So as a geographic feature and major historic event I have a meteor (and the resulting crater) idea in my head.
The idea is that the meteor sort of resets civilization. Obviously I don't want it to kill off all life on the planet as no people = boring story.
So the basic question is, could a meteor destroy civilization (defined in this case as large nations/empires/trade/organized learning) around the planet and not kill off all life?
How would that look, what would happen to civilization and why?