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Actually, I'm going to expose myself to a lot of flame here and say that the traditional Roman state was weak because political power was vested in the generals. The bureaucracy was very weak for most of the empire's history because it was effectively a military dictatorship. Claudius may have...

The institutional memory afforded by a bureaucracy is an important factor in the empire's survival, but not in its strength. The bureaucracy ensured that the state and its customs survived (hell, it even survived 1453) but it didn't make the state strong. Sure, the bureaucrats could keep...

Given that Germany devolved into civil war for two years and the Allies did nothing, I doubt they'd intervene. They were probably more war-weary than the Germans because they didn't have the 'stabbed in the back' mentality which many in Germany had (not saying all, but it was certainly there)...

But that proves my point exactly: the bureaucracy was completely unable to run the empire in a stable manner; it always crunbled until one plucky emperor pulled it back from the brink. I think that's why this site is so full of Byzantine TLs: because there are so many simple PODs revolving...

What if Germany had gone communist in 1919 rather than managing to struggle on as the Weimar Republic? Given that independent social democrats were in favour of the democratization of heavy industry, nationalization seems inevitable, but would this help the economy or hinder it? Hell, could...

Hmm, given this is a somewhat old post of mine I may take back what I said because I can't quite remember my rationale. Here's my two cents now though: the Byzantine Empire may have been statistically very strong (large population, centralized government, rich lands etc.etc.) but its government...

Do any of these sound familiar? the plague of Justinian the Black Death syphilis (which only existed after the discovery of the New World in the 16th century) the Spanish flu outbreak of 1918 If any of these are familiar, what was their mortality rate and what effects did they have on the...

I'm sorry I don't know which island you mean. If there's a mistake I'm very sorry, it's not intentional and if you're confused then no, no it's not.

With all the talk of Britwanks and France-screws I thought I'd post a map which hopefully balances the two...