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I've been thinking about everybodys favourite (for different reasons, even if as an object of hatred) empire, and how it would have participated in the events of the mordern era had it survived in a reasonably powerful form. I'm thinking of the territory of either the Macedonian or the Komnenos dynasties, more or less. Are they destined to be bypassed by the march of history; the rise of Atlanitc Oceanic powers, merchantilism, constitutional monarchy/republicanism and eventually the industrial revolution and nationalism? Or could they influence the march of history by making the Portuguese empire less profitable by allowing landward spice trade, utilising the Italian banking revolution and merchantilism for their own ends and cashing in on resources such as Romanian oilfeilds?

Feel free to use your own favourite PoD so long as it allows the empire to survive strong into the modern (1500 and beyond) era. Also I'm not overly interested in personalities, more the structural trends which push historical events along.
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