When your military isn't strong enough, you get fire, rape, pillage, death, starvation and epidemics, and people really really don't like that.
May I recommend "Savage Continent":
https://www.amazon.com/Savage-Continent-Europe-Aftermath-Wor...
It was so terrible I abandoned reading it.
When your military isn't strong enough, you get fire, rape, pillage, death, starvation and epidemics, and people really really don't like that.