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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: combjelly who wrote (693950)	1/19/2013 9:20:08 PM
From: Bilow	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575614

Hi combjelly; Re: "Um, the only case of this that comes to mind is the Roman Empire. Got some more recent examples?" [Of how falling empires have difficulty controlling the military.] I wonder how much you read history! It's a fact of history that empires are kept in place by large military forces. When the empire collapses, those military forces are a significant political force. Here's some reminders: (1) The German Empire [also known as the Deutsches Reich ] fell in 1918. Result was a rebellion that began in the navy: The end of October 1918, in Kiel, in northern Germany, saw the beginning of the German Revolution of 1918–1919. Units of the German Navy refused to set sail for a last, large-scale operation in a war which they saw as good as lost, initiating the uprising. On 3 November, the revolt spread to other cities and states of the country, in many of which workers' and soldiers' councils were established. en.wikipedia.org (2) The Russian Empire [also known as "Imperial Russia"] fell in 1917. The result was the Russian Civil War. Most of the former officers of the Tsar fought (as expected) on the right-wing side, the White Army. They organized military forces such as the famous "Volunteer Army" but were eventually defeated by the Bolsheviks: en.wikipedia.org (3) The Ottoman Empire (i.e. old Turkey), fell in 1922 to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, an officer in the Ottoman Empire Army: en.wikipedia.org (4) The Austro-Hungarian Empire fell in 1918. The runt state created from the German speaking portion was known as the Republic of German-Austria. Fifteen years later, the people were under a military dictatorship. This was so unpopular that when given the chance to unite with Hitler's Germany, the vote was something like 98% in favor. -- Carl P.S. Something you probably didn't know is that the Brazilian Empire fell in 1889 to a military coup: en.wikipedia.org