What if it was the East that collapsed and the West that remained in order...

What if it was the East that collapsed and the West that remained in order? Would it have lasted anywhere near as much as the East did without Constantinople's ideal location and Theodosian Walls to protect the capital from Arab and German armies?

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why would East collapse before the West?

I think the point of hypothetic scenarios isn't to question how you get to that point, but to consider it a fact.

But in order to discuss what would have happened, it's necessary to define the cause(s) and their implications no?

The only info we have is that the East is kill and the West is not kill, which is quite a game changer, as it begs some questions, like the end result of German migrations cockblocked by the WRE or the position of the Persian Empire without their biggest rival destroyed.

Barbarian invasions focus on the east because its wealthier

Maybe a bunch of barbarians were on their way to sack the western empire, got lost on the way and ended up fucking up the entire eastern empire. But they sort of like it over there and have no immediate plans to fuck the west.

and maybe the Roman Persian wars end up going more favorable to the persians

Wealthier and much, much harder to defeat than some collapsing shitpile in the west. The economical backbone of Eastern Roman Empire was Levant and Egypt, how are some unwashed snowniggers supposed to get there?

The only major Germanic tribes bordering the ERE were Goths, who sacked the Balkans anyways, but then left for some easier pray. The rest was positioned along the nearly undefended western borders

lets say the WRE has a better time dealing with barbarians on its borders so they head towards the east while Persia has more luck in taking on the ERE that most of it troops have to deal with the Persians

>The economical backbone of Eastern Roman Empire was Levant and Egypt, how are some unwashed snowniggers supposed to get there?

You're forgetting Arabs which are right next door.

maybe a warlord is able to unite a considerable number of the Arab tribes and they begin to launch raids and possibly invasions into the Levante throw in some of the stuff here and maybe the ERE starts to break

If Muhammed wasn't the one to unite the Arab tribes and it was done years earlier, then that means no growth or possibly no birth whatsoever of Islam, which has a huge effect on history as a whole.

Persians would BTFO of the Eastern successor states and swallow the Levant and probably Egypt and Arabia.

>probably Egypt and Arabia
Sassynids wanted to restore Grosspersiums, you could also add Anatolia and parts of Balkans to the mix
Honestly it'd be really hard for the WRE to compare, as the only non shitty province they had was Africa.

First, the WRE would have to have done something about the barbarian migrations. Assuming a magic wand was waved and the germans/goths were settled with Roman institutions intact, the empire would also be permanently of a more barbarian character, with a cultural and social synthesis between the two. What that would look like is most likely the WRE from 450~ onward with less open bigotry towards barbarians. Demographics would be wacky as hell.

The ERE's collapse would almost certainly have to involve the Persians in some capacity, and depending how that goes, that might leave a Persian empire large and formidable enough to defeat or at least contain the emergence of Islam.

>Eastern Roman Empire falls in the laster quarter of the 5th century
>Western Roman Empire fortifies itself in Southern and Southwestern Europe
>Sassanids take Anatolia and all Eastern Roman possessions in North Africa, Levant, and Asia Minor as well as the Caucasus; like Iberia, Georgia, Western Armenia, etc...
My question is if this leads to a containment and prevention of Islam and the only serious threat to the Persians being the White Huns and Goturks, does WRE still keep Britain? Also I seem to recall historically, ERE and Sassanids had multiple treaties and mutual defensive alliances against Steppeniggers.

>The rest was positioned along the nearly undefended western borders

It wasn't undefended, at least until ~the second half of the century, it was just porous. And even then, that was the least of the problems; the franks along the Rhine weren't hostile, on the contrary they had been cooperating with the Romans for centuries and were settled as well in the west bank of the Rhine, roman territory in theory, mostly on what is now Belgium, as a cooperative buffer lot against other germanics.

The problem is the ones that already got in, like the Vandals, that were wrecking havoc on the Roman economy from their base in Africa. And then ofc the barbarian infiltration of the Roman institutions, most specially the Army. When the magister militum is barbarian, his commanders are barbarians, and the army is essentially barbarian mercenaries loyal to the aforementioned magister militum and the Emperor a mere puppet in his hands, well there is the big fucking problem.

Why are only England and Wales part of the Western Empire? Why the fuck not the rest of the British Isles?

Because they were not under room. What, did you think this was a alt his?

Romans never got into Scotland. The land at least back then past the northern boarders of England were heavily riddled with bogs, swamps, mountains, and closed off forests. No ability to wheel in large formations of heavy Roman troops, tactical handicaps up the ass, and beyond the ability of Romans to enforce or maintain a presence as well as WAY too many hostile tribes to handle given said variables. And I don't think Rome ever got a foothold in Ireland either.

Alternate history is stupid shit

Well, they DID get into Scotland.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonine_Wall

They didn't hold this ground for long though. But the border forts, beyond Hadrian's Wall were maintained in some form into the 4th century.

As for a foothold in Ireland, nothing has been PROVEN, but it is just possible that the promontory of Drumanagh was the site of a Roman fort for a time. The problem is the alleged Roman military artefacts found and the site itself remain unexamined - they were found illegally by a metal detectorist and a court case has been dragging on, preventing any progress. It's not the only possibility, but it is by no means implausible.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drumanagh