Social and Economic Decline in the Western Roman Empire 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.

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

The Roman Empire was or could be one of the greatest empires to have ever existed to this day. Just like many empires the Roman Empire fell to betrayal, religion, and war. Lasting from 27BC to 1453 the Roman Empire to me is the most interesting empire to talk about. When you take any history class that explores times outside the US, you hear about the Roman Empire being involved some way or somehow. The Roman Empire history can go on for days. I will pack most of the history into a small 5 page essay and if you don’t know anything about the Roman Empire, You will have a better understanding and will more than likely see why I believe the Roman Empire was one of the greatest of all time.

The era dominated by Roman empire is one the most well-known and influential periods of history, home to famous names from Julius Caesar to Jesus Christ. At its height, Rome’s territory stretched from the Atlantic coastline to the Middle East, reigning over 60 million people, one-fifth of the population of the ancient world. However, the Roman empire’s treatment of their conquered people’s and their own citizens ultimately led to the permanent downfall of Rome.

The Roman Empire was one of the most impregnable empires at it’s time. It conquered the Mediterranean Sea and was a well organized and blooming empire, at first. Many problems began to hit Rome straight in the face, three of the main problems that ended this magnificent empire were the economic problems, the weakness and vulnerability of their army, and the fallibility of the leaders and politics.

The Western Roman Empire fell because of the loss of ambition. According to document one it states that “ the basic trouble was that very few inhabitants of the empire believed that the old civilization was worth saving”. The fact that the Romans don’t consider that their empire was worth preserving shows the loss of ambition. Without

The fall of the Roman Empire was an ambiguous process that many historians still ponder, and the components that made up the deterioration of the Empire remain obscure. However, what many historians fail to realize that the decline of the Roman Empire was the epitome of cause and effect. Properly analyzing the history behind the process leads historians to realize that it was a chain of circumstances that began with the political corruption of the Western empire. It was the catalyst for many of the other principal reasons for Rome’s decline. Political corruption was a fundamental factor that led to economic failure and superfluous military spending, all which contributed to the fall of Rome. Document 3, Roman ambassador to the Huns, 449 CE, illustrates how political corruption tore apart

One of the main theory that caused the empire to fall is it’s weak military. According to a given documents, it states that the Roman army soon began to become lazy during the Pax Romana. Since there was barely any wars, or barely any invaders, that seemed to bother the empire, for they had feared the army. But during the time of peace, the army saw no need to fight any longer. They began to say that their breastplates and helmets were beginning to get heavy since they now rarely wore their armour. There parade ground drills were abandoned. Since their source of protection in battle was taken away, it lead to many deaths and failures in battle. The fear of getting pierced by arrows and receiving deadly wounds made the army fear fighting, than running. Not only did the army fail to defend its grounds, but whenever they began to leave their post just to fight each other, due to political reasons, they left openings for the invaders to

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.

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

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).

These invasions resulted in multiple changes in the Empire that ultimately weakened it. As the various invading tribes moved into Roman territory, they destroyed the farmland and fields they passed through. This decreased agricultural production in the Empire (Spielvogel 186). Then, in the late fourth century, the Huns moved west out of Asia, forcing the German barbarian tribe of Visigoths, a sub-tribe of the Goths who had previously invaded Rome, to move south and west into Roman territories. They were allowed to remain on Roman land for a time, but when the Romans tried to force the tribe out, the Visigoths fought back, leading to a great military defeat for the Roman Army in 378 at Adrianople in Greece (Spielvogel 187). The Roman Empire was never able to recover the numbers

To begin with, one reason why the Roman Empire fell was due to their military weakness. They got weak by when they abandoned parade ground drills. They also got weak and lazy when they thought that their armor started getting heavy, therefore they did not want to wear it. According to Vegetius, the roman historian, they did not wear their armor so they were exposed to wounds, in which they wanted to run and not fight/battle, for the roman empire. Once the military

Next, another internal cause of the fall of the Western Roman Empire was the social unrest. The social unrest of the Western Roman Empire was caused by several different factors. For instance, the citizens could not serve in the army and they were not allowed to organize to protect themselves. Another social problem that caused the fall of Rome was the values that Rome was built on, patriotism, discipline, and devotion the duty, began to decline. The once helpful upper class that provided leaders began to only care about themselves and living in luxury.

The Romans were on one of the greatest people of all. They had power, wealth, and even a half of the world. They built one of the strongest and vast empire that world has ever seen. They came from nothing to something awesome. It started of as a city and ended up being one of the greatest empire of all. This essay is going to focus on the Roman Empire from the rise to the fall and the government, architecture, mythology, Family Structure, and Food of the Romans.