>>2082256
>Romans would have suffered the same fate and realistically were already suffering from same problems when they got memed, they just fell earlier due to stronger rivals.
This is my favorite theory about why the Great Divergence happened. After the Roman Empire fell, Europe was never effectively united again so it became an arena of intense competition between countless powers, especially the region of the former Lotharingia running from the Low Countries down to Tuscany. And that eventually led to the development of things like competitive capitalism, colonialism, scientific advances, etc. Pic related is where I read that idea.