One theory I have on the rise and fall of Rome is the. Money spent on Roman Military. From the brief article ‘The Excessive Military Spending." From this section in the article, it states that. While Rome was at war, setting off to defend the borders from foreign attacks, the times were terrible. Most of the Roman money was spent towards the military. Which left only a few resources for other activities, including public education and maintaining the roads. Consequently, near the end of the Western part of the Roman empire, the Romans started to give up. The only other option was for the government to rely on the mercenaries for their defense. The Mercenaries were taken from unemployed mobs or foreign countries, conversely, they were expensive.
Rome was constantly expected to maintain an army in order to defend its borders from barbarian attacks. This was an economically draining task that had an immense effect on the government. Not only did the troops have to be fed and bathed, but also trained and paid. The funds required by the legions left little to no money for the Empire. Tasks such as providing public housing and maintaining roads and aqueducts were no longer able to be completed. Left with no money, Rome could no longer function, leading to the downfall. Constant wars and overspending were putting Rome in an economical crisis. The Empire was struggling to gather sufficient troops to defend its boundaries against attacks and civil issues. Funds were constantly being channeled
When the terrorist attacks occurred on 9/11 it did more than just affect the comfort level of American citizens. It had an all around impact on how this country will be run for years to come. The one economic impact that I will concentrate on is that the attacks, arguably, but directly effected the U.S. GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and how the national budget will be handled from that day forward.
The Excessive Military spending to defend the empire was basically getting an army to defend the borders of the empire from barbarian attacks. It was also for Military spending few resources for their important activities such as providing education and maintaining roads. In the last years of the empire the frustrated romans lost their desire to defend the empire, because of that the government relied on their hired soldiers (mercenaries) for defense.
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.
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
One internal factor that contributed to the fall of Rome is the their once legendary army started to become lazy. Romans no longer practiced the same methods the ones before them did. They wanted to wear less armor. According to document 6,Vegetius states’’But negligence and sloth having by degrees introduced a total relaxation of discipline,the soldiers began to think their army too heavy, as they seldom put on it.’’ This quote proves that the Roman soldiers became sluggish. They stopped wearing their proper armor, which resulted in their defeat in battles. They were unprotected against arrows and attack. in addition, another internal problem Rome faced was that
Whether you prefer to say Rome fell due to the invasions or simply morphed into the oppressive and the corrupt government, economic policies of the emperors had a heavy impact on the lives of the citizens of Rome. The Roman Empire acquired money by taxation or by finding new sources of wealth, like land. However, it had reached its furthest limits, so land acquisition was no longer an option. As Rome lost territory, it also lost its revenue base.In doc# 4: we can see how the economy and citizens were taken advantage of and how the economy was not stable enough, led to the fall of Rome. The empire's main focus was on expanding and funding towards the military and politics. They did not think of the flaws that came with expanding and soon realized that to expand they had to gain military strength, and that costs a lot of money. Immediately the government created high taxes taking advantage of the citizens that leaned on the government welfare system, forcing them to basically pay for advances in the military. This affected small business and companies to crash because they could not afford these taxes, leaving the economy weakened. Therefore the economy could no longer help provide for the military expansion and lead to military weakening. And when the military and the economy was down due to this “internal decay” Rome was easy to conquer and lost all power and eventually fell. Doc# 3 also shows that due to the expansion and Rome wanting to be a world power, it caused a distraction and the economy was used to fund the military success and power, with high taxes. The more it expanded the more the taxes cost and the weaker the economy was. Due to the money that was taken from the economy, Wages being low, slaves disappearing, great estates growing, agriculture was being dominated, it
As well as another reason to Rome's downfall was because most of the Roman military were foreign soldiers and not really Romans themselves. In “Doc 5” it explains how most of Rome’s military were in fact foreign soldiers. Most of the foreign soldiers were German. Most of the time the foreign soldiers would would betray Rome and switch sides during battle. This was a case of disloyalty. From these soldiers switching sides during battle many of the soldiers that were Romans died and eventually the military grew weak and couldn’t defend Rome’s
One of the greatest empires began to fall to its knees after hundreds of years, but the question is, how? Rome was one of the greatest empires for a long time, but then they started to decline. The Roman Military started to become lazy, which lead to failure. Then between 220-476 CE the Roman Empire started to be sacked by foreign invaders. Although, some researchers may say that natural disasters led to the fall of Rome, nevertheless the primary reasons for the decline of Rome are foreign invasions, and military mistakes.
The Decline That Leads Into the Fall of Rome The Roman Empire was a beautiful, magnificent, and powerful empire. That is, until the 5th century when things went downhill. Around 700 B.C.E., Rome was founded on the banks of the Tiber River. Initially, Rome was led by a king but the government soon shifted to a republic where citizens elected officials and had a right to vote.
As Rome became larger they became more dependent on soldiers who weren’t loyal to Rome. According to Doc 5, “Rome became reliant on hired, foreign soldiers to bolster their military, especially Germanics. Therefore, much of the military was not loyal to Rome, often switching sides in battle.” The Roman Empire started to decline due to the lack of people willing to fight for them. The less people fighting for them the more likely it was for them to be defeated, and if they
“We must never forget why we have, and why we need our military. Our armed forces exist solely to ensure our nation is safe, so that each and every one of us can sleep soundly at night, knowing we have guardians at the gate,” said Allen West,a retired Army lieutenant colonel and a former member of the House of Representatives. He explained America’s need for a strong military perfectly in this quote. The United States depends on their military to protect them from all different kinds of threats like cyber warfare or terrorist attacks.
One of the reasons that Rome fell was its military. The German attacks are what caught Rome off of its feet. During the late empire, Rome got complacent with the training and discipline of their soldiers. In order to have enough soldiers to protect the empire, Rome hired mercenaries who were mostly made up of German warriors who felt little loyalty to Rome. If Rome hired soldiers who were more loyal to their, such as their own people, and continued to train their soldiers, they would have
When the United States puts in billions of dollars into military spending to help defend our nation. It only causes Russia and China to spend their dollars on their militaries, so they can have bigger armies, navies, and air force. So military spending doesn’t help protect our nation, if our rivals like Russia and China would see this as a threat to spend on their military. But if the United States, Russia, and China come together and agree on cutting down their spending in their military. There won’t be any more world tension being caused by these nations building up their militaries. But if they don’t stop spending on their military, it would cause another World War later on in the future. This is one of the reasons, why World War I caused
The Roman military was one of the root causes for the fall of the Empire. While the military was effective at first, it eventually became corrupt as the empire expanded. Larger amounts of territory meant more enemies, threats, and land to control. Since this was the case, Rome had to hire