As elsewhere in the Hunsrück, the Thirty Years' War decimated the population. Beginning in 1794, Mengerschied lay under French rule. In 1815 it was assigned to the Kingdom of Prussia at the Congress of Vienna. A catastrophic fire in 1841 that destroyed 28 buildings and led to a year of widespread hunger had the effect of making 50 persons from the village emigrate to Brazil, the United States, the United Kingdom and South Africa. The two world wars claimed more than 80 victims from among the village's men.