Imperial Collapse from Internal Factors

[Israelite9191]

Israelite, there were some great emperors in the German Empire.

I am quite aware that there were many great German rulers who could have united Germany, but failed to overcome the powers of the princes. I thak you, however, for elaborating on the subject. I must admit to having relatively bad knowledge of German history (isn't exactly a favorite subject in my house, my mother is slightly biased against the Germans, you know, Holocaust and all that). I remember hearing something about Maria Theressa and Frederic the Great and a marriage proposal, but I am very glad that you elaboratedon that.

Oh, hears another. The Cherokee state. Recognized by the US for much of its history, it fell due to the fact that the Cherokees were incapable of adapting to modern warfare quick enough to defend themselves against the Andrew Jackson(?) and the US army.

 

[Kamilian]

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth/Republic is a great example, then. The "noble democracy" essentially stripped most powers of the King and the Sejm (the parliament) was constantly deadlocked and paralyzed, as the liberum veto made it so that one single deputy voting "no" on any law would prevent the ratification and implementation. The nobles were allowed to form "confederacies" - basically military alliances - if they opposed something the central government did or tried to do. The conservative confederacies, who wanted to keep the paralysis of the government so that they retained all their extensive freedoms, looked to neighboring powers - usually Russia - to assist them. The reformer confederacies, most notably the Confederacy of Bar that Pulaski was part of, had to resort to dangerous conspiratorial schemes, and it was their attempt to kidnap the King that spurred Prussia, Austria, and Russia into action for the First Partition. 20 years later, when the May 3rd Constitution was ratified, the reformers ratified it while the conservatives were not present at session, thus an underhanded tactic meant to rescue Poland-Lithuania. The Confederacy of Targowica, supported by Russia, attacked and eventually the King himself joined Targowica in the vain hope of delaying another partition. Thus, Poland-Lithuania was weakened not just by the wars of the late 17th and early 18th centuries, but also by the structure of the government which had given the nobles so many liberties disproportional to central royal authority that if those liberties were threatened, some of the nobles gladly signed away their country's independence, and ended up losing much of their privileges under the new regimes anyway.

 

[Adler17]

Israelite, I can understand your mother. That was the darkest age of civilization. A school friend of my grand mother had to emigrate to the US because of being Jew. 12 years ago or so we met him again with his daughter. He had married a Hungarian Jew, who had lost members of the family in the Holocaust. So she was very against all German. Despite this he was still a German in his heart. He spoke his mother language fluently without any accent and so as you thought he never left Germany. His daughter did not speak German but she was everything else than biased against Germany.
However you should perhaps tell your mother about other subjects of German history. Even if we declare German history as a point from the beginning as "nation" in 911 AD the 12 years (which are 12 too much) of the rulership of a certain Austrian are not all. Perhaps you can tell her about the time of enlightment, of philosophers like Immanuel Kant, Frederic the Great or Moses Mendelson (perhaps his dialogues with the Swiss priest Lavater, who wanted that Mendelson converted to Chistianity, what Mendelson refused). About the German unification, which was also realized by a von Bleichröder who has financed much. There are many facettes.
However I don´t know your mother nor the reasons for their opinion. So if that is not possible for obvious reasons I hope I let you have a better look on German history.

Adler

 

[Uiler]

Potted history of China. Blame:

1) (Early dynasties) Eunuchs or empress' clan i.e. massive corruption and internal purges.
2) (Later dynasties) Neoconfucianists i.e. narrow-mindedness.

 

[Israelite9191]

Well, my mother is less against the Germans than, say, the Lithuanians and others who collaborated very zealously with the Nazi regime. In fact, my father is a philosophy major who was doing his doctorate dissertation on German philosophers, although he never finished it do to a lack of German language skills.

So this isn't total spam:
The end of Angl-Saxon domination in England can in much part be blamed on internal problems. The Northumbrians refused to colaborate with King Harold, allowing Harald Hadrada of the Vikings (Norse or Danish, can't really remember) to make a good stab at conquering England. While Harald Hadrada was defeated the weakened Anglo-Saxon state, as a result of sectarian differences as already explained, was unable to defeat the Norman Invasion.

 

[machia]

Since I see that the thread starter isn't posting anylonger I'm afraid this will be useless, but just in case...

I think the best example for this subject is the Aztec empire. I'm thinking of Otumba, "La noche triste" -the sad night- as we say in Spanish. After the rebellion of the population of Technotitlan, wich was a huge city, and in a strong position to defeat the Spaniards completely, they went back to their ritual wars and used the inferior weapons -intended not to kill- they had to make prisoners and sacriface them for religious purposses. I think this fit perfectly with what you're looking for... Just my two cents, hope it helps.

 

[SeleucusNicator]

Don't worry -- I'm still reading. I'm just too busy running back and forth from the library getting books to post.

 

[Takhisis]

Thge Byzantine Empire fell because it couldn´t hold against the disruptive currents in the Orthodox Church which lost them Syria and Egypt in the VII and VIII centuries, and then, the Schism ruined the relationship with the Popes and led to the 4th Crusade against Constantinople.

Also, the Emperors allowed the army and navy to fall into neglect, so that´s why they sustained the almost unforseeable defeats of Manzikert/Melazgird and Myriokephalon.