How Did The Goths Lead To The Fall Of The Roman Empire

The Western Roman Empire was the greatest empire of its time. However, all good things must come to an end, so slowly, but surely, it did. It was unable to withstand many of the consequences that came with major responsibilities and power. As a result, slavery, economic dilemmas, government downfalls, weak leaders, a change of religion, and an unsteady military led to the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

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

Political, economic and social aspects were all involved in the fall of the Roman Empire. In 395 A.D., Rome was divided into two empires, with one capital in Rome and the other in Constantinople. During that time, the western Roman Empire was being invaded by barbarian tribes from the North. In 410, the Visigoth tribe succeeded in conquering the western capital in Rome. In 476, the western Emperor Romulus Augustulus was finally overthrown at the substitute capital set up in Ravenna, and in 529 the eastern Emperor Justinian declared that the pagan religions of ancient Rome were illegal. All of these events caused the end of the western Roman

Rome was a great nation of conquerors, vast wealth and riches which stretched most of Europe, parts of North Africa, and areas of Asia. Its army is arguably the longest surviving and most effective fighting force in military history. Every empire has to terminate and Rome disassembled rather swiftly. The fall of the empire is mentioned in virtually every type of informative media including books and television networks. The fall of the Western Roman Empire was caused by the lack of monetary funds, the formation and following of a new religion, and an increasingly forlorn and debilitated army.

One of the key reasons the Roman Empire fell was the frequent and merciless barbarian attacks. They pushed more and more people into Rome,That created cramped living conditions in Rome. The people that went into Rome started to destroy and steal crops. It also created a strain on their natural resources. The constant barbarian attacks pushing more people into the Empire, destroing their food supply, and using up natural resource lead to their destruction.

    Though Rome was a great empire that conquered countless territories, it was not immune to the numerous attacks from barbarians such as the Huns, the Visigoths, the Vandals, and others. The barbarians would raid and sack the capital and other cities in ancient Rome, leaving them without money or tradable items. The Vandals did so much damage to the cities that their name is associated with the crime of extensive damage to property. The Huns were another destructive group of barbarians that were led by Attila. They raided Rome in 451 AD, leaving an immense trail of destruction. Other barbarians attacked Rome at different times, each leaving Rome weaker and helpless. Each attack destroyed their economy and left them desperate for a solution. The Ostrogoths finally caused the Western Empire to fall when Odoacer chased Romulus Augustus, the last of the Roman emperors, off the

The Roman Empire was one of the most powerful empires in the history of mankind. In 476 CE Odoacer defeated Romulus Augustus to capture Rome; most historians agree that this was the official end of the Western Roman Empire. There is much debate on how exactly Rome declined and eventually fell. The fall of Rome was a long process that took place over many centuries. There are five main schools of thought on why Rome fell. First, Christianity, offered by Edward Gibbons; He suggests that Christianity caused Rome 's citizens to lose loyalty to the state and focus on their own afterlife weakening the internal strength of the empire. The Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus suggests that the barbarians, mainly the Huns, eventually caused the empire to break down. Modern historian, James Burke suggests another explanation, military spending and overexpansion. Another historian, William McNeill, hypothesized that the main reason for Rome’s decline was a series of fatal epidemics. The last school of thought, which I will be defending, theorizes that massive corruption within the participate led to Rome’s decline. The constant civil wars and assassination attempts lead to the emperors focusing on their own safety; this made the empire unable to neither function nor cope with the constant pounding of the barbarians. The Pretorian Guards would assassinate the Emperor whenever they felt he was not doing what they wanted. Christianity affected the empire in a positive way, uniting the

Roman Empire was considered as one of the most influential and dominant Empire in the history that has ever existed. “The Roman Empire at its zenith in the period of the Principate (roughly, 27 BC to AD 235) covered vast tracts of three continents, Europe, Africa, and Asia” (Garnsey). It was an ancient, modern Empire, and it supported anyone who made discoveries and technological improvements. The Empire was the strongest governing body in the Mediterranean.

