Legacy Of The Roman Empire

1. The Roman Empire played a massive role in history as it spread throughout Europe. Therefore, after its fall, it left behind a lasting legacy, which went on to continue to shape many civilizations, even today. One of the most important legacies of the empire was language. Latin went on to become a language widely used by people throughout the world for years, and which was used in writing and education. It also became the basis for many of the languages that exist today. The Romance languages, such as French and Spanish, as well as English, have a large percentage of words with roots that can be traced back to the Latin language. Therefore, without Latin and the Roman Empire, language would be completely different from what it is today (Kamm).
Since the Empire was so large in size, Christianity was widely spread throughout Europe as a result. In terms of public health, the Roman Empire also played a large role with their development of public hospitals, sewers, drainage systems, and sanitation techniques, all of which still are used today and contributed greatly throughout history to the health and life expectancy of people (Kamm). Without proper sanitation or drainage systems, the growth of cities would have been much more difficult as disease would have spread more easily and low life expectancies would have made population growth difficult. Roman architecture is yet another example of the legacy of the Roman Empire. Building roads and many construction techniques come from the Romans. There are several structures built during Roman times that still exist today, and their use of bricks, cement, and columns in their buildings has also been passed throughout history (Mills). There are also many inventions from the Romans that we use in daily life today, such as calendars and the days of the week. Overall, life today would be much different without the legacy that was left behind by the massive Roman
The Great Divergence was the event in which Europe surpassed other countries in its wealth and continued to grow quickly. There are several different theories as to why the Great Divergence occurred. One argument is that many Europeans lived lives that focused on being frugal and having material possessions, while other parts of the world did not. In other words, in Europe there was more focus on individuals and their success, while in countries like China the focus was on the well-being of communities as a whole. China also focused on many principles of Confucianism, which emphasized education and appreciation of Chinese culture above anything else. Therefore, some argue that culture played a large role in Europe’s rise. Another argument is based on Europe’s colonialism (Kroker). This is because as European countries conquered more lands, they had more access to natural resources, as well as people to perform labor, than countries in other parts of the world. This advantage would clearly help Europe to rise quickly compared to countries like China. China, on the other hand, did not colonize because of its focus on improving the stability of its already existing land instead of wanting to expand outward. This again is likely due to Chinese culture focusing on communities as a whole. By not colonizing, more efforts could be put into improving the lives of the Chinese people, instead of having to worry about people in a newly colonized land (Kroker). Another important