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I suspect that the division of Arnor was inspired by the fate of many RW Germanic kingdoms, including Charlemagne's empire; it was a byproduct of the ultimately destructive old Teutonic custom of dividing an inheritance among the sons rather than adhering to primogeniture.
Of course Gondor was also weakened by civil war, but there it was a faction-fight over a single crown rather than armed squabbles between, say, Belfalas and Anorien.
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The entire plot of The Lord of the Rings could be said to turn on what Sauron didn’t know, and when he didn’t know it.
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