The Decline and Fall of the Western Roman Empire
The Western Roman Empire and its fall undoubtedly had a lasting impact upon western Europe for centuries to come. The fall of the Western Roman Empire allowed for Christianity to gain a foothold in the region, ensuring its survival and growth throughout Europe. In order for the Western Roman Empire to go from the powerful machine it once was to its eventual demise, multiple factors had to coincide to lead help deteriorate the empire. I argue that the fall of the Western Roman Empire was inevitable because the empire grew to be too large, which resulted in financial problems and ineffective tax collections, poor leadership, and invasions accompanied with a declining military.
As the Western Roman Empire continued to expand in size, it failed to adequately address the problems in finances and tax collection that accompanied a larger empire. One of the main factors that resulted in the decline and fall of the Western Roman Empire was simply that the empire lost the financial ability to sustain itself. The Western Roman Empire suffered from a breakdown of trade with others that contributed to its declining economic state. A decline in trade meant the empire was bringing in less money, making it more difficult for the empire to fund its ventures. In addition to this breakdown of trade, the Western Roman Empire also experienced other notable economic downfalls. For instance, the Western Roman Empire experienced currency debasement
To begin with, one of the main problems of the Roman Empire was their economic problems and corruption. For example, in an excerpt of a historical text written by Priscus, which was a Roman ambassador to the Huns in 449 C.E, he reported a conversation he had with a former citizen whose land had been conquered by the Huns. In their conversation the former Roman citizen stated, “ The conditions of [Roman] subjects in time of peace [is worse than war]...taxes are very severe, and unprincipled men inflict injuries on others… A [wealthy lawbreaker] … is not punished for his injustice, while a poor man … undergoes the legal penalty… The climax of misery is to have to pay in order to obtain justice…” This supports that one main problem that ended the Roman empire was economic problems and corruption because it shows that if rich people in Rome committed a crime they would only have to bribe their way out of trouble while on the other hand poor people will have to face their consequences which is unfair so when they got invaded by the Huns they decided that it was best if they conquered than to join the military to help their empire. In addition another economic problem is that the the Roman Emperors had to pay their own soldiers to stay loyal which lead to emperors having to mint more coins which is further supported by BrainPop which states, “Roman emperors often bribed their soldiers with money to make sure they remained loyal. And when emperors didn’t have enough to pay their troops, they would mint cheaper coins. This caused the value of Roman money to plummet.” This also supports that one important cause that caused the Roman Empire to decline was the corruption and economic problems because in order for a empire or a civilization to function efficiently, they need to respect all people
The Western Roman Empire fell due to many flaws. However, it fell mainly due to invasions from external enemies, economics, and a discouraged society. Therefore, the empire began to slowly decline. This expansive empire fell not due to one, but many faults made over a time period. To this day the empire is remembered as one of the most advanced of its time.
There were many social factors that contributed to the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The fall of the Western Roman Empire was impacted by several social factors. For example, “the introduction of Christianity had some influence on the decline and fall of the Roman empire” (doc. 2). The things that this religion valued, were quite the opposite of what Romans used to hold as their virtues.
Primarily social and economic factors influenced the downfall of the Roman Empire. External economic forces gradually brought their effects into the empire whilst internally Rome’s social fabric began to degrade. This socio-economic degradation seen in Ancient Rome is likely due to both Rome’s social and economic instability as well as the birth of the Christian faith in the Roman Empire. Part of the downfall of Rome can be attributed to external economic factors such as a lack of conquest and a large influx of slavery from without. Much of Rome’s economy “was fed by plundered wealth and by new markets in the semi-barbaric provinces” (Document 2.)
An additional cause for the fall of the Roman Empire was the constant change in emperors. The document says, “For the next forty-nine years , the Roman imperials throne was occupied by anyone military strength to seize it -- a total of twenty-two emperors.”(Doc 1, 3-5). In short this means that they would let anyone with military experience came to power. The effect of the decision is that the majority of the emperors either died in battle or was assassinated . The Empire didn’t have a stable leader which is why the Empire fell. They needed a leader that would stay in power for a long time to keep the Empire from breaking into chaos. This compares to the Han Dynasty because they also didn’t have stable emperors which caused the society
What were the primary reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire? Mini-Q The most powerful empire of all time fell due to foolish reasons. What were the primary reasons for the fall of Rome? Rome fell because the military got lazy, people were starting to get made at Rome, and all the emperors were being assassinated after a few years into their reign.
