instance the Kingdom of England and the Principality of Wales suffered population declines of around 70% while southern France suffered declines of up to 70%.<br><br>Despite the fact that the Black Death was as deadly as smallpox, arguably more deadly than the European conquest of the Americas (the Aztec and Inca empires suffered population declines of around 90% due to disease but these declines happened over a longer period of time), and more widespread than the Thirty Years' War (which killed 20-40% of the German states' population), for whatever reason the Black Death doesn't have the same cache as these events. One reason for this lack of cachet is that the Black Death recovered remarkably quickly. The population declines from the Black Death were compensated for by advances in technology (heavy horse-drawn plows) and changes in societal structures (the collapse of feudalism). <br><br>The decline of European trade networks would likely have caused widespread famine, depopulation, and social and economic collapse. Eventually the European powers would have turned into small tribal communities, abandoning their cities and returning to an agricultural way of life. Without a population to support and feed the armies, the European powers would have been unable to wage their wars of conquest and colonization, and their colonies would have likely declared independence from their parent countries.<br><br>Overall, the devastation of European trade networks from the Black Death would have had far-reaching and profound effects on the social, economic, and political structures of Europe, leading to significant changes in the world and global history over the past 5 centuries.