The fall of the Western Roman Empire in 453. Too many Vandal invaders. No complex theories by Woke anti western university professors
Right. I think one of the main invasions from the north was 437 AD, but there were a couple of assaults from ‘barbarians’. Then the empire split and Constantinople became the seat of power for about 1000 years
Islam didn’t appear until the 7th century
Islam certainly was the main threat to the Byzantines, but when the Germanic barbarian Odoacer overthrew the “last emperor” of Rome in 476 he didn’t even bother to declare himself or anyone else “emperor,” nor Theodoric or the Ostrogoths after him.
They all knew that power had shifted East.
The last western emperor was deposed in 476 (he wasn’t recognized by the eastern emperor, who still considered his predecessor, Julius Nepos, then in exile in Dalmatia, to be the rightful western emperor). The Vandal sack of Rome was in 455.