In fact, there are not many countries that are dying at the peak of their prosperity, but they are not nothing.
In general, the vast majority of countries perish from long-term abuses, rather than immediate destruction. For example, western Xia had been weakened for a long time before it was swept away by the Mongols. Its economy is already under the control of the Golden State, and the number of warriors is the lowest in history. The same is true of the Qing Empire, when Zhang Zhidong built an iron factory and a gun factory in Hubei, his friend told him bluntly, you cannot succeed, now it is the end of the world, even if the technology of foreigners can not be rich in the country and strong troops, because the root lies in the corrupt officialdom.
But there are no absolutes, there are three countries, which are precisely the countries that suddenly perished in their heyday.
One was the Macedonian Empire.
The Macedonian Empire was originally called the Macedonian Kingdom, is a small and inconspicuous country in the great Greek cultural circle, Philip II completed the unification of the Greek mainland, his son Alexander the Great is a remarkable figure, relying on the world's most advanced "Macedonian phalanx" military technology tactics at that time, in its reign period continued to expand outwards, successively occupied Egypt, Persia, conquered half of India, the territory reached its peak, so later called Alexander Empire or Macedonian Empire. According to historians, at the peak of the Macedonian Empire, it conquered about 5.5 million square kilometers of land, and three of the world's four ancient civilizations crawled under his iron hooves. Thus, Alexander the Great, along with Hannibal, Julius Caesar, and Napoleon, ranked four of the greatest military commanders in European history, and he remained at the top of the list.
Macedonian phalanx
But the Macedonian Empire existed for a short time, and in early June 323 BC, Alexander died of a sudden fever in Babylon at the age of 32. After Alexander's death, because he did not have a will to make a crown prince, several of his sons attacked each other, and the empire was seriously injured. Areas previously ruled by empires took the opportunity to become independent. In less than two years, the Macedonian Empire fell apart, retreating back to a small, third-rate kingdom that never recovered. The reason why the Macedonian Empire collapsed in its heyday was several reasons, the first was that the commander died young, too late to establish an heir, causing infighting, and the second was that the empire's military strength was too small, the core strength was only 50,000 people, of which 40,000 were crusades, 10,000 remained on the mainland, so they could only capture a limited number of large cities, and the vast remote areas could not be effectively controlled. As soon as the Macedonians' morale waned slightly, enemies from all directions would come and besiege them. If Alexander could have lived an extra 30 years, perhaps history could have been rewritten. But history does not assume that the Macedonian Empire existed for only 13 years.
The second is the Khwarazm mold.
Khwarazm was not a weak state either; it has historically been a powerful kingdom with a vast territory that includes present-day Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, eastern Iraq, and Israel. It has a military strength of 500,000 to 600,000, and its combat effectiveness is extremely strong. Some historians believe that if it were not for the Mongols, Khwarazm would have grown into an empire as powerful as the Arab Empire. But it is a pity that the flower mold loses on the wrong time. Because in the Mongolian steppe, the Mongolian state of Temujin rose. At that time, the Khwarazm people were very arrogant, liked to bully other weak countries, thinking that the Mongols were also bullying, so they robbed and killed Genghis Khan's trade envoys. This angered Temujin, who personally led the Mongol army to march west and spent 5 years to destroy the once-flourishing Huarazimo. In fact, the number of Mongol troops was not large, up to 125,000 people, and Genghis Khan led a total of 95,000 cavalry in the western expedition. However, first, the quality of the Mongol cavalry is stronger than that of hua lazi mo, and on the other hand, the state system of hua lazi has not yet taken shape, domestic contradictions are prominent, and centrifugal force is stronger, so the combat effectiveness is greatly reduced. In the end, Khwarazm was completely crushed by the Mongol cavalry.
Flower Razor mold
Third, it was the Former Qin Empire during the Sixteen Kingdoms period of China.
Former Qin was one of the regimes of the Hu people during the establishment of the Five Hu and Sixteen Kingdoms, and it was also the most powerful state in the Sixteen Kingdoms. The founder of this country was Jian Jian, who in 351 was called the Great Qin Heavenly King and Da Dan Yu, and a year later was officially called the emperor, the national name was Great Qin, the capital was Chang'an, and the history was called Zhi Qin and Former Qin. When Former Qin was first founded, its national strength was weak, and even the Eastern Jin Dynasty, which was partial to the Jiangnan region, repeatedly sent large armies to attack it, and if it was not good luck, it would be wiped out by Huan Wen and others. Later, a third monarch of great talent and great strategy was produced, and a generation of famous Xiang Wang Meng (this person's talent was no less than that of Zhang Liang, Zhuge Liang, Xiao He and others), and the two of them cooperated sincerely and quickly made the country stronger. At the height of the current Qin Dynasty, it had unified the entire northern region of China, with an area of 3.6 million square kilometers and a population of more than 26 million. In the whole of China at that time, only the Eastern Jin Dynasty in the southeast corner was still facing off against Former Qin. Later, in the famous Battle of Shuishui in 383 AD, Jian Jian was unexpectedly defeated by the Beifu soldiers led by Xie Xuan of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and the country quickly fell into chaos. This is a bit similar to Alexander the Great, the number of major ethnic groups in the country is too small, basically a variety of ethnic minorities, and now that they see that you are unlucky, they have taken the opportunity to become independent, and the north of the Yellow River soon fell into a state of division. Only two years later, Jian Jian was victimized by the Later Qin lord Yao Cang.
The Battle of Shuishui
Later scholars spoke highly of Jian Jian, such as Bai Yang said: "Emperor Jian Jian appeared on the stage with a wise posture beyond the times, bringing a peaceful and prosperous world to the suffering Chinese people." In China's thousands of years of history, there are only five people who are qualified to be called emperors: Qin Shi Huang, Emperor Wu of Han, Former Qin Wang Jian, Tang Taizong Li Shimin and Kangxi. "If it weren't for the fiasco at the Battle of Shuishui, Former Qin would have become a unified empire, and Jian Jian would have become a great unified emperor like the Qin Emperor Han Wu." The reason why Former Qin was quickly eliminated was because the domestic ruling foundation was weak, the ethnic minorities suppressed by force were not sincerely subservient, and the population of the Former Qin Empire's ruling main force, the Qi, was too small to suppress them at all. When the armed forces of Zhi jian were at their peak, they were outwardly respectful and did not dare to be dissatisfied, and once there was a major change in the country, such as the defeat in a foreign war, they would rise up and attack it en masse. If Jian Jian had not been so self-conscious and heeded Wang Meng's advice, he would not have ended up in the end of the country being destroyed.
The above historical lessons tell us:
First, "the outside must first be inside" is very important. Second, it is important for a country to have a strong military. Third, the number of dominant ethnic groups is very important.
Author: Skeptical Explorer