A faint air of grandeur streamed through the colossal pillars of the Parthenon as the ruin lay bare before us like a whale skeleton’s rib cage. Stranded atop an outcrop in the middle of Athens, the carcass was surrounded by others, devastated remains of the Acropolis, the once blossoming citadel in the heart of Ancient Greece.
The cranes next to the astonishing landmark were a fit reminder of how it had been built without cranes. When the old Greeks hoisted the Parthenon out of nowhere in eight little years, eons ago (447 BC – 438 BC), they had but manual tools at their disposal – an impressive architectural accomplishment by a civilization that reigned over the region for hundreds of years.
"So how did it all fall apart for that wealthy empire whose descendants are the EU’s financial problem child nowadays?"
So how did it all fall apart for that wealthy empire whose descendants are the EU’s financial problem child nowadays? Was it a similar fate that caught up with technologically advanced civilizations like the Mayans, Incas, and Aztecs, who live on in indigenous populations that often struggle to get by in today’s world, selling produce in the streets of Latin America? What happened to the mighty Mongol Empire, grown by Genghis Khan into the largest contiguous land empire of all times, where the lifestyle of nomadic tribes remains almost unchanged until today? Why did the Babylonians see their day in the sun end, despite their vast medicinal, mathematical and astronomical knowledge?
Division. War. Revolution. Religion. Migration. Economy. Disaster. Politics. Succession.
Empires fall for many reasons, unforeseeable at their zenith and only evident with the benefit of historic hindsight. The one reliable lesson history teaches is that they will crumble. They always have. The question is not if, but when, for none have lasted – from the Egyptian to the British Empire. To bother with the “why” might help avoid the same pitfalls in the future, but given the constantly changing dynamics of uncertain environments that only goes so far, and history tells us that the demise can be slowed at best, the doomsday only ever delayed.