Western Roman Empire Research Paper

Many things throughout a long span of time played parts in the falling of the western Roman empire. Many of these were problems with the economy, politics, or many other things. All of the issues being discussed played a huge role in the decline of the empire. There is not just one cause to blame like emperors, economics, or any other things alone, many things factored into making the empire fall. The primary factors such as, military, political, social, and economical all combine to cause the fall of the western Roman empire, by everything from foreign invaders to undermining stability.

To begin with, one of the main problems of the Roman Empire was their economic problems and corruption. For example, in an excerpt of a historical text written by Priscus, which was a Roman ambassador to the Huns in 449 C.E, he reported a conversation he had with a former citizen whose land had been conquered by the Huns. In their conversation the former Roman citizen stated, “ The conditions of [Roman] subjects in time of peace [is worse than war]...taxes are very severe, and unprincipled men inflict injuries on others… A [wealthy lawbreaker] … is not punished for his injustice, while a poor man … undergoes the legal penalty… The climax of misery is to have to pay in order to obtain justice…” This supports that one main problem that ended the Roman empire was economic problems and corruption because it shows that if rich people in Rome committed a crime they would only have to bribe their way out of trouble while on the other hand poor people will have to face their consequences which is unfair so when they got invaded by the Huns they decided that it was best if they conquered than to join the military to help their empire. In addition another economic problem is that the the Roman Emperors had to pay their own soldiers to stay loyal which lead to emperors having to mint more coins which is further supported by BrainPop which states, “Roman emperors often bribed their soldiers with money to make sure they remained loyal. And when emperors didn’t have enough to pay their troops, they would mint cheaper coins. This caused the value of Roman money to plummet.” This also supports that one important cause that caused the Roman Empire to decline was the corruption and economic problems because in order for a empire or a civilization to function efficiently, they need to respect all people

Whether you prefer to say Rome fell due to the invasions or simply morphed into the oppressive and the corrupt government, economic policies of the emperors had a heavy impact on the lives of the citizens of Rome. The Roman Empire acquired money by taxation or by finding new sources of wealth, like land. However, it had reached its furthest limits, so land acquisition was no longer an option. As Rome lost territory, it also lost its revenue base.In doc# 4: we can see how the economy and citizens were taken advantage of and how the economy was not stable enough, led to the fall of Rome. The empire's main focus was on expanding and funding towards the military and politics. They did not think of the flaws that came with expanding and soon realized that to expand they had to gain military strength, and that costs a lot of money. Immediately the government created high taxes taking advantage of the citizens that leaned on the government welfare system, forcing them to basically pay for advances in the military. This affected small business and companies to crash because they could not afford these taxes, leaving the economy weakened. Therefore the economy could no longer help provide for the military expansion and lead to military weakening. And when the military and the economy was down due to this “internal decay” Rome was easy to conquer and lost all power and eventually fell. Doc# 3 also shows that due to the expansion and Rome wanting to be a world power, it caused a distraction and the economy was used to fund the military success and power, with high taxes. The more it expanded the more the taxes cost and the weaker the economy was. Due to the money that was taken from the economy, Wages being low, slaves disappearing, great estates growing, agriculture was being dominated, it

The Roman Empire was, overall, an immensely successful and innovative empire; this success derived from the implementation of the Christianity religion, spreading of Romanization so that Roman subjects were united and had Roman rights, and the economical and technological advancements that flourished under the period of Pax Romana. While these benefited the Roman Empire greatly and made Rome a prosperous civilization, Rome gradually weakened and, conclusively, fell. The eventual and definite decline of Rome was caused by excessive territorial expansion, economic issues, and foreign invasions.

The Western Roman Empire fell due to many flaws. However, it fell mainly due to invasions from external enemies, economics, and a discouraged society. Therefore, the empire began to slowly decline. This expansive empire fell not due to one, but many faults made over a time period. To this day the empire is remembered as one of the most advanced of its time.

