Like Alexander the Great before him, Charlemagne had built an empire that quickly proved itself possible only as an extension of one man’s political self. Louis died in 840, at which time three of his sons were still alive. After yet another round of civil war, they decided in 843 to abandon the European dream. The Carolingian empire was formally partitioned under the Treaty of Verdun, creating the three kingdoms of West Francia, the Middle Kingdom, and East Francia. (These approximated, respectively and very roughly, to modern France, northern Italy and Burgundy, and western Germany.)