The empire had long been attacked by these tribes, first by the Visigoths in 378 AD, when they won the Battle of Adrianople against the Roman Empire and set a precedent for germanic invasion. Then in 410 AD, the Visigoths sacked Rome and finally in 476 AD, the Ostrogoths invaded and captured Rome, leading to the end of the Roman Empire. According to Document C, which shows a map of germanic invasion, the Roman Empire was under great external pressure from the migrations and invasions of the Germanic tribes. The map shows movement of germanic tribes and the conflicts they had with the Romans. This map illustrates the external pressure and attacks from Germanic tribes, which eventually contributed to the fall of the empire by weakening it through attack. These attacks further weakened the already failing and negligent Roman army. According to Document B. Soldiers which participated in the army stopped wearing certain types of armor such as breastplates and helmets. When the tribes attacked, these soldiers were completely vulnerable to enemies. The Goths had archers which fired from long range and easily took these soldiers out due to their lack of protection. This shows how the Roman Empire collapsed due to the tribes severely weakening and damaging the army, which in turn, left the empire

Then after the goths killed all of their defenses they were hopeless. So the citizens rebelled to try to get food and money to survey. That is on one the reasons why Rome fell The leaders will just ignore the citizens problems. If the citizens would have a problem the dictator would not care he would just try to get more power.

The Roman Empire was a massive empire that eventually collapsed over time. In 455 C.E the Roman Empire was its last straw. Rome's transition from a republic to an empire made it increase dramatically. This, of course, led to many other problems that caused the Roman Empire to decline and fall. The Roman empire did not depend on one thing for its decline but three major events. The Roman empire fell because of the rise of Christianity, economic trouble, and weak military.

For years, the well-disciplined Roman army held the barbarians of Germany back. Then in the third century A. D. the Roman soldiers were pulled back from the Rhine-Danube frontier to fight civil war in Italy. This left the Roman border open to attack. Gradually Germanic hunters and herders from the north began to overtake Roman lands in Greece and Gaul (later France). Then in 476 A. D. the Germanic General Odovacar overthrew the last of the Roman Emperors, Augustulus Romulus. From then on, the western part of the empire was ruled by the Germanic chieftain. Roads and bridges were left in disrepair and fields left

The Visigoths were reluctantly allowed to migrate to Rome to escape the Huns, but they were treated harshly. In brutalizing the Goths, the Romans made a dangerous adversary inside their own territory. The Goths eventually ascended in rebellion and slaughtered the Eastern Emperor Valens amid the Battle of Adrianople in A.D. 378. The stunned Romans arranged a shaky peace with the Visigoths; however the ceasefire ended in 410, when the Goth King Alaric moved west and sacked Rome. With the Western Empire debilitated, Germanic tribes like the Vandals and the Saxons could surge over its outskirts and possess Britain, Spain and North

On the year of 370, the Huns arrived in what is now called Eastern Europe, they pushed the tribes called The Vandals and The Visigoths out of Eastern Europe, therefore these two tribes needed a new home. In 376 the Visigoths crossed the Danube river, a boundary of the Roman empire, and moved southward. The Visigoths then beat the Romans at the battle of Adrianople, two years later. Which effected Rome a lot, because Rome already had a lot of enemies waiting to bring them down, the Visigoths made a path for that. At the west, the Vandals crossed the Rhine river, another boundary of Rome in 406. The Vandals were known for fighting every city they stumbled upon, even if they won or lost, they kept going, that is what made them successful in their

From the east, the Sassanid Persians made in-roads into Roman territory and began attacking Rome’s borders from their lands farther into Asia (Spielvogel 186). The Sassanids were Mesopotamian Persians, and were always an enemy and threat to Rome since their first appearance as a prominent power in the third century C.E. (Sassanid). Beginning around 230, the Goths, a Germanic tribe, also began raiding the northern border provinces of Rome (Nardo-2004 24). It was this group that would turn out to be one of Rome’s greatest problems from the barbarian tribes.