Roman Western Empire Research Paper

Second, military purposes played another part in decay. Foreign invasions were a nightmare to the Roman Empire. People of barbaric descent constantly fought for their area, destroying precious buildings and decreasing prosperity. Government expenses were immense and took great effort to raise. The spending affected the craftsmanship of public housing and aqueducts. Citizens grew tried of defending their home simply because they worked hard and the money they earned was taken away by the government. As a result, the Roman government hired soldiers to fight for them and in return they would be paid. These were called mercenaries, yet they were unemployed people or foreigners, which was unfortunate because that meant they fought against their own people and he wasn’t something to be proud of. Not only was it undependable, but this group of army didn’t come cheap. Emperors were forced to raise taxes and eventually Romans would revolt. Americans are unhappy about the war in Iraq today and they are protesting to send out their message of what President Bush is doing is wrong. Their taxes are also increasing, which makes us angry.

As you have read, many things attributed to the rise of the Empire. Many things also attributed to its fall as well. These included poor leadership, economic trouble, as well

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.

Excessive Military Spending to defend the Empire The Roman empire had great armies, but many problems occurred so the Roman Army was weak. The Roman Army As the Empire weakened soldiers became less loyal to Rome. Then they fought each other not the invaders. Military Complications As the legions

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 expense led to strangling taxation..” the Roman government had large expenses because it needed money for the army, the bureaucracy, and welfare. This leads to the increase of taxes. However, high taxation affected the people, especially those who owned private businesses because it drove them out of business. The government was forced to take over.

The Roman Empire was one of the largest empires in history. Rome shifted from a republic to an empire and was under control of an emperor. They were able to successfully conquer several places and were undefeated for many, many years. How did such a strong, thriving empire fall so easily? There were several minor factors that led to the downfall, but the three primary reasons that caused the “fall” of Rome were disease, overexpansion, and invasion.

Well, Rome's army is another main reason that led to its fall. Indro Montanelli agrees, with a excerpt from his text Romans Without Laurels he states. “Rome, like all great empires, was not overthrown by external enemies but undermined internal decay... composed entirely of Germans.” (doc 5).

The romans had became very lazy because of their success in military conquests. Since the romans became lazy there were more outbreaks and crimes happening. This lead to many problems in the money system. Rome became weaker economically because of this. Rome was also weakened by military issues.

The citizens of Rome needed to pay heavy taxes in order to finance Rome’s armies. The taxes weakened the economy making trades suffer. Farmers couldn’t compete with rich families leading for them to go into the city, hoping for work. Infamous emperors would waste money and crime rates rose, making the streets unsafe.

Many anthropologists and historians have speculated about the different causes and effects of the fall of the Roman Empire. Some have even stated that Rome did not fall but instead, was merely transformed. However, there were many causes that did end this prodigious empire. Many seemingly small decisions made by powerful emperors over the course of just over a century lead to its destruction. In this paper it will be established that the Roman emperors, in an effort to save their political power, made adjustments to warfare/treaty practices and made political changes which over time lead to the inevitable collapse of the realm, this caused a drastic regression in the living standards of the Roman citizens, implying that the Empire did indeed collapse and not transform.

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).

All of this is important because the constant civil wars meant no problems were being fixed. The army declined in quality as Romans refused to join only to be slaughtered, and the borders became permeable to attack and invasion. In the end, the lack of unity and porous borders led to the collapse of Rome by ruining the unity to face its many

Economic difficulties also played an important role in the fall of Rome. Heavier taxes were necessary to support the government and military. The middle class fell into poverty as farmers left their land and moved to larger cities. This poverty, mixed with disease and war, caused a massive population decline and the wealth of the Roman Empire dwindled. Rome’s imperialism eventually reached a full stop in the second century. This decreased the amount of slaves, land, and war riches that Rome could

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.