Major Factors : The Fall Of The Western Roman Empire

The fall of the Roman Empire was much more complex than fall Gupta India and Han China. There were many internal and external aspects that affected the decline of the Roman Empire, dealing with unrest between the people and unrest from outside sources of invasions as well. Many signs leading up to the fall of Rome began late in the second century. Population decreased and the death rate became higher than the birth rate. The reason populations started to dwindle is due to plagues taking place in the empire, and the diseases and death due to the plagues hurt the population and disrupted the economic situation. Since so many people were dying, there were less labor workers. Due to this the Romans had to hire Germanic soldiers, which negatively affected their civilization economically. The Germanic soldiers had to be paid for their duties, and it

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.

Roman empire was perhaps the most prominent empire, it’s size and influence made its fall puzzling. What’s the crisis of the Roman empire in the west contributed to internal or external dysfunction? The complex historians over different generations debating whether the client was faulted by immigration, external invaders, Christianity, political policy, and economic policy. The fall of “A ancient civilization. . . Symptom Of economic decline and their inhabitants were displaying signs of a loss of civic initiative” over a considerable period of time. /20 Katz/ The notable work researched to Debate whether the fall was external or internal include the fall of the Roman empire by peter Heather, the decline of the Rome by Joseph Vogt and The decline and fall of the Roman empire by Edward Gibbons.

As the “abundance of slaves led to the growth of latifudia” (Document 3) the great estates took over the agricultural industry. As latifundia took over, more farmers became out of work and in the persuit of finding work they moved into the cities and “added to the unemployment there” (Document 3). But the expansion didn’t stop there. As “the overwhelming majority of the population had been systematically excluded from political responsibilities, they could not… protect themselves… serve in the army… Their economic plight was hopeless” (Document 1). As missionaries fled into the Roman Armies, the citizens were being forced to pay a huge amount of taxes. But with no farmers to grow the food for the soldiers, who would? Expansion brought wealth into the empire, but “when the empire ceased to expand; however economic progress soon ceased” (Document 3). The inflation rate spiked, the rise in prices on everyday necessities decreased the value of money. The Romans were having to trade with exterior partners for items that could not be produced. The flow of money coming in could not match the amount of money going out. The values of the Romans depleted as their economy crumbled.

They were the main economic boost of the empire, and were now lost. Unlike with political and religious reasons involved in the fall of the empire, regardless of what laws were changes and removed or what actions were taken, nothing could reverse the effect of this terrible economy on the Roman Empire.

Adam Smith explains that wealth was with the landlords and capitalists. This led to a lot of trade between major cities. Once the working class was given power, the fall of these wealthy cities began to occur, thus starting the “fall of the Roman Empire.” The working class, or the slaves, were the majority, and most men according to Smith will never see the benefits of improvements to cultivation or increased productivity. Smith said:

Due to the mass amounts of civil war taken place on Roman land, farming and agriculture greatly suffered. Land was over worked and overused causing the land to become infertile. Soon food shortages and diseases caused the population to decrease. From the cumulations of lost money to war and farming the economy weakened and inflation became high. The gap between the rich and poor gradually increased and the economy weakened. Between civil wars, high taxation, and food shortages, citizens lost a sense patriotism that once flourished throughout society.

The money coming from the newly conquered countries and provinces was feeding the Roman Empire. When the Empire no longer was expanding, the empire stopped gaining wealth. (Doc 3) Taxes went up, causing a welfare system to go in effect. At this point, with the high taxes, people were becoming poor. People started to lose motivation, and realized that just depending on welfare would be enough. (Doc 4) There were also the slaves, who moved to the cities for jobs because of the abundance of them, and this meant less money paid to workers as well. (Doc 4) The economy was

Let's explore the factors that led to the eventual fall of one of history’s most powerful and influential empires. From about 50 BCE until the year 200 CE, the Roman Empire was the superpower of the Mediterranean world. During that time, the empire’s wealth,territory and international status grew and grew.But even as the empire prospered,it was slowly starting to fall.In this essay I will be telling how Rome fell,and i believe that rome fell because of a weak government,natural disasters and foreign invasion.

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.

Ancient Rome was an empire so dominant, wealthy and economically- stable which came to a dramatic fall in the period of 250AD- 500AD. Ancient Rome faced unexplained unfortunate events which crumbled the Great Empire from the affluent empire to a impoverished society. For centuries historians have timelessly theorised and analysed many debates and research in relation to the Fall of the Roman Empire. What really caused the predominate Roman Empire to fall? Did Rome fall naturally? Was disease, such as malaria a major contributor to the Fall of the Empire, Was man -made infrastructure a problem during Ancient Roman times? Was the fall a natural event? Was the climate changing causing natural disasters? Maybe, perhaps, all the theories interweaved with each other at the same time causing a catastrophic downfall, defeating the Ancient Roman Empire. Edward Gibbon (Gibbon, 1909, pp 173-174.) quoted,

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).

In the Western Roman Empire the cornerstone of their economy was agriculture, taxation of agriculture and the imposed taxes by wars; this is what kept the Roman empire afloat. Both the Eastern and the Western Empire (they were divided into two sides) had acquired such a large amount of land that through these fiscal means they were able to stay a great power for so long. After time the taxes progressively became a very strong burden on the people of the roman republic and it hurt those that were poor the most. With the poor making up most of the population of the Western Roman Empire this led to the weakening of the economic status of the Empire. This taxation not only affected the poor but also the farmers that held up the agricultural framework

The fall of the Western Roman Empire in the late fifth century plunged Europe into a long period of darkness and barbarism. This era until the dawn of the ‘age of discovery’ in the sixteenth century was later termed to be the ‘Middle Ages’. While this epoch of European history is labeled as ‘middle’ or even ‘dark’, it was during this time that many social, political and cultural developments took place. The obliteration of the great Roman Empire left Europe prey for disunity and continuous foreign invasion and migration. From Scotland to the alps of Sicily a prayer emerged in the ninth century, “Save us, O God, from the violence of the Northmen”. Now known as Vikings, these northmen were pagan Germanic people from Norway, Sweden and Denmark that often went on raids and harassed isolated monasteries and villages throughout the continent. Similarly peoples known as Magyars from central Europe looted settlements took captives and forced leaders to pay tribute to prevent further attacks. Muslims from North Africa already ruled most of Spain and continued northward towards central Italy and southern France. The expansion of Islam continued on into the tenth and eleven centuries during the times of the Fatimid Caliphate and the Seljuk Turks. The centuries before the first crusade were one of terror and chaos from a European or Christian perspective. People were frightened that their world was slowly coming to an end, overrun by pagans and Muslims. This fear combined with

During the Roman Republic, Ancient Rome was at its very beginnings and a civilization was just being created. Like any other civilization there were different levels of status between classes and several positions of power in which people could obtain. Subsequently, just as there were people of power and wealth, there were also people of little to no power and poverty. The Ancient Romans utilized the institution of slavery to help promote their civilization and became a major factor in the economy of the Roman Republic. In a way slaves helped shape Rome into what it is today. Without slavery in Ancient Rome, history could have been written differently when considering Rome as a powerful city and civilization.