A Europe sliding back into the impotence and fragmentation of Holy Roman Empire should remember what came next.

The EU is not a Superstate rather it is a confederation of Grand Duchies and petty Ruritanias organized around the lowest common denominator they can find which is the bankrupt religion of social democracy. And like pre Reformation Catholicism, the old time religion is rotted, corrupt and disbelieved by more and more. Last time the Empire was crushed by the Wars of Reformation and the rise of nation states on its peiphery.

So what will be the leading cause of mortality in Greater Europe for this generation?

http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21601570-catalonia-set-independence-vote-despite-madrids-hostility-wars-spanish-secession