Tainter's explanation for their collapse was the diminishing marginal utility of the "conquer and collect tribute" mechanism that had served them so well in pre

Tainter's explanation for their collapse was the diminishing marginal utility of the "conquer and collect tribute" mechanism that had served them so well in previous centuries. I'm not saying that they did not deforest the land or change the environment but that's like saying the cause of the decline of the new world civilizations in the 15th century was because of their expansive agricultural modifications of the land in the preceding centuries. Maintaining territory and tribute generated negative marginal returns after a while. It was only the eastern roman empire's deconstruction of their military institutions into the theme based system[1] of distributed farmer's security collectives that let the Eastern Roman Empire (A.K.A Byzantium) last another 1000 years after the western roman empire had collapsed. 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theme_(Byzantine_district) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theme_(Byzantine_district)