Is our period similar to the 1300s ?
So, after the geopolitical scheme matured and the Byzantine empire begun to dismantle the 4th crusade happened and the west intervened against the central authority of Constantinople that controlled the Balkan and Anatolian peninsula. The landscape after the 4th crusade lasted 200 years and the fragmentation resulted in numerous entities trying to re establish a vehicle with the previous shape.
The parallels today are remarkable : The western forces successfully intervened in the heart of the Ottoman Empire during/after ww1 after decades of Ottoman decline and codependency on the west which is similar to the Komnenian restoration period that saw the decline of the Byzantine empire (I know this view of decline during the 12th century is disputed a lot)
Coming to present times the system of nation states seems to be coming to an end, the region has also been more prone to conflict compared to Western Europe that established nation states centuries earlier, and written on their own “DNA” whereas the countries in south east Europe and Turkey feel alienated in that concept in various ways. Those problems the region has under a nation state model show them as dysfunctional but a new concept should make their weakness a new strength.
Do you think we’re entering another transitional period akin to the 1300s ? A central authority controlling potentially the Balkans and Anatolia emerging the upcoming decades as the nation states are losing their purposes and we head to a multi polar world. Would you perceive the transformation of Anatolian Greeks into Turks as a similar groundbreaking event which fuelled the then rising Ottoman Empire as something we may see again in a different vehicle as nation states fall and a new idea arises ? Thoughts ?
Posted Nov 28, 2025, 5:44 PM UTC