The Decline of Rome The most significant factors that contributed to the downfall of the Western Roman Empire were barbarian invasions due to a weakened military and a meager population that held resentment towards Rome. These problems converged and created a domino effect that was able to topple the formerly strong and dignified Roman Empire. Rome had lost the essence of what made the Roman empire Roman. This included a disciplined and driven military made of many soldiers who believed in Rome and its power.
The reason that economic crisis contributed to the fall of the Roman empire was because the Roman empire didn’t have much gold to trade which means less money for the Roman empire to use to make improvements in their empire. The next reason is because according to document number 2 “People produced their own goods rather than trading them” because the Roman Empire was not safe to trade with. The 3rd reason is because tons of merchants that used to have trade routes for the Roman empire wasn’t safe for them because merchants were afraid that people were going to attack
Rome is located in Italy, which includes a peninsula and islands in southern Europe. Rome became an empire around 14 C.E. In 476 C.E., the last emperor in the west loses his throne to a Germanic leader, which pretty much marked the fall of Rome. The reasons the Roman Empire fell is because it grew to big to protect, military soldiers were unloyal to Battle, and Invasions in Rome. Due to Christianity Rome hired foreign soldiers to fight for military.
Fall of the Western Roman Empire The Roman Empire was doomed to crumble and fall from the beginning. The specific reason for it’s infamous decline could stem from many different reasons. From my point of view, I believe Rome’s internal decay, economic collapse, and the infiltration of barbarians contributed to the disintegration of the Roman Empire. One of the many reasons why, one of the largest, most influential empires of ancient times perished, was because of internal decay.
The fall of the Roman Empire was caused by many things from barbarian invasions to a failing economy, many things went wrong for this empire all at one time the economy started to fail and even the people stopped working and joining the army and I want to know why and in this paper I will be explaining how exactly such a strong and once prosperous empire fell so quickly. If we really want to figure what actually happened to the Roman Empire we must start at the beginning of the downfall and many believe this was in the year 295 A.D when the Roman Emperor Theodosius died and the empire was taken over by his two sons Arcadius in the east and Honorius in the west and they were relatively good emperors and many people loved Honorius and he was the staple emperor for the Western Half of The Empire. But then the barbaric invasions started 11 years later and that was really the start of the fall but they also had other problems besides that, many of the politicians were only concerned with beating each other out of the political positions and not focusing to much on the threat of the
For a long period of time, Rome seemed like an unstoppable empire. It conquered the majority of the land surrounding it, including Greece, Turkey, Iraq, and many of its other neighboring countries. It seemed as though Rome would conquer the entire world, as it was the center of it, until it began to decline in 476 C.E. The very aspects that made it so successful were the ones that caused its collapse. Various political, religious, and economic reasons caused its downfall. The fact that the entire economy of Rome collapsed and money became worthless was a major reason for the empire’s collapse. In addition, the loss of a common religion and lack of efficient ruling in relation to its vast territory affected the empire. The Roman
In the later half of the fourth century the Western Roman Empire fell after nearly a five hundred years of dominance and is still widely considered the world’s greatest superpower (Andrews). Many people attribute the crumbling of the empire to multiple different reasons, like corrupt and insane leaders to overspending and inflation. As J.B Bury said once “the fall of the roman empire was a series of contingent events. In this paper we are going to cover the three main reasons. Political and Economical problems plus problems with the military(Wood).
While the fall of the Roman Empire is well known, the exact causes of why it fell can be difficult to pinpoint. Many historians believe that Rome 's downfall was due to poor leadership, weakened economics, or perhaps a combination of the two along with other seemingly unrelated factors. However, there is a string of evidence suggesting that there were three main components that took place to bring about the fall of the Roman Empire. These determinant attributes did not happen all at once, and there was a domino effect with each one directly influencing the others. The fall of Rome occurred after a series of preventable events, including unacceptable emperors, the heavy reliance on slaves, and the increasingly uncontrollable borders of Rome.
The Roman Empire was a vast territory that expanded to three different continents.They were a place of honor, tradition, and respect. Rome has had several different periods, some of peace, and some of violence or unrest, but those were solved quickly and effectively. However, such a magnificent empire could not hold up under the strains that were slowly causing it to collapse. Rome began to face many problems that together allowed the fall of the Roman Empire. The three main problems that caused Rome to fall were invasions by barbarians, an unstable government, and pure laziness and negligence.