Fall Of Rome Dbq Essay

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.

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

Rome fell because of laziness and negligence of the military. Inside document B, this happened because the military fought without armor and helmets so they got wounded easily by the Goths archers. The soldiers ran from fights rather than actually fighting. The army abandoned their own parade drills. Doc B). People were avoiding the drafts so the military became weak. No one tried to restore the armor so people would keep getting wounded. Eventually the weak military led to the fall of Rome.

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

The Roman empire started around 750 BCE, as a spreading empire. They conquered land from modern-day Scotland to Spain, and gained control of the whole mediterranean sea, and established colonies in North Africa, Egypt, the middle east, and Asia Minor. The vast empire had some twists and turns and soon fell mainly because of the natural disasters, economic problems, and most significant of all, the poor military skills.

One of the many noteworthy reasons Rome came to its demise was the unstable nature of their military. The Romans were rarely using their armor to shield themselves and it was getting tiresome to wear the armor. The emperor then did not require the use of body armor anymore, “Therefore, they first asked the emperor to set aside the breastplates… and then the helmets.” (page 15). Because of the decision to cast away the breastplates and helmets, it made it effortless to wound and kill the Romans with skilled archers, such as the Huns (Doc D). Another pivotal fault was the draft, “The exempted categories were...numerous” (Doc B). Draft exemptions meant that not enough men were fighting and too many were lazing around. Even bakers and cooks were not required to serve under martial law(Doc B). Because of these mistakes, the Roman military became weak. Not having enough members on their command,

In the blink of an eye a Roman emperor was assassinated, just like that, that's all it took. Document A, Roman emperors it declares that only 22 Roman emperors ruled over 50 your time and 13 were assassinated or killed, cloistered one by one. This reinforcement validates that the Roman military was bending over backwards to gate stability with their empire. Supplementary, it also put more compression on to whomever was ruling over Rome. In conjunction with defending the Roman ruler, the rulers were constantly wiped out by assassins.

During Rome’s slow decline, the early problems were shown in leadership. . After numerous deaths, the years 235-285 CE became a time of despair for Rome. Examples of this was how various leaders ruled from 1-2 years, but a few lasted a few months,according to the chart in Document A. Gordian I & II ruled as co leaders, but lasted about less than a year,but Gordian I died of suicide, which could of been an effect of the constant leaders taking over the empire. Without a strong and stable leadership, the people of the empire began to stir. Assassination was a main cause of death among the emperors. There was too much assassination, it meant that there were no stable leadership to hold the empire. Nevertheless, there were deeper problems to worry about as the army too, started to deteriorate.

From 50 BCE until the year 200 CE the Roman Empire was the super power of the Mediterranean world. The Roman Empire was always growing but then the empire started to slowly fall apart. According to Document C, two reasons why Economic and Social Problems might be the primary reason for the Fall of Rome was that they were maintaining an army to defend the borders of the Empire. Due to barbarian attacks this shows that it was a constant strain on government.

The Romans had to live with multiple political assassinations in a short amount of time. The rulers were very misleading and unfair which led to them being assassinated. Thirteen out of twentyone rulers were assassinated in 235A.D through 283 A.D. (Document A) Most emperors didn’t even last three years.With political assassinations being common the Roman military was starting

History Paper Why did Rome fall? The Roman Empire was a great empire. However they fell and all other nations have been compared to Rome since then. The fall of Rome was not caused by a single event. One main cause was was the failing economy and high inflation.

From about 700 BCE to 476 BC, the Roman Empire was the superpower of the Mediterranean world. During that time the empire's wealth, territory, and international status grew. Over two decades Rome shifted from being a republic, with elements of democratic control, to an empire with power in the hands of an emperor and the military. By the 5th century CE, when the city was sacked by outside invaders, Rome had been badly weakened by a number of problems. The main reasons for the destruction of Rome were political assassinations, natural disasters, and military problems.

Although the fall of Rome remains obscure, what many historians fail to realize is that the decline of the Roman Empire was the epitome of cause and effect relationships. Properly analyzing the fall of Rome leads historians to realize that a chain of circumstances, beginning with the political corruption of the Western empire, was a catalyst for superfluous military spending and economic failure, all which contributed to the fall of Rome. Because the Praetorian Guard would select the highest bidder and put him into office, the emperors would not represent the people as a whole and did not instill the beliefs that the people held. In Document 1, Roman Emperors, 235-285, a chart shows the inconsistency of the Roman emperors and the violence

But the three most important causes of Rome’s fall was it’s weak leadership, military weakness, and economic problems. First of all Rome’s main problems started with it’s weak political leadership. According to Document A from 235-285 CE, 22 emperors had tried to stay in control of Rome. Of those emperors none had died from natural causes. The most common cause of death out of these emperors was assassination.

The Roman empire was one of the most powerful empires that expanded and one we still study today. Rome’s decline was caused by three main causes economic problems, weak political power, and military weakness. These are three of the many cause of Rome’s decline but are the ones that affected Rome the most.