European Monarchies

When the wars were going on, nomadic people known as the Huns were migrating through Greek territory fighting battles. Many groups such as, the Visigoths, the Ostrogoths, and the Germanics came over into Rome in search for safety and protection. Rome was soon taken over by invaders after giving up many of their territories. In 378 the empire’s army tried to turn back invading groups and failed miserably, therefore more invaders started to come in aswell. When everyone invaded the empire it greatly damaged their power, then on top of that many other problems play a role in the falling of

Much of the Roman frontier followed the natural boundaries of the Rhine and Danube rivers across Europe. On the other side of these rivers were territories the Romans never brought under their control and tribal peoples such as the Goths, Franks, Vandals, and Huns. By the middle of the fourth century CE, many Roman governors had allowed these so-called “barbarians” to settle on the Roman side of the rivers, and Roman generals had even recruited many of the men as soldiers in their armies. However, the barbarians never assimilated fully into Roman culture. By the end of the century they started to wage a series of ferocious campaigns

the Fall of the Roman Empire there was a fight for power between several barbarian tribes like the

A lack of government contributed to the cultural decay in Europe. In western Europe, the Germanic Kingdoms were set up after the fall of the Roman Empire. Shortly after the kingdoms were formed, they were attacked by the barbarians. Still relatively new, " [t]he Germanic Kingdoms which had been set up by 476 were unable to suppress the violence"(Document A). Since the kingdoms were newly formed, their governments were too fragile to be able to defend against the attacks, allowing the barbarians to wreck total havoc in the Kingdoms. Government went from being strong and able to keep order in the Roman Empire to being fragile and almost nonexistent. This transformation from a strong government to a lack of government lead to

The Barbarians people like the Goths, Vandals, Huns, Franks, and Saxons were groups that invaded the Roman Empire. Barbarians' are people outside of the Roman Empire, "they did not have the same level of government, education, or engineering as the Romans" (Ducksters, n.d.). The Goths were a powerful and organized group, the Goths divide into two branches known as Visigoths and the Ostrogoths (Ducksters, n.d.). The Visigoths took over the Western Europe and would constantly battle the Roman, the Visigoths sacked Rome in 410. The Vandals were from Northern Europe, they established a powerful kingdom in North Africa.

The savage and unruly Huns who live and thrive in harsh conditions in the wild wreak havoc while conquering civilized Rome because they don’t know right from wrong or have any moral consciousness (Document E). The Roman’s eyes are opened and they realize that non-Romans or barbarians had the capability to hold the same amount of power that was once achieved by Rome. This created instability and uncertainty within the social climate of Rome due to their loss of power and confidence in their empire. The Germanic tribes moved across the entirety of the Western empire, which meant that it was conquered and trampled on by outsiders. (Document D)

Rome’s misjudgement was being lenient and showing mercy to barbarians. Once Valens was appointed emperor of eastern Rome, Roman generals were greeting and allowing barbarians(Vandals, Goths, Hans) to enter Rome without any restrictions. “Since there was a refugee crisis of 200,000 barbarians(Goths specifically) for Valens, Valens allowed them to enter Rome since he’s always looking for more troops”. To make matters worse, the barbarians didn’t see themselves as refugees, but instead felt as if they were entitled to as much as Roman Citizens. To add insult to injury, the Roman soldiers felt that this wasn’t right and mistreated the

The Barbarians have made a significant part to the fall of the Roman Empire. Greek did not like the Barbarians for a lot of reason but for most people it was because “barbarians are those who do not speak Greek well, ‘as is also the case with us speaking their languages” (Todoro 18). The Barbarians also had tribes who usually did not agree with each other, “The art of these tribes was confined to small and portable objects because of their nomadic way of life” (Merovingian Art…) but are very strong if they came together. The Roman Empire did not treat the Barbarians very well,

Although economic troubles only served to speed up the deterioration of the Roman Empire, the underlying reason for the collapse was the Barbarian tribes who invaded territories in Western Rome. “At the end of the fourth century an even greater problem appeared in the form of barbarian peoples who made their way into the empire. By the end of the fifth century, barbarians had settled throughout the Western half of the Roman Empire and established independent kingdoms.” Rome had been in conflict with Barbarian tribes for centuries, however, the various groups did not become a problem until the 300s, when they began to infringe on the empire’s borders. In 425, the Vandals claimed North Africa, a major grain supplier for the West. This was a fatal blow that the region could not afford to take, as this was “the western empire’s last remaining secure tax base.” Then in 410, Alaric, the Visigoth King, successfully sacked and conquered the city of Rome. The West spend the decades following these attacks in constant fear. Citizens have a right to be fearful, as these were only two of many more Barbarian attacks.

The land of barbarians were located beyond the western border of Rome along Rhine and Danube rivers and would slowly become a serious threat to Rome and eventually led to the fall of the empire. At first, they posed no danger as they were only German farmers that were nomadic because of their poor agricultural skills. The barbarians could not develop a political structure either so they were

New Monarchs of the 17th century led the way to the formation of the modern states in various ways. To make a strong-central government the new monarchs had to change. The government increased the taxation and tariffs on the common people. Politically, the new monarchs set a “good” government by becoming absolute rulers. Finally they set a good foundation for the modern states by building strong and loyal militaries. These were some ideas that paved way for modern states.

This failure in leadership and economy led the empire to be at an economic breaking point when the Emperor Valens promised protection for the Gothic people. Valens could not give the people what he had promised them such as food. At this point, more refugees poured into the empire along with those who were promised protection this vast amount of people along with those already within the empire who were refusing loyalty to Rome and not paying taxes created to much strain on the economic system, “In the end, there was no money left to pay the army, build forts or ships, or protect the frontier. The barbarian invasions, which were the final blow to the Roman state in the fifth century, were simply the culmination of three centuries of deterioration

The Plantagenets were the people who ruled over England for more than 200 years. This powerful dynasty ruled from 1154 to 1399, and it was the longest reigning English dynasty. This period of time was part of the middle ages, the age of chivalry. However, nearing the end of Plantagenet rule, society began to move away from the feudalism seen in the earlier middle ages, and became more secular. The eight kings during this time made countless advancements, establishing many elements of modern day England. In his book, The Plantagenets, Dan Jones tells the story of these kings and their accomplishments. Jones covers such a long period of history yet manages to make it engaging and cohesive;

However, this course broaden my perspective of what was truly barbarian, what was perceived as barbarian and what fell in between. When one looks at what truly happened to Rome from approximately 200 AD there is nothing in common from my past studies. By no means or all of Europe’s barbarians were

Scholars have debated over the question of the Fall of Rome for centuries. Until the late twentieth century, no one argued against the commonly held belief that Rome had been taken over by “barbarians” through violent and bloody invasions. Everyone assumed that the Roman people and the Barbarians where hostile toward one another. Others thought that Rome never fell and that the Germanic people gave it a new sense of life. But recently scholars have come to argue that the “fall” of Rome had come about more peacefully and through assimilation and migration rather than invasion. According to Bryan Ward- Perkins, a historian of the later Roman Empire, “Words like ‘decline’ and ‘crisis’, which suggest problems at the end of the empire and which were quite usual into the 1970’s have largely disappeared from historians’ vocabularies, to be replaced by neutral terms, like ‘transition’, ‘change’, and ‘transformation’.” This radical change in reasoning has scholars arguing over how the “fall” of Rome actually came about. The Western Empire did not fall due to invasion the period regarded as the “fall” was really just a time of transition due to the assimilation of the Germanic peoples facilitated by weaknesses in the Roman system of government.