The interstate competion argument is more of a meme than a good and solid explanation.
To me the equation behind why Europe ended up being so proactive oversea and why they were advancing technology so fast is hard to figure out, trying to isolate single circumstantial factors like this doesn't seem to be particularly useful.True, but he is correct when he says there is no reason to suppose European supremacy in this timeline.
Frankly, I believe a large Empire like Rome would be far too internally focused to explore the Atlantic. For one they would have no reason to circumnavigate Africa.
True, but certainly a huge factor is the Turks closing the traditional path to India.To me the equation behind why Europe ended up being so proactive oversea and why they were advancing technology so fast is hard to figure out, trying to isolate single circumstantial factors like this doesn't seem to be particularly useful.
The empire had multiple chances to survive and usually it was others from the empire who caused the decline but as I said if the Byzantines can survive as strong power and Persia doesn't adopt gunpowder weapons the East becomes a side theater to them as the Byzantines as time passes on would surpass Persia and only have to worry about Western attacks and their civil warsWell Byzantium was on the fall for almost a millennium if you count Justinian as Byzantine. And the huge debt the Byzantines had along with the constant civil wars means that it's hard to see it surviving into these later periods.
Even if you let them stick it out into the renaissance, eventually Hungary, Austria, or some other stronger power could control Greece if there isn't some massive reforms within the empire. Maybe if they clawed through unto the 1600s maybe an absolutist or enlightenment revolution can keep them relevant until a more modern date. Still though I don't see that as likely after things like the battle of Manzikert or the fourth crusade, i think Byzantium was pretty far gone at that point
Well that would depend on the pod you can have them survive as rump state with Asia minor and Greece or a great power for many centuries expanding on the borders of 1025It is true that they could have performed better in the Middle Ages though. They did not have to disarm the Armenians, dissociate the Paulicians, squander the collapse of the Abbasid state, etc...
Also just surviving should be enough. I do not see why every state or political order must remain constantly some sort of great power. States should and always do, ebb and wane. Any enlightenment styled thinker who feels this is an end to history and that those strong now, will remain so forever, surely have learned little. Indeed, Byzantium just surviving as a political order should be enough to justify a wank of sorts.