What Events Led To The Fall Of The Roman Empire

Every empire reaches its peak and rises, but eventually faces issues that lead to its decline. Moreover, the Roman Empire did not fall overnight; in fact there are several leading events. Some of the events that led to the fall of the Roman Empire are the rise of Christianity. Overexpansion was also another factor that caused its split. Due to chaos, constant civil and internal war was occurring allowing invasion by foreigners. These three events are considered important factors that led to the fall of the empire. Christian religion was monotheistic, or the belief in one god, thus the opposite than the traditional Roman religion that was polytheistic, or the belief in many gods. The people who first began to convert to Christianity were the poor. This was because Christianity provided equality and anyone who does good in their life can go to heaven. Christianity became wide spread when emperor Constantine became Christian, making Christianity the official religion of the Empire. A person must become Christian to become a Roman citizen. The authority of the emperor weakened since Christians
believed in one god, who was not the emperor. The split of Rome occurred due to the expansion of the empire.
The empire was too huge and extended from the Atlantic Ocean to the Euphrates River in the Middle East. It was hard to communicate easily or rule effectively. In other words, the empire became hard to control and chaotic. Defense was required to guard from local rebellion and outside attacks. Emperor Diocletian had a solution, which was to break the empire into two halves with two different emperors. It was a good plan that worked effectively, but not for the western part. The western part of the empire, which was based in Rome, collapsed and got invaded since it had a dishonest government, poverty, unemployment, and declining moral values. The eastern side on the other hand, which was based in Byzantium, continued to rise and prosper for another thousand year under the emperor Constantine and other
emperors. Constant civil and internal war weakened the Roman Empire and its defense, which made it easy to attack and conquer. Civil war and political argument resulted in poor defense. A big amount of money was required to sustain the army. Soldiers’ number was not enough either, so foreign soldiers were accepted to aid and support the Roman armies. When emperor Valens took power, the Roman Empire was out of money. Roads were not repaired, because of the shortage, so materials and goods could not travel. Barbarians, which consisted of five major tribes (known as the Huns, Franks, Vandals, Saxons and Visigoths), invaded part of the Empire and destroyed Roman towns and cities. Emperor Valen’s idea was to become ally with the Visigoths against the other tribes and promised land, slaves and other payment but the problem is that the Romans were broke so the Visigoths felt betrayed and rebelled in return. The fall of the Roman Empire was not only because of one factor, actually a chain of events. Each event was a leading factor to the other. One of the main factors was the rise of Christianity, which was a new religion to the Romans. The overexpansion was also a main reason for the empire to become chaotic and hard to control, thus causing its split. Many believe that the weakening of the empire, from constant war, gave access for other tribes to invade and destroy it. Due to these factors, the Roman Empire fell. It is true when they say all that goes up must go down. However, it is good to keep in mind that the weakening was in the western part while the eastern part continued to rise for another thousand year.