In this essay I will briefly describe the factors that led to the decline and fall of the Western Roman Empire.…
By 200 BC, Rome was quickly becoming one of the world’s greatest empires with their excellent military conquering territory from modern day Scotland to Spain. After the Punic Wars and the defeat of Carthage, Rome had full control of the Mediterranean region, establishing colonies in North Africa, Egypt, the Middle East, and Asia Minor. Julius Caesar became Rome’s first emperor using his military influence. Under his reign, Rome shifted from a republic to an empire under the rule of an emperor and the military. Rome steadily increased in stability, power, and wealth, reaching Pax Romana (the time of Roman peace) under Emperor Augustus Caesar. Rome was forced to discover, as many other large empires throughout history have, that size can create complications. Political strains developed and Rome eventually morphed into a government similar to a dictatorship. Believing their goal of a “perfect empire” had been reached, leaders in Rome began to become lazy. Romans developed a thirst for luxury and a lack of work ethic, which resulted in a decline in the quality of products made by the empire. Around the 5th century BC, Rome began to have constant invasion attempts by Germanic tribes at their borders. There was a multitude of factors contributing to the fall of Rome, the most impactful being the frequently changing leadership, the increasing negligence of the Roman army, and foreign invasions along Rome’s borders.…
The Roman empire, what is now modern day Italy, was one of the largest and most powerful empires of the ancient world. Their accomplishments shaped politics, religion, and culture around the world. However, when the empire started to decline, Diocletian split the empire into western Rome and eastern Rome in 200 A.D.. While eastern Rome continued to thrive, western Rome collapsed in 400 A.D.. There were many reasons to why western Rome collapsed including military, economy, and religion. First, there were loyalty problems in the military. The economy was also down because of labor shortages. Finally, a new religion was spreading, which changed the morals of Rome.…
The Roman Empire was one of the biggest and most powerful empires of it’s time. Reaching from Greece to Egypt, the empire was bound to fall. The collapse of the Roman Empire in 476 A.D can be attributed to many social causes, such as the introduction of Buddhism, political causes, such as weak leaders, an economic causes, such as inflation.…
The great Roman Empire expanded across all of Europe and into the Middle East. Its military was one of the finest. With major trading in Africa and Britain, the economy flourished with brining many citizens a healthy income. With amazing advancements in culture and technology, Roman society was at its finest. During the Pax Romana, the Romans had 200 years of peace and good ruling by level headed dictators and emperors. Despite Rome’s greatness in all of these areas, Rome would eventually fall. Surprisingly all of these qualities that led up to a flourishing empire were the same ones that led to its demise. As Germanic tribes invaded, the military weakened and the government became unstable. Along with increased political trouble, there was a decline in economic and social structure. The fall of Rome was due to its leaders ignoring the severity of Rome’s problems.…
Think about having lived in what was thought to be the mightiest of all empires. Now,…
The Roman Empire was once a vast and wondrous place where they conquered many places and many things. They had many great leaders and were a great empire but there were many things that went wrong. There are no definitive causes for the fall of the Roman Empire, yet there are multiple valid reasons as to why it happened such as military power, social problems, widespread of diseases, and moral strength.…
There were many reasons for the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Each document in this essay explains a different reason. Some causes were: political, economic, social, and military differences and problems. Basically, the problem was that the gap between the rich aristocrats and the poor serfs got bigger and bigger; the rich got richer as the poor got poorer. Also, when something grows, it always falls back down. In Document 1, an excerpt from a book was taken out. According to the authors, the basic problems facing the Western Roman Empire came from the people that gave up devotion to the old civilization and didn't believe that it was worth saving. Why should they care about their land if they weren't allowed to take part in government say, they couldn't form groups to protect themselves, and were even excluded from their own army? The practically jobless people realized that their cities were slowly falling, but no one bothered to stop their decline; it was something that had to happen. The loss of popular support to the oppressive