Prospects of the Collapse of Civilization

[Tim Randal Walker]

One possibility is for a society to evolve into its own successor society. Toynbee regarded Babylonia to be a successor civilization to the Mesopotamian civilization. He also thought that two successor civilizations evolved out of the MesoAmerican civilization. Toynbee later changed his mind, coming to regard these example as late stages of the Mesopotamian and MesoAmerican civilizations respectively.

There has been discussion regarding the Byzantine Empire. I recall somebody stating that the Byzantine Empire was something new. I think that Byzantium might count as a true successor civilization. It was different enough from the old Classical civilization for this to be plausible, most especially because of Christianity.