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@ Keith_McClary , yes , that's more or less my line of though ,
the curse of success for a state is grow or stagnate
most try to grow , more resources , manpower , more contact with other states , like a bubble expanding
The European story has been of expansion , then stasis , now it's the down slope ,
a bit like Austria between the world wars , a grand imperial city of Vienna with no empire resources to sustain it and a belief in one's greatness out of step with reality