government, increased government corruption, division of the empire, and internal power struggles were some political causes that led to the fall of Rome. In Document 2, two causes for the fall of Rome were: the large size, and the introduction to Christianity. Because the Empire grew too large, it became uneasy to control. It was inevitable for the fall to occur, no matter how much anyone tried. Jesus' introduction to Christianity also started a change. The clergy (priests) helped change the moral values of society. It no longer mattered much, and military power was buried or thrown away. The rich's wealth was taken away and given to charity (poor). In Document 3, the Muller's explanation for the decline was an economic issue. As the Empire grew stronger, so did economy. When the Empire started to decline, business ceased and there was little progress, so that also crashed along with the empire itself. Slavery caused another…
A big part of the fall, was the Barbarian invasion. Six different tribes attacked Rome which destroyed most of Rome. It wasn't a unified invasion, because the tribes all came from different directions.…
Halsall, Paul (1998). Ancient History Sourcebook: Procopius of Caesarea: Alaric 's Sack of Rome, 410 CE. Retrieved from http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/410alaric.html…
First of all, when a disaster happened, a lot of people died (Document F) . This was a problem because when a tsunami happened, the population decreased and that would lead to them hiring outsiders. Another natural disaster that killed people was the plague. It was sometimes called the black death (Document A). In 268-270 CE, Claudius Gothicus died of the plague. In 251, Hostilian died of a possible plague. This was a problem because they were both emperors. And the emperors were their leaders (Document A). Overall, Rome fell because too many people were getting killed because of Natural Disasters.…
The Roman world was engulfed by tsunami, and 50,000 people lost their lives. “In the second year of the reign of Valens (366 CE) the Roman world was shaken by a violent and destructive earthquake… the tide soon returned with the weight of an immense flood which was severely felt on the coasts of Sicily…” ( Doc F). Second example is a series of plagues sickened and killed off Rome citizens. “ The resulting diseases decimated the population.” ( Doc F). This affected Rome greatly because many people were killed and others too sick, which lowered number of people able to be in conscription. So, the Romans had to get help from the Germanic soldiers. In conclusion the Romans fell due to things going in their natural environment.…
Rome’s fall was inevitable since the initiation of its grand expansion. Rome had grown to such a large size, that it could no longer take care of itself to the level that was needed. Internal factors caused the Roman empire to wane. Three facts that support this statement include, but are not limited to; its several civil wars and revolts among slaves and plebeians, a reliance on war and trade that eventually destroyed the economy, and the rise of Christianity which questioned Rome’s mores and values.…
The fall of Rome was caused by many different internal and external reasons. One internal reason the Roman Empire fell was because of the weakening economy and inflation. In the text it says “Desperate for revenue, the government raised taxes, It also started minting coins that contained less and less silver.” By doing this the government made a huge mistake. Raising taxes made the civilians angry that they had to pay more, and minting coins with less silver caused inflation because they didn’t have enough metal to back it. This caused Rome to fall because the gap between the rich and poor grew even larger because of these mistakes. An external reason that Rome fell is that The Huns lead by Attilla started to attack the Empire. In the book it states“With 100,000 soldiers, Atilla terrorized both halves of the Empire. In the East, his armies attacked and plundered 70 cities.” The Huns along with the Germanic invasions hurt the Empire very badly and was one of the main factors it fell. These internal and external factors are why The Roman Empire fell the way it did.…
The long decline of the Western Roman Empire was caused by the accumulation of the many obstacles that stood in their way over time. At first the Roman Empire was thriving. It was the biggest empire at the time and it expanded at an incredible speed. Their military and leadership capabilities were magnificent. When confronted by the Roman military their enemies were better off giving up and not even trying; it wasn’t worth it. In time, however, the Roman Empire’s golden age expired, they stopped conquering and internal drawbacks began to appear. The once flourishing Roman Empire began to face many problems, like military incapacity, the growth of Christianity, and unemployment, all of which contributed in a different way to the decline of the Empire.…