The long decline of the Western Roman Empire was caused by the accumulation of the many obstacles that stood in their way over time. At first the Roman Empire was thriving. It was the biggest empire at the time and it expanded at an incredible speed. Their military and leadership capabilities were magnificent. When confronted by the Roman military their enemies were better off giving up and not even trying; it wasn’t worth it. In time, however, the Roman Empire’s golden age expired, they stopped conquering and internal drawbacks began to appear. The once flourishing Roman Empire began to face many problems, like military incapacity, the growth of Christianity, and unemployment, all of which contributed in a different way to the decline of the Empire.…
The Roman government was very unstable. Military generals and commanders fought among themselves for the throne, and this also led to an untrustworthy army. There was a strong sense of distrust among the army men, and so there was also feelings of loyalty weakening among average citizens as well. In a desperate effort to reconstruct their army, the government employed mercenaries, although these were also not trustworthy because their loyal lied in whoever paid them. Inflation also caused major problems. A drastic drop in the value of money coupled with a rise in prices caused famine and increased poverty, leading to the deaths of many and a significant drop in population. All these problems opened the empire to invading peoples.…
Festus Boateng Hour 4 Are we Rome? The “empire” of The United States Of America is prone to a disastrous fall similar to the former greatest empire of the Romans due to the fact that the US empire was built in a similar way like the Roman empire and is now starting to encounter problems ranging from Social, Political, Economics, and lastly military wise. A social way of how the Roman empire fell was due to the rise of christianity because it eroded the traditional roman beliefs, values, and also caused problems between new christian believers and those who continued to hold on to the old philosophies. Evan Andrews, the author of “8 Reasons Why Rome Fell” explained, ”Christianity displaced the polytheistic Roman…
As a result: the Roman economy continues to fall apart. This is due to the importation of slaves from the conquered areas of Africa, Asia, and Britain, where the empire expanded. (Doc 3) The increase of slave numbers led the patricians to buy more land, because they had more workers. In the act of buying more land the patricians produced more resources and put the plebeians out of business. Due to the high number of unemployed plebeians they were provided free food and entertainment to please them, so that they would not revolt. Due to the free bread and entertainment the economy fell greatly due to the fact there was no income to pay for more bread and entertainment. As well as the fall of the economy the morals and principals decay. (Doc 6) As well as using up part of the food for other places in the empire. A map that shows exports and the quantity of the exports to different regions of the empire would be a helpful tool to show how the other parts of the empire was effected by unemployment and inflation. So due to the weakened economy, the empire is already starting to go broke when the Huns and other Germanic tribes start to invade, which causes many more problems for the…
There were many reasons for the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Each document in this essay explains a different reason. Some causes were: political, economic, social, and military differences and problems. Basically, the problem was that the gap between the rich aristocrats and the poor serfs got bigger and bigger; the rich got richer as the poor got poorer. Also, when something grows, it always falls back down. In Document 1, an excerpt from a book was taken out. According to the authors, the basic problems facing the Western Roman Empire came from the people that gave up devotion to the old civilization and didn't believe that it was worth saving. Why should they care about their land if they weren't allowed to take part in government say, they couldn't form groups to protect themselves, and were even excluded from their own army? The practically jobless people realized that their cities were slowly falling, but no one bothered to stop their decline; it was something that had to happen. The loss of popular support to the oppressive government, increased government corruption, division of the empire, and internal power struggles were some political causes that led to the fall of Rome. In Document 2, two causes for the fall of Rome were: the large size, and the introduction to Christianity. Because the Empire grew too large, it became uneasy to control. It was inevitable for the fall to occur, no matter how much anyone tried. Jesus' introduction to Christianity also started a change. The clergy (priests) helped change the moral values of society. It no longer mattered much, and military power was buried or thrown away. The rich's wealth was taken away and given to charity (poor). In Document 3, the Muller's explanation for the decline was an economic issue. As the Empire grew stronger, so did economy. When the Empire started to decline, business ceased and there was little progress, so that also crashed along with the empire itself. Slavery caused another…
The Roman empire lasted from 700 BCE until 476 Ce, and incredible 1,176 years. But how did Rome fall? Some say political squabbling. Others argue invasions. However, the downfall of Rome was due to military problems, and natural disasters. Earthquakes brought buildings to the ground, while illnesses killed thousands of innocent people. Also, the military was losing it’s edge. They decided to become lazy, beginning to think too much of themselves.…
