Ancient Rome DBQ

The Roman Empire fell of multiple reasons. Some say it was because leaders were corrupted or it was economic issues. The reasons that will be talked about further on are, surrounding cities invaded Rome, Christianity spread, and their borders became to hard to control.

The seemingly unstoppable Roman empire was certain to fall in a matter of time. Even though Rome was majorly affected by external attacks, I feel like the fall was because of the internal decline. The economy and social issues were the key factors that led to the descent of the large empire. A vast amount of their problems came from within the city. Every decision that Rome made had an extensive effect on the city itself and the rest of the world. Many foolish decisions made by terrible emperors weakened the city and eventually cause the many aspects of Roman life to crumble.

Some external factors that lead to the fall of Rome are plagues and decline in trade. Evidence of these two factors can be found in document 1. Evidence in document 1 can be found when it says, “There was a noticeable decline in trade and small industry and the labor shortage caused by the plague affected both the military recruiting and the economy. Armies were needed more than ever but financial struggles made it difficult to pay and enlist more soldiers.”.And this evidence shows that the plague and lack of trade, gave less money to Rome, which made them pay their soldier less, and gave less of a reason to join the military. Which then gave their armies less power, and made it easier to let attackers take land, kill Roman armies, and make Rome have less power, leading to the fall of Rome. Although the other external factor that lead to the fall of Rome was attackers, (raiders, Huns, etc). Evidence of this is in document 5. In document 5 it shows that “The visigoths raided Greece, killed Emperor Valens and took over south of Danube.” Also there were vandals who invaded Italy, conquered North Africa, and destroyed other parts of Rome. Which lead to the fall of Rome because there was chaos that allowed leaders to make bad decisions (such as exempting upper class from laws and diverting the army to churches). And allowed the leaders to be assassinated in midst of the chaos. And that made Rome’s land shrink and lose power without ; Emperor Valens and other Emperors being assassinated, raids in Balkan and Greece, the Visigoths taking and invading Italy, and raiding/ransacking Rome. And they [Visigoths] were able to take over and conquered North Africa and Carthage. And without those pieces of land and having to battle with the attackers attackers Rome lost power and

“Fifty thousand people had lost their lives in the flood.”(Document F) This disaster shook the empire, which consequently made the citizens lose self confidence and their spirit. Without confidence, they would’ve been easily defeated by others rival tribes. Deadly illness such as measles arrived Rome, killing three-fourths of the population.(Document F) It was hard for Rome to find other Roman citizens to join the army since many people died from diseases or natural disasters. All in all, the natural disasters killed made people, therefore made citizens lose-confidence and there weren't enough citizens to be soldiers since many people were killed from

There are many examples of political problems that made Rome collapse. One example is that people started to use violence in politics as a way to get their word across. Many Emperors were assassinated because people didn’t like the way they were ruling. Very few Emperors made it past five years of ruling. Another example is that when Christianity became a part of Rome, it caused trouble with the army and politics. One of the main teachings of Christianity is to not hurt others and to love your enemy. This caused people to not enlist in the army because of their religion. Without the army, Rome was an unsafe place. Because of political problems, Rome fell apart without a strong

The ancient Roman Empire lasted from 500 b.c.e to 500 b.c, around the Mediterranean Sea. The ancient Roman Empire declined because of their military, economic, and political problems. Those three issues were the main causes of the decline of the Roman Empire. One of the causes of the Roman Empire to decline was the military issues such as the enemies they made and the number of people exempt from the army draft.

One of the things that played a role in the decline of Rome, would be that there were too many war outbreaks. The war outbreaks would eventually lead to oppressive taxation, meaning that if there was too much war, more people would be likely to leave. And most of the people who leave would be the rich people. As stated in document B, the roman army was filled with negligence and laziness, and often were beaten by the Goths since they didn’t even wear a chest plate or a helmet. The second piece of evidence, document C, which would be the map of “Foreign Invasion of the Roman Empire.” Because of the constant war outbreaks, many of the wealthy fled, leaving only the poor behind. The Roman government had to do something, so they eventually depended on manual labor. They had slaves work the field, and work as craftsman. Therefore the Roman government for

