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In part the west declined once it stopped expanding. Rome was a slave economy. No more new subject peoples no more new sources of slaves
In the east I'd have to say equal parts a blind venetian Doge and the 4th crusade and a family that fought itself when it should of been securing it's frontier int eh 14th century. After all who invited the Ottomans into Galliopoli? They squabbled while Nicea fell and the ultimate insult had to partake in the siege of Philadelphia and were STILL squabbling. if the Palaiologos had spent there energy in Aisa minor instead of fighting each other and actually PAID the Catalan mercenaries their state might of survived till a great power rose in the East or West instead of being the birth mother of the power that replaced it.
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