Fall Of Rome Dbq Essay

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. One reason why western Rome collapsed is because of the military as seen in documents 1 and 4. These documents show that Rome’s military was weak, drafted more people, had loyalty problems, and hired mercenaries. First, the lack of breastplates and helmets(document 1) made the Roman …show more content…
These documents show that Rome’s economy was very poor because of low tax revenue, labor shortages, and trade. There were natural disasters like the destructive earthquake and the flood that was responsible for the death of fifty thousand people(document 6). Then a series of plagues decimated the population(document 7). Approximately 75% of the population died from natural disasters. With more than half the population dead, there will be labor shortages throughout the empire because there aren’t enough people to support the needs of the empire. Labor shortages bring many problems. Tax revenue drops because the small population cannot pay enough taxes to support the empire as it did before the population plunged. The empire stops growing without sufficient enough money. Eventually, the Roman empire will have less resources because the empire stopped trading. There will be a lot more draftings because the army is a lot