[Andsigil]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

The Byzantine Empire, which was the Eastern half of the Roman Empire, was still a force to be reckoned with, but because of religious differences with the West, there was little concourse between Constantinople and Europe. But the Byzantines experienced a continous erosion of its power over the centuries as it became more and more decadent, finally falling to the Turks in 1453. But by then, Byzantium was a mere shadow of its former glory, with little but the city of Constantinople itself as part of its dwindled empire. This is much like Gondor, with its once vast landholdings dwindled away to Minas Tirith and the vassal holdings westward, like Dol Amroth. Rohan was never really a vassal state, but an ally given land Gondor could no longer control, Osgiliath was destroyed, and all of Ithilien and Near Harad were under enemy control.

A very good analogy which I had failed to consider. I should have thought of that instead of being fixed on the insularity of the Tokugawa Shogunate.