The Economic Causes For The Fall Of The Roman Empire

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.

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.

The failure of Rome’s economy contributed majorly to the fall of Rome. The Roman Economy during the late Republic and Early Empire was based heavily on Agriculture and Commerce. Agriculture in ancient Rome was not only a necessity, but was idealized among the social elite as a way of life. Cicero had considered agriculture to be the best of all Roman Occupations (Sarudy). There had been a lot of trading between the provinces of the empire, and all regions of the empire were largely economically interdependent. Egypt was also important in providing wheat to Rome. Shipments of Egyptian wheat may have amounted to 20 million modii (an Ancient Roman measurement) or more annually. Twenty million modii of wheat was nearly enough for up to half

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.

What were the primary reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire? Mini-Q The most powerful empire of all time fell due to foolish reasons. What were the primary reasons for the fall of Rome? Rome fell because the military got lazy, people were starting to get made at Rome, and all the emperors were being assassinated after a few years into their reign.

The Roman Empire was one of the greatest empires around it’s time period. They ruled their region with an overpowering military force. They also had compelling agriculture and religion. Much of their music, clothes, and other agriculture continued on throughout other empires. They shaped the world with their beliefs and ideas and without this empire the world would be very different. There were strong Roman emperors and also horrible emperors who ruined the empire. Caesar and Constantine were among the most popular emperors of Rome. Constantine ruled later in the Empires lifetime while Caesar earlier. The death of Caesar had a huge impact on this empire. Constantine gave the Roman Empire the main religion of Christianity. This questioned the original beliefs of the Romans. They totally changed their culture. Towards the fall of the Roman Empire, the empire was split into two parts. This weakened their strong military force and led to an invasion. Evidently this caused Rome’s fall. The Roman Empires fall was due to the death of Caesar, mass poverty among Rome’s citizens, rise of Christianity, split of empires, and the invasions of the barbarians.

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.

From 200 CE to 476 CE the fall of Rome began, and ended. Rome began in Italy surrounded by the mediterranean sea and expanded over time. They took over great parts of Europe, Asia, and Northern Africa. Rome experienced a great time of prosperity filled with different cultures and (known as the golden age), and eventually, due to all of the flaws and problems, fell. I believed that the reason it fell was due to many external, and internal factors. Some of the internal factors that lead to the fall of Rome were; loss/less labor and war-like difficulties. While the some of the external factors where great things out of their control, such as plagues and getting attacked.

There were multiple things that contributed to the fall of the Roman empire. Rome was once a vast and thriving empire in Europe, Africa, and Asia. In 177 CE, Rome was at the apex of its rise and was the most powerful Empire in the world. Centuries later, The empire no longer remained. Some examples of the things that contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire are as follow. Rome was overly sized, the emperors were constantly changing, and Christianity.

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

One reason Rome fell was the economic problems and corruption. First of all, since the military was so weak, the leaders kept dying. Mostly of assassination. For example, in the chart in document A, 13 emperors were assassinated. Also a lot of the time the leaders would have bribed the military to stay loyal. The leaders, the people chose, had enemies. The enemies would assassinate them, and take their place. The leaders also made horrible decisions. The empire got weaker and weaker every leader. Everything kept changing. Since most of the leaders didn’t agree with what the other leader previously made legal. The laws were all over the place.

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,

As Rome was facing attacks from the outside there was an even deeper problem happening from within and it was their economy. Rome’s constant war and overspending in building its empire was becoming costly. As their treasury depleted they decided to impose hard taxation to account for the new expense they were generating. Which actually caused many people who were apart of the upper class to move to the countryside to avoid the oppressive taxes(Andrews) . Another economic problem is that inflation began to occur. Marcus Aurelius increased the copper content of the silver coins and then after that there was even more severe inflation on it way(Starr 144-145). A third problem with the economy, also politically, was that there was an ever growing expansion of bureaucracy. The expansion of their government caused more and more officials to have to be paid. Not to mentions cities already were having a hard

The Roman Empire refers to the time period beginning with Augustus. This empire lasted from 30 BCE-476 Causally when an empire collapses, the assumption is it was because of physical and external factors. There were many theories to why it collapsed. Most historians studying the fall of Rome, agree that neither internal nor external forces can be ignored, yet many continue to write arguments that emphasize one side or the other of the debate. Humanist scholar Francesco Petrarca blamed internal powers for the demise of the empire. Two arguments were written to find what really cause the decline. After reading them, Internal factors contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire. Rome was at a high point but it never had a chance of dominating the world. It was more of a power than a superpower. which argument is stronger? This debate still continues today.