I lean towards a military determinist view of early medieval social transformation:
Regions of discontinuity:
Byzantium: Constant Arab raids in Anatolia, Slavs overrun the Balkans. Some social continuity maintained through Constantinople
Italy: Devastated by the Gothic Wars, then conquered by Lombards
Northern Spain: After Moorish conquest of the south, turned into a military frontier like Anatolia
France: First stop for every barbarian group crossing the Rhine
Britain: Chaos after Rome withdraws, then invaded by Anglo-Saxons
Meanwhile, in the Caliphate:
Swift and final conquest, political unity across a large area, protracted fighting shifted outside its borders
Peace and security enable social and economic complexity. Absent peace and security, you lose complexity, including the kind necessary to.cage the peasantry.
I lean towards a military determinist view of early medieval social transformation:
Regions of discontinuity:
Byzantium: Constant Arab raids in Anatolia, Slavs overrun the Balkans. Some social continuity maintained through Constantinople
Italy: Devastated by the Gothic Wars, then conquered by Lombards
Northern Spain: After Moorish conquest of the south, turned into a military frontier like Anatolia
France: First stop for every barbarian group crossing the Rhine
Britain: Chaos after Rome withdraws, then invaded by Anglo-Saxons
Meanwhile, in the Caliphate:
Swift and final conquest, political unity across a large area, protracted fighting shifted outside its borders
Peace and security enable social and economic complexity. Absent peace and security, you lose complexity, including the kind necessary to.cage the peasantry.