The most important for last, what I know is the main factor for the fall of Rome, is bad leadership. According to document A, there were 22 emperors in 50 years, most of them dying horribly (assassination, battle, etc.). Bad leadership brings up another main problem in the empire, Economic problems and corruption. The emperor's blew off gigantic amounts of money for parties and other useless things, instead of helping the dying empire. This lead to people taking “Justice” into their own

An additional cause for the fall of the Roman Empire was the constant change in emperors. The document says, “For the next forty-nine years , the Roman imperials throne was occupied by anyone military strength to seize it -- a total of twenty-two emperors.”(Doc 1, 3-5). In short this means that they would let anyone with military experience came to power. The effect of the decision is that the majority of the emperors either died in battle or was assassinated . The Empire didn’t have a stable leader which is why the Empire fell. They needed a leader that would stay in power for a long time to keep the Empire from breaking into chaos. This compares to the Han Dynasty because they also didn’t have stable emperors which caused the society

First one of Rome’s most major flaws was the weak political leadership. Weak political leadership was the main reason for the fall of Rome because in Doc. A compiled by various sources showed how many emperors there were from 235-285 CE. Which leads to weak political power because there were constantly new emperors every year or two. Most of them died by assassination. Another reason was the emperors spent all their money on parties and festivals. Also, they bribed their soldiers to stay loyal but when they didn't have enough money they had to

Political problems were one of the contributing reasons for the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Over 30 emperors ruled in a small period of 100 years. Most were unfit, greedy, and cruel. They only inherited the throne because their father was a former emperor, and because there was no system to replace an emperor. When the higher class, the Patricians, did not like the emperor, they would pay the Praetorian Guard, the secret service of the Roman Empire, to assassinate the emperor. The Praetorian Guard would also assassinate the emperor to gain a higher position. Because of there being no better replacement system, Civil Wars broke out in Rome. Legions fought legions, citizens revolted against the Government that was falling apart, the poor living conditions, and the high taxes.

In the Western Roman Empire politics was the first contributing factor the fall of it. One of the many reasons is because of their unfit emperors. They had many. The ones who were unfit, were greedy and used cruelty to control and keep control of their empire. Not all showed the ability to be the emperor, some of them inherited the throne, and some of the people who did had a mentally unstable personality. Some Emperors were assassinated

Many aspects of the United States of America can be traced back to roman history. One of these aspects is the main city. Rome was the main city of the Roman Empire and the population back then was once 1.2 million and growing. Just like in the United States there is N.Y. where it is very populated. It also shares the aspect of crime because in both cities it is dangerous to walk around in the streets because of the muggings and robberies that took place all over the cities.

One reason why Rome fell was because of weak political leadership. For instance Document A it shows that in a 50 year span (235-285 C.E.) they had 22 emperors. This show that they had weak leadership because they only lasted from a couple of months to 2-3 years. Also page 54 chapter 2 paragraph 4 it says “Politicians became more interested in financial gain than in public service. As a result, many citizens lost their sense of pride in the government.” This shows that weak leadership contributed to the fall

First they lost all Senatorial power, giving one man absolute power. That single emperor held a king-like succession with no possible impeachment which helped to divide the people. The emperor aroused terror among his people as they could hold no control, say, or security from their recklessness. Rome did have its high points in wonderful art, literature, and architecture, but it ultimately failed in civility, leaving the people with nothing good to fight for or defend, ignorant and careless. Is there not a familiarity with the people of our country? Rome had its trivial internal struggles, and was a very individualistic society, and America also spends a lot of time on small matters when under threat. Affluence grows like a cancer, harming, eating, and eventually killing. There is no assurance of a cure to any civilization, and so affluence runs as a loud but invisible killer which rots from the inside

The Roman Republic, as any society, embodied the greatness of what it means to be a republic, but like many empires suffered from imperfection. The city experienced some of the greatest architecture, art, entertainment, trade, law, language, culture, and governments, however it suffered from many wars, poverty, and cruelty. It was a city of extremes. Even through hardships the Ancient city of Rome achieved sophistication and opportunities, but was built on the enslavement of the neighboring tribes.

Rome was considered one of the greatest empires in history, but eventually the empire meets its end. Although there were many factors contributing to its downfall, there were four major reasons for the fall of the western roman empire. They were political issues, economic problems, dangerous diseases and attacks from foreign invaders.