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Political Differences Between Eastern And Western Europe

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Before period 3 came the fall of many great empires across the world. Han China and Gupta India were falling to invaders and revolts. However, one of the most important downfalls of an empire in the classical period was the fall of the Roman Empire. Due to many contributing factors, Rome broke apart towards the end of period 2 and changed the entirety of Europe and the Middle East. This fall more importantly increased the divide between Eastern and Western Europe. After the fall of Rome, the administrations of Western and Eastern Europe showed more drastic differences in both centralization and religion. However, even with this major differences they still shared the same ambitions and values. One of the primary differences between Eastern and Western Europe in period 3 is their respective governments or more specifically the centralization of them. The major nation in the East was the Byzantines. They are known for being extremely centralized and having a very large bureaucracy. While on the other hand, Western Europe was split into many smaller areas and states, each having very loose organization. The paramount example of a noncentralized Europe is the governing system. This system was feudalism, a political system that spreads power and control amongst lords and their vassals. While the king has a lot of power, feudalism does not allow for a heavily centralized government. With the Byzantines it is almost the opposite. Most of the power was given to the emperor. The

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