civilization collapse
Empire's total disintegration
Civilization collapse is the rapid decline or disintegration of a complex society—its political structures, economic systems, and cultural institutions breaking down within a relatively short period.
The term often appears in discussions of ancient societies like Rome or the Maya, but also in warnings about modern vulnerabilities: Climate change could trigger civilization collapse.
Distinguished from gradual decline by its speed and severity.
- Ancestral PuebloansPre-Columbian Four Corners people
- famineSevere food shortage
- Roman EmpireAncient state from Augustus onward
- fall of RomeAncient superpower's disintegration
- resource depletionExhausting available materials gradually
mass migration · environmental degradation · ruin · failed state · overpopulation · sustainable development · economic inequality · conflict resolution · pandemics · community building · plague · political instability · climate change · tipping point · domino effect · political corruption · disaster preparedness · warfare
- decadencedecadence, decay, lavishness, aestheticism, dandyism
civilization collapsegolden age
Period of peak prosperity
renaissance · empire building · social progress · modernization · belle époque
civilization collapseempire building
Accumulating power and territory
social evolution · urbanization · industrialization · gradual decline
civilization collapsesocial stability
Absence of societal turmoil
civic order · political stability · cultural preservation · social integration
civilization, collapse, civil, civility, civilize, civilized, civilizing, uncivilized, civilian