The fall of the Western Roman Empire was a real loss of state capacity, not merely a change of management, and the evidence for that loss is ample.

Added to korrents 28 Jan 2022 · How quotes work · Something wrong? Tell us

Related korrents

Our reading — they may agree, disagree or merely touch the same thing. Closest first: a shared subject counts for most, then how near the wording is.

• A heavily centralised state is the most fragile kind: when Rome’s centre failed, its successors were left without the resources or administration to do what it had done. BDBret Devereaux28 Jan 2022similar wording
• Urban life in the West did not merely change after Rome, it practically vanished, and had to be built again from scratch centuries later. BDBret Devereaux28 Jan 2022similar wording
• There is no counsel in the continental world on when to stop taking territory, which is why Chinese and Russian empires keep overextending and imploding. SPSarah Paine9 Jun 2026similar wording
• A mass death does not by itself produce a boom afterwards: expecting a pandemic to renew an economy on its own misreads what followed the Black Death. APAda Palmer4 Jun 2020similar wording
• An institution can outlive the state that built it: the Church survived the collapse of Roman political authority when Rome’s other institutions did not. BDBret Devereaux28 Jan 2022similar wording

On the map

Open the map on its own page →