These documents show that Rome’s economy was very poor because of low tax revenue, labor shortages, and trade. There were natural disasters like the destructive earthquake and the flood that was responsible for the death of fifty thousand people(document 6). Then a series of plagues decimated the population(document 7). Approximately 75% of the population died from natural disasters. With more than half the population dead, there will be labor shortages throughout the empire because there aren’t enough people to support the needs of the empire. Labor shortages bring many problems. Tax revenue drops because the small population cannot pay enough taxes to support the empire as it did before the population plunged. The empire stops growing without sufficient enough money. Eventually, the Roman empire will have less resources because the empire stopped trading. There will be a lot more draftings because the army is a lot…
…Part of the money went into … the maintenance of the army and of the vast bureaucracy required by a centralized government…the expense led to strangling taxation… The heart was taken out of enterprising men…tenants fled from their farms and businessmen and workmen from their occupations. Private enterprise was crushed & the state was forced to take over many kinds of businesses to keep the machine running. People learned to expect something for nothing. The old Roman virtues of self-reliance & initiative were lost in that part of the population on relief (welfare)…The central government undertook such far reaching…
The Roman Empire fell because of many economical failures. One of them was that the legionnaires were demanding a higher salary because they were not getting paid enough. Because of this, there was less economic growth in rome and they had too much desire to have more goods purchased from other empires. Then because of that reason and that the romans were not conquering land anymore, there was also a lack of gold coming into the roman empire, so it became more rare, and as a result gold coins became smaller and people began to bargain and trade, and a consequence of that was inflation. A consequence of that was was drought and famine because aqueducts were not running, and then that would cause farmers and merchants to travel to the cities.…
A huge change politically was the division of the Roman Empire into east and west. There were extreme economic issues and battles both internally and externally. During this time, most of the emperors were weak and there were many disputes over who was next in line for the throne. Germanic tribes took advantage of the chaos and tried to take over land to the east and west. Rome had to split their forces in order to fight them, dividing the empire. Another reason for the division was that the Roman Empire was so vast that there were too many different ideas on how to run the empire and it was impossible to make everyone happy, thus dividing the empire.…
The poor and rich didn’t know it, but they depended on each other more than they thought. The poor depended on the rich to give them jobs, and the rich needed the poor so they could get work done. Unfortunately, when the taxes were raised, most of the rich people gathered up their belongings and moved away. When the rich moved away, it left the poor without any jobs. Since the rich were no longer around, the poor were not able to pay the tax that the emperor had set up because they didn’t have any jobs to earn money. Rome’s economy began to struggle since there was barely anyone to do the jobs that lower class people could fulfill. Not only were the poor effected but the rich were also. The rich no longer had people to tend to the fields and work as craftsmen, and the military wasn’t able to gain new soldiers for the army. Since Rome no longer had people to fight in their army, they no longer could expand their territory. The numbers went down in both military treasures and slaves, and it made a big dent in the trade system, causing them to lose their grip on Europe…
The Roman Empire was one of the most advanced and largest civilizations with their amazing architecture, astonishing inventions and many more. But Nothing can last forever. The fall of the roman empire was caused by four main reasons. Political issues or an unstable government, Economic problems, Diseases could have played a part and lastly, foreign invaders.…
An enormous economical problem was caused by raised taxes in order to pay the demanding legions salaries. After that another issue was created, the people of Rome grew hungry to purchase more goods from other empires. As a result there was less economical growth within Rome and Pirates began stealing goods and ships on the Mediterranean Sea. Tariffs began to increase on many imported goods. Furthermore a lack of gold was imported to Rome because there were no new conquests of land therefore less coins were produced and there were less gold in the coins.…
There are many reasons why the Western Roman Empire fell. From a weak government to political and social problems, poor leadership is one of the biggest reasons the Western Roman Empire fell. After the last Severan died in A.D. 235, Rome’s government became unstable and dishonest for around 50 years. During those 50 years, generals from all around started to fight for the throne and emperor of Rome. That led to 22 emperors of Rome.…
The Roman Empire was once a vast and wondrous place where they conquered many places and many things. They had many great leaders and were a great empire but there were many things that went wrong. There are no definitive causes for the fall of the Roman Empire, yet there are multiple valid reasons as to why it happened such as military power, social problems, widespread of diseases, and moral strength.…