Why do empires fall?

"

鬼殺し wrote:

"The last emperor is always the worst emperor."

I sort of like that Izarism, even if it's terribly simplified.

I'm pretty sure you're just being rhetorical here, Sarah, which makes me wonder what you actually wanted to ask and actually wanted to say. But as others have pointed out, no one need wonder for long.

But you're not going to get what you want, Sarah. Not here.

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Most empires don't fall. They evolve. France, Britain, Japan, and oddly even the already-mentioned Roman Empire took their licks but none of them were eradicated by the end of their imperial status. Hell, Britain was technically an empire until 1996, when Hong Kong was finally reabsorbed (in name only, really) into the mainland. Japan is STILL technically an empire given it has an emperor considered to be descended from the sun goddess Amaterasu and granted a lot more power since the Meiji restoration (again, technically)...but after WW2 and the subsequent creation of a constitution, 'Imperial Japan' was a thing of the past.

The Romans, well, by the time the Visigoths arrived in 410 Rome wasn't even the capital anymore. Shit was already crazy destabilised. Christianity had completely supplanted Roman polytheism. Pretty much everything Rome had stood for in the ancient world was gone. And Rome was sacked multiple times, and yet there it is today, thriving as the capital of a modern nation. It's easy to say 'Rome fell' but really it was more of a transition.

The few major civilisations I can think of that actually fell and never got up again ironically did so *under* empires. India comes to mind. And the Mesoamerican culture.

I am under the hopeful belief right now that a certain upstart country wedged between far more enlightened nations is going to experience a similar fate before long. Napoleon's "sleeping giant" woke up a while ago but has yet to flex its muscle...we'll see. Worse fates could befall the world's most antiquated dictatorship.