Rome needs money to strive and without it, it was more likely to collapse as the economy went down the drain. Due to deadly illnesses being transmitted to the Roman Empire, it allowed the economy to suffer severely. The illness, measles that had arrived from southern Asia, had decimated the population leaving 250,000 people left from a million in the Roman Empire (Doc. #8). Due to the military having to hire Germanic soldiers to guard their frontiers, they needed money to pay the troops. The demand for money to pay for these troops then added to the demands on the state’s budget, just as declining production cut into tax revenues. Taxes became severe on the citizens of the empire, wealthy men were treated more valuable than the poor and unprincipled men inflicted injuries on others (Doc. #6). The Roman Empire treating the wealthy with more respect could be due to their need for money in the state’s budget and hoping some of them would have the heart to donate money, preventing the fall of Rome. Taxes were raised for obvious reasons. The empire knew they were having money problems and needed to get more out of the citizens spending habits, also to prevent the fall of Rome. The natural disaster that struck the Roman Empire in 366 CE could also contribute economically to the fall of Rome since the there was a devastation left and all recoveries to the city cost money (Doc. #7). The

Disasters and diseases are one reason of Rome’s fall. According to Document F, it states that “the Roman world was shaken by a violent and destructive earthquake … but the tide soon returned with the weight of an immense [flood] which was severely felt on the coasts of Sicily, … Greece, and of Egypt.” This shows that the earthquake had destroyed the Valens’ empire, which would be very costly to repair all the damage the disaster had done. The flood had also caused a tremendous amount of damage which would contribute to the cost of the earthquake. “Fifty thousand persons had lost their lives in the flood [in the city of Alexandria alone],” which meant that their population would decrease. Diseases also proved the decline of Rome. Different types of plagues “swept over the empire … which brought diseases [from] southern Asia to new areas like the Mediterranean.” (pg 35, Doc. F) These diseases were very

One of the reasons that the Roman empire fell because the population is decreasing. The Roman empire fell by the population decreasing because according to document number 1 states that plague is one of the reasons that there was a rapid decreasing rate. Another reason is their interest of producing kids wasn’t very good because people were living their luxurious lifestyle so people did not want to have kids. The final reason why the population decreased involved the Roman empire to fall was because the Roman empire kept having constant wars and warfare's that a ton of people that were in the military died which means less people, population decreasing rapidly.

The first reason for the fall of Rome was Natural disasters. “The Roman world was shaken by earthquakes”, states Document F. Also, Document F states that, “The shores of the Mediterranean were left dry by the sudden retreat of the sea.” Lastly Document F states that “The tide soon returned to the weight of immense floods.” Earthquakes, drought,

The earthquake had caused the sea to retreat but the tide soon came back flooding the coasts of Sicily, Greece, and Egypt (Doc F). Rome lost 50,000 people terrifying the remaining people (Doc F). And they had a reason to be terrified, a series of plagues had also swept over Rome causing Rome to lose about 750,000 people (Doc F). After this there wasn’t much left or Rome, only 250,000 people and they had been conquered a lot, after this Rome seemed to dissappear from the world (Doc

However, some people may argue that natural disasters were responsible for the fall of Rome. Natural disasters killed people and damaged property. However, if Rome wasn’t in as much trouble with their military and government, more attention would’ve been given. If the government did not have so much drama and squabbling going on, they would’ve sent people out to go and save the citizens. Also, if they were not worried about other things, they probably would have figured out that there was a series of disasters, and they could have embraced for

Ancient Rome was an empire so dominant, wealthy and economically- stable which came to a dramatic fall in the period of 250AD- 500AD. Ancient Rome faced unexplained unfortunate events which crumbled the Great Empire from the affluent empire to a impoverished society. For centuries historians have timelessly theorised and analysed many debates and research in relation to the Fall of the Roman Empire. What really caused the predominate Roman Empire to fall? Did Rome fall naturally? Was disease, such as malaria a major contributor to the Fall of the Empire, Was man -made infrastructure a problem during Ancient Roman times? Was the fall a natural event? Was the climate changing causing natural disasters? Maybe, perhaps, all the theories interweaved with each other at the same time causing a catastrophic downfall, defeating the Ancient Roman Empire. Edward Gibbon (Gibbon, 1909, pp 173-174.) quoted,

After 50 thousand deaths, it was clear, Rome was seen, as a declining empire and a sinking world. I think the fall of the Roman Empire was due to Military weakness, weak leadership, and disasters